Greetings All –
Step 189 - My Spiritual
Family exists in all places. (MP3)
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your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
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| “My Spiritual Family exists in all places.” Step 189 |
YOUR SPIRITUAL FAMILY IS GREATER THAN YOU REALIZE.
It exists in many worlds. Its influence is everywhere. That is why it is so
meaningless to consider yourself to be alone when you are part of something so
great that serves the greatest of all purposes. You must relinquish your
self-condemnation and your sense of littleness to know this, for you have
identified with your behavior in the world, which is little. You have
identified with your personal mind and your physical body, which are little. Yet,
now you are beginning to realize your relationship with life itself through
Knowledge, which is great. This is done without punishing the personal mind or
the physical body, for they become useful and enjoyable as they learn to serve
a greater purpose. Then the body has health and the personal mind is utilized,
rendering them meaning which they now lack.
YOUR PHYSICAL NEED IS FOR HEALTH, but your health
is to serve a greater purpose. You need right utilization for your personal
mind, which will give it meaning and value, for it only seeks to be included in
that which is meaningful. What enables your personal mind and your physical
body to find their rightful place in your life is Knowledge, which provides
purpose, meaning and direction for you.
THIS IS TRUE IN ALL WORLDS. This is true throughout
the physical universe of which you are a citizen. Expand your view of yourself
so that you may learn to be objective about your world. Do not merely cast
human values, assumptions and goals upon your world, for this blinds you to the
world’s purpose and evolution and makes it far more difficult for you to
appreciate that you are a citizen of a greater life.
TODAY, IN YOUR TWO LONGER PRACTICES, engage your
mind in active investigation of this idea. Spend the first fifteen minutes
engaged in this investigation in both of your two longer practice periods. Try
to seriously investigate the meaning of today’s idea. Then, when your investigation
is complete, allow your mind to re-enter stillness. Realize the contrast
between active mental engagement and mental stillness. Understand that both are
important and complement one another. Upon the hour repeat the idea and
consider it as you view the world around you.
PRACTICE 189: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
No review this seventh day. Another week of Steps
before we Review again.
“My Spiritual Family
exists in all places,” is the Step. All places means, of course: “all places”! I could have
picked any number of “place” pictures, and each would have been applicable, but
this one of an American suburb from the air seemed most challenging. One might
need to go door to door to find Spiritual Family members in this territory, but
we also know there are educated people in such homes that should be of a mind
to respond.
From the Journal:
6:20
a.m. Friday, January 21, 2000 – I’ve got my vitality back – until the next
downturn. I like the way past actions begun insert people who crank me up when
I’m in the dumps. I always try to keep up appearances no matter how down I get.
Thinking of the future – maybe…will replace me? He’s got the perspective.
6:10
p.m. A long, hard day. … This time next week I’ll be enroute to Texas for
Sarah’s birthday.
Ask
not for whom the region works, it works for thee.
Nothing overtly Steps in these paragraphs. I reveal
part of my personal strategy of serving others as a means of keeping myself
motivated. My goal with my work was to make everyone I met a friend. To do so,
I had to listen to people to find their interests and work to connect with
them.
The Steps page has a few thoughts.
Many section of Steps appear to me as lists which I
sometimes number in the text or, in this case, have listed at the bottom of the
page. This is an old study habit – writing out ideas and facts so they stay
with the individual.
NNC
Journal second time x2
Step 188. This is for those who have completed
Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience,
including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing
Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a
wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more
closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and
protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught
this practice in 1989.
P.S. If you’ve some interest due to this or other
Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge
and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. You can
use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in
order in the archives - one post per Step.
Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps
once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference
how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide
a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One
may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps
students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as
a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well
through the Free School of the New Message.
