Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

Yesterday was Winter Solstice.  The shortest day of the year.  Commencing today, the light returns to our world in small increments, with each day a couple  of minutes longer than the previous day.

If you are like me and were unable to attend any of the solstice rituals that happened yesterday, don’t fret, you can still celebrate the return of the light.  Here are some tips:

1.  Acknowledge what is happening with Mother Nature right now.  Each day that passes grows a little longer, each day brings a bit more light to our lives.  Take that acknowledgement from that global perspective and bring it into the personal.  With each day that passes, starting today, acknowledge that more light is coming into your life.  Use the extra couple of minutes of light each day as a metaphor.  How can  you bring a couple more minutes each day of metaphorical light into your life?  Is there anything that needs to be released to allow for more light in your life?  What does light signify to you anyway?  Is it joy, or peace, or good health?

2.  Celebrate!   There is a reason for the lighting of candles, the decorating of trees and the parties at this time of year.  It stems from rituals practiced by our ancestors, who not only lit lots of candles, but also brought gifts and had parties.  All of it signified and celebrated the return of the light.  Today’s holiday parties and lights decorating the trees and homes are all descendants of those ancient celebrations.  So when you go to the endless round of parties and decorate your tree, do so with a feeling of jubilation and celebration.  Enjoy it!  And if you are of the more introverted type, light some candles in the quiet sacredness of your own home, and acknowledge the joy and beauty of this season.  Celebrations do not have to be of the noisy and crowded variety.

3.  You  may not be in the mood to celebrate right now.  Perhaps, like a good friend of mine recently said, you don’t appreciate the endless commercials, the crowds or even the Christmas music.   Try and take comfort in nature’s cycle.  Mother Nature is wise, very wise.   Here where I live in Lake Tahoe, I quite frequently will stand somewhere near the lake’s edge on the east shore and watch the storms approach.  They always come over the mountains from the west and you can literally see them coming.  I’ll be standing in sunshine, but when I look west, I will see these  magnificent clouds coming toward me on the wind.  I can look at those clouds and know that it is time to prepare.   When the storms come, we fare better if we are prepared, and if we are prepared, we can ride out the storm, emerging when the storm passes to appreciate the beauty of the freshly fallen snow, the glitter and shimmer when the sun hits that snow, the crystal clear blue  sky.  That kind of light can only come after a good snow storm.  What Mother Nature does, we can use as metaphors in our own lives.  When the storms come, be prepared, ride it out, and when it passes, emerge to see what new and beautiful has come as a result of the storm.  If you don’t like the commercials, turn off the tv and radio.  Instead of shopping, make cookies to give as gifts.  You can shop ahead of time for the goodies to make cookies, you don’t have to wade through the crowds.  Find something  to be grateful for in this season.

4.  This leads me to talk about losses.  Perhaps you’ve recently encountered a huge loss.   Perhaps this is not the time to celebrate the light because you feel as if there simply is no light in your life.  Perhaps it is time to grieve instead.  If that is the case, honor it.  Grieving our losses must happen.  I can tell you from personal experience that if a loss is not properly grieved you will suffer.  The grief will manifest in some way, usually a physical illness but sometimes in emotional illness as well.  Feelings of anger and sadness will come, it is part of the process.  If they are coming  now, at a time when the rest of the world is celebrating, do not put them on hold until later.  Doing so will only strengthen those feelings and make them worse.  And I can guarantee you that if you do not grieve the loss now, then you will repeat the cycle when the anniversary comes each year, in essence dooming yourself to a holiday season filled with sadness and grief instead of joy.  Give yourself the gift of grieving now, when it is needed, and then you will be able to experience all the joy of this season, and you will be able to once again know that the light is entering your life.

It’s Sunday morning, do you know where your nearest Center for Spiritual Living is?  (you can find it here:  http://www.unitedcentersforspiritualliving.org/Find_A_Community/index.php).  I know where mine are, but I’m here, writing, instead of getting ready to go to Celebration.  I’ve got a good excuse, actually a bunch of them:  term papers are due tomorrow and I’ve got laundry and I have to work later on today.  So I won’t be attending Celebration today.

Excuse me, but…Celebration?  What’s up with that?  What are we celebrating?  Why can’t we just call it a church service?  Well, that’s the thing:  most of us, well…many of us,  um…well….me at least,  don’t believe in church.  And we are celebrating LIFE! in all its forms: the good, the bad and the ugly.  It’s all good, all the time.  Gawd is all good, all the time, so how can anything be bad?  Its all worthy of Celebration!  So we gather at church…oops…The Center on Sunday mornings and celebrate life with a ritual.

