Namaste Beloveds,
Our monthly newsletter has had some twists & turns over the last 6 weeks, hence the consolidation of these last 3 months of the year! We are combining & embracing October's Zeal & Fortitude, November's Hope & Prayer & December's Light & Joy!
This year’s theme for New Thought Families has been Co-Creating Heaven in 2011 and what has shown itself somewhat surprisingly is that earthly heaven is much more about compassion than bliss, acceptance rather than mastery and devotion rather than perfection. In devotion to the divine there is the constant invitation to keep returning to Love, sweet Love, in all things ~ no matter what. Through simple practice & awareness of seeing the divine in all, a perpetual state of Love and 'happy for no reason & happy for every reason' has settled within me. As the mother of Jeremiah & New Thought Families , I have been stepping back to view & renew what is mine to do to support & serve other families in their spiritual path. Some website updates are found in the Zealous Hopeful Light section below but the bottom line is that I am fully committed to spiritually parenting my son & together, we are committed to doing what we can do for our musical ministry on & offline! We are involved in numerous, wonderous local events coming up including a Festival Of Peace, Las Pasadas Walk, 12 Thoughts PlayShop Concert & Shining Solstice Celebration ~ see all + Advent Calendar invitations in the Conscious Calendarizing section! And yes, the calendar does beckon ... Thanksgiving is this Thursday & Advent begins this Sunday! We have special pages for both including 4 weekly lessons on Advent Awakenings here & on our Monday Mindful Matters blog. Also, see some special spiritual gifting ideas in our Reverent Resources.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Anonymous

Hope is the Light of Inspiration, the star that guides us to our highest calling.
Love is the Light that shines within us even if it seems our star is falling.
Joy is the Light that gleams awaiting in the beauty and bounty of every day.
Peace is the Light that lives within us ... if we allow this awareness to light our way.
~ LaurieStory
Great gratitude to you for being here; we see you bathed in shining, joyous Love & Light! We wish you beautiful, bountiful blessings this shining season; may you be blessed with abundant, reverent resources that support you & your family on your spiritual journey.
It is our prayerful hope & intention to continue to serve with multi-media interfaith, intergenerational inspiration invitations. Truly, we can co-create heaven here from the year of 11 ~ we hope to stay connected with you as we delve into 2012!

Prayer Practice
Every month & season bring opportunities for special prayers but none so powerfully as Thanksgiving & the December season of Light. Gratitude is a conerstone of the praying heart & Light is the heart itself. We celebrate Thanksgiving & Christmas now in prayer with these great poets:

Thanksgiving
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Christmas
Loving God, Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires
with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us
happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds
with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Family Faith: Sacred Space

Our website makeover renovations include taking our Home Spiritual Practices as well as the Green Living segments of In Our Hands into family friendly formats that may be utilized on or off line ~ stay fine tuned! Implementing our home consciouness practices each month this year has served us well with some months being easier & more powerful than others. With hindsight being 20/20, some practices can be modified or adjusted but ultimately each family has to make their own way that fits for them!

In October, we revisited documenting daily evidence of Zeal & using cloth shopping bags. In November, we are using a Hope Chest on our altar to place written hopeful prayers & continuing to hang our laundry to dry ~ as a prayer! December brings us candle light ... we will be lighting individual candles on our altar for all those we pray for daily and we will once again look to make some greener gifts with more heart & a lighter footprint! The In Our Hands webpage has the monthly practices with videos & pictures as well as links to other pages/practices. Also, we have found a wonderful woman who puts hands & feet to prayer & Love with her daughters. Your really MUST check out amazing Tracie's blog, and definitely look at her Christmas Acts of Kindness done each day during Advent last year! Inspired by her, I want to make gift bags to randomly give out each day during Advent but at the time of this writing, not sure if Jeremiah is on board ~ probably yes ~ but stay fine tuned ~ to our Monday Mindful Matters weekly blog and the In Our Hands page at New Thought Families! Putting reverence, goodness, & Love into action truly is in our hands!

In Our Hands Spiritual Home Practices!

Interfaith Inspirations

Diwali ~ Deepavali10/26 was the Hindu celebration of Diwali which is the Hindu festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs in India & throughout the world.

11/24 Thanksgiving is the US interfaith celebration of Creation. Most commonly thought of as a time to gather with family & feast, Thanksgiving beckons us to be truly grateful for all our blessings & to be in that practice EVERY day!