Yep, we’ve got rituals, oodles of  ‘em.  The first one is the hug. It’s a gauntlet of hugs!  You can’t get 5 feet past the front door without hugging!  I don’t know of a way around this, short of crossing your arms in front your chest and not stopping as you run through the gauntlet.  I happen to like hugs, up to a point.  But we’ve got this hostage hug thing going.  A hostage hug is where they don’t let go.  They stand there, in a full body press, eyes closed, a look of rapture on their faces.  The energy around them is so thick you can cut it with a butter knife.  Do not interrupt a hostage hug.   It’s like walking in on two people having sex…very awkward.  What does one do with oneself when one has interrupted such a sacred moment?  I digress….  Anyway,  they will stand there for five minutes in their own little world, oblivious to the flurry of activity around them as the folks who see an opportunity to escape the hostage hug scurry by, and the ones who actually want to be taken hostage stand in line, irreverently talking and laughing out loud and warming up by giving each other smaller versions of the grand poobah of hostage hugs.  Sometimes I wonder about cooties, but that’s just me.   I actually like those hostage hugs when they are happening, because I can dash on by and pass the hostage hugger without fear of being subjected to it.  Here’s some tricks to dealing with a hostage hugger:  Position yourself about a foot away from them and bend forward at the waist to receive the hug.  Hopefully this will prevent them from going full body and make it uncomfortable to for them to hang on.  Failing that:  squirm.  Squirm as if your life depended on it.  Sooner or later the hostage hugger will get a clue and let go of you.

So we don’t call ourselves a church, but we are Centers.  We don’t consider ourselves an organized religion, but we enjoy the benefits of being considered an organized religion, with full tax exempt status.  Complete with passing the plate around at church..ooops…Celebration service, on Sunday mornings.  I know, it gets confusing, but stick with me here, I think it’s gonna get more confusing.

One reason I don’t like church is the rules.  These rules seem pretty arbitrary to me, a bunch of stuff contrived up based on ancient writings which were never meant to be taken literally and were mistranslated anyway.  You can’t do this, you can’t say that, you must do this, or you will burn forever in hell, which is not a good place, according to some guy who has never been there, because he’s still alive, and you can only get to hell when you’re dead, and unless he’s been resurrected…but wait, only one guy did that, and he’s not really a guy, but the one and only true son of God and…..oh my.   Talk about annoying.  So I come to a Center, where we don’t believe in sin (really, look it up.  There is no such thing as sin in our book.  Just a mistake, for which we can be eternally grateful, because it got us where we are today, which is a really good place, because it’s all good, all the time.)  and I figure I can just be myself, without shame.   And I toss out a swear word because it seemed to fit and some refugee from a church somewhere is all up in arms about it.  What’s up with that?  Talk about annoying.

So we have this dichotomy going on here, this paradox of sorts:  church but not church, no rules but still some folks seem to like rules, especially if they can throw in some judgement and shame along with them and make a really nice melting pot of negativity.  We meet on Sundays because that’s what we do in western culture, yet the Sunday thing is a Christian thing, and we don’t consider ourselves Christians, but wait…some of us do, just not in the sense that we need to be saved…..oh dear…more annoyance and now we’ve thrown confusion into the mix.

Lest you get the idea I think it’s so annoying that I’m never going to go, let me tell you about some of the gifts, and why I go anyway, in spite of the hostage hugs and the church dichotomy thing and the naysayers.  I go because what I have learned at my Center has taught me to live a happier life.  I’ve been able to release (just how does one release anyway?  It’s another of those annoying words, but I’m supposed to be talking about the good things about being a member of the Center for Spiritual Living here, so I’m going to go into spiritual bypass and ignore it) stuff like low self esteem.  I’ve been able to love and embrace (but no hostage hugging!) myself for who and what I am, swear words and all, because we don’t believe in shame nor sin.  I’ve learned to like hugs (except the hostage ones).  In fact, I find myself being a regular dispenser of hugs these days.  Sometimes I look at myself giving a hug and wonder, “who IS that woman?”

Yes, I stand outside myself sometimes and observe, and see the woman I am today, and compare it with the woman I used to be, and I know that things are truly good in my world and getting better.  And I got to this place because I went to a Center, took a bunch of classes and continue to go, even on Sundays…..when I’m not working and when I don’t have term papers to write.  The teachings that I have received at Centers for Spiritual Living have allowed me to be at peace with myself and the rest of the world most of the time.  And when I am not at peace the tools I have received at Centers for Spiritual Living give me the means to get back to a place of peace and joy.  They have allowed me to have fun, to enjoy life, to know who and what I am.  They have allowed me to have a relationship with a GAWD of my understanding (if you think that’s irreverent, keep coming back till you learn that God doesn’t care what we call it) and that is perhaps the greatest gift of all.

So if you don’t like church, why not come check us out?  If you don’t like all the hugging, you’ve got choices.  You can come in late, after everyone has all sat down, and leave a few minutes early.  Or you can sign up to bring some food, so your arms will be full when you walk in and there will be no room for hugs, until some well meaning soul helps you with your burden so they can then hug you.  I just don’t think there is anyway around the hugs, but if you do keep coming back, soon you too will enjoy the hugs.  Just don’t become a hostage hugger or you’ll find me avoiding you.  If coming on a Sunday hits just a bit too close to home for you, then don’t come on a Sunday.  Come on a weeknight, for a class or a midweek Satsang service.  Don’t ask me what that is, I don’t know.  I think it’s just another word for church service so we don’t have to use the church word.  But I guarantee you:  if you come, and if you do the things suggested, you too will be happy and at peace.  You too will look at the new version of you and wonder with amazement and joy, “who IS that wonderful person?”  And you too will know that it is you.

Tomorrow morning I will set my alarm in order to get up in time to get to Sunday service at the Spiritual Living Center in Carson City.  Those of you who know me well know that setting my alarm is not on my list of things to do.  I prefer to allow my body to wake up naturally, when it has had enough sleep.   I am blessed in that most mornings I can do this.  Those of you who know me well know also that it is a huge surprise that I would be motivated to go to what most people call church on Sundays.  Church is also very much not on my list of things to do.

Church conjures, for me, all sorts of conflicting things:  organized religion with all it’s dogma and shame, folks going to church on Sundays to prove themselves good Christians, then behaving badly the rest of the week.  But I don’t call what I do on Sunday mornings going to church, and neither does my organization. 

We call it Celebration, and a Celebration it is!  And I don’t go because I must, but because I feel good when I go.  I go because I get to connect in person with my spiritual community.  I go because when I’m sitting there in that beautiful room we have created, with all those beautiful people, I feel like  I  am  at my home away from home.  And I go because I am a Practitioner, and I consider those beautiful people my flock, and I am quite protective of them.  Besides, I like to talk with everyone, greet them, find out what is happening in their world.

I know there are folks who might feel like I do, church is not for them.  Organized religion is not for them.  That’s ok.  That’s why we call our organization the Centers for Spiritual Living.  It’s about living in Spirit.  At the Center in Carson City, we don’t have any rules.   That’s right, no rules.  We don’t care what your sexual preference is, we don’t care what your  religion is, we don’t care what your background is, we really don’t much care what  you wear!  We don’t care if you are married, cohabitating, playing the field.  We don’t have any silly little rules about sacred spaces in our Center, places where only “blessed”  people can go and things only “saved” people  can do.  In fact, we don’t believe we need saving!  What we do care about is:  are you happy?  Are you healthy?  Are  you experiencing all the gifts and good stuff that life has to offer?  If  not, we can help you  get there.  And it is not a requirement that you go to Celebration on Sundays, but you might like it.  You might like the energy, the message, the music.  You might  like the One Minute Miracles available with the Practittioners after the service.  You might decide you want to participate by singing or playing an instrument, there’s always  room for more!  You might decide you want to bring something for the munchies afterwards.  Or you might not.  It’s all ok.

I usually hear a pretty good message when I go.  Talks are usually given by our ministers, who happen to be my dad and stepmom.  They alternate each Sunday, so one week my dad will be speaking, and the next it will be Gail’s turn.  Topics are schedueld way in advance, and this coming  year will correspond with a series of book studies that we will be doing.  Stay tuned for announcements on those, because I will be doing on up here at the Lake, and someone will be doing one also down in Carson, on a weeknight.

We have a dedicated group of musicians, some of them working pros, some of them amatuers, but all of them devoted to bringing good music to us on Sundays. 

If going to Celebration on Sundays is really not your thing, we have stuff going on two or three nights a week during the week:  classes, book studies and meetings.  And a Practitioner on duty during the day, nearly every day. 

All of it, as is this post I do daily, is geared towards one thing:  to help you find your joy, and once you’ve found it, to help  you keep it.

Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow morning!  The excitement begins with a meditation at 10 am, services at 10:30.  Address is 1927 North Carson Street.  It’s in the Frontier Plaza, in the corner of the shopping center, which is at the corner of Winnie and Highway 395.  The web site for the Center is www.cslcc.org.  

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