A Personal Note

From Nona

Whenever I get my hands dirty in the garden, I’m reminded how all things are part of the whole.

You and I and the earthworms.

I think when I fully realized and accepted that, I never again experienced separation or depression. Maybe that will change, time will tell but I just never feel lonely or anxious anymore and that has not always been the case.

What changed?

Being on a spiritual path has shifted my perception of who I am and why I’m here in a palpable way.

Spiritual sayings that used to sound like rhetoric or wishful thinking to me, but they are no longer empty words without reality for me. Words like “we are all one” are felt deeply.

Yesterday I was planting some flowers and vegetable seeds at my parent’s home in the sunshine and I was thinking about how a seed doesn’t grow until it has been put into the soil and is given the right environment. In the same way, a soul does not expand and grow and find self-expression until it finds itself in the right environment, surrounded by love and understanding. In those conditions, things begin to happen, and changes can come quickly.

Growth and expansion of consciousness can take place without any restrictions.

A few weeks ago I told my husband Scott I was considering winding up my Substack or at the least just taking a summer holiday so I could have more time to build a more supportive infrastructure to serve you better. To create a better environment for soul growth.

To be truly helpful.

The Field feels like home to me now so I don’t want this to end, so I plan to resume after taking a short break, most likely at the end of the summer or sooner if I can get things lined up. I’ve been trying to juggle both, but when you add life, summer wedding ceremonies, and other commitments I keep pushing back the most important and least urgent things -so something had to give.

I noticed some new subscribers last night - I feel bad that you just arrived and things are on pause, but now you can feel free to familiarize yourself with some of my older posts and you’ll all have a chance to read some of the ones you missed.

This feels like a safe place to share ideas and now I feel called to level up the environment and how I’m helping others because while I feel like it’s a place where I can tell the truth, it doesn’t feel that way for some of you -too many of you who would much rather respond to this directly or send me private messages than comment below so it’s time for me to create a better environment for all of us to grow together.

I have sincerely appreciated your messages and emails about how much you look forward to your Sunday morning ritual of reading field notes with your morning coffee. I’ve enjoyed writing it and I look forward to it for many more years to come.

Being a Minister is not about theology for me, nor is it about church and institutionalized religion- it’s about freedom.

It can be about church and belonging for some of us, but it’s also about “real” life and the peace of mind that comes with new understandings.

The power that ancient spiritual teachings have to soothe our souls and shift our perceptions is unlimited.

I’ve been thinking about the creative ways we can all express ourselves when words don’t seem like enough and what that might look like.

A Course In Miracles says that “words are but symbols of symbols…twice removed” and sometimes it does feel that way. We load the words with meaning. We add our perceptions to the mix and words take on a life of their own and it becomes harder to hear them for their intention.

When you hear the word “repent” what comes to mind? Did you know that ‘pent’ simply means to think - the word means to re-think…to THINK again. Take 2. Who doesn’t love a second chance or a do-over? A mulligan. Do you see what I mean about words?

What is more direct or less “removed” than words?

All kinds of things. Nature. Music. Symbols.

I recently ran across some of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen calligraphies.

I adore them.

They’ve been exhibited in North America, Europe and Asia. These eloquent ink artworks capture his insights, peace, and gentle compassion. His handwriting warms my heart and weirdly, it looks an awful lot like my own.

Familiar.

One thing I loved learning is that Thay (his students called him Thầy which means"master; teacher") always started his calligraphy with a tea ceremony. He had a sacred ritual where he drank it mindfully and then infused some of the tea into the ink of every design he made.

Here he is cupping the tea lovingly in his hands meditatively and then he would wait until something inspired and moved him.

When he felt it was completed, he stamped his work with the red square symbol which was his unique signature.

He was able with a few strokes capture the essence of his teachings in simple pure ways that land on us in a way words alone never could.

As the artist you can feel how soaked he was in the spiritual concepts and teachings that he carried with him day after day, year after year and he lived and moved and had his being in them. They went from complicated scriptures to one word or a few words on parchment infused with tea and love.

When I think of the simplicity of his teaching and stories, and of these caligraphies I feel affected and it makes me wonder how I can do this with my work.

Personalize it.

Be so soaked in loving compassion that I can bring that feeling with me into any environment and others in my presence will feel it.

I may be dating myself a little here, I’m not sure if they are still in circulation…but do any of you remember learning how to read with these books?

Hmmm…now that I see these, the images also tell a hidden story about not-so-subtle gender roles in the 1970s in a way words never could. My husband does the vacuuming in our home now and so does his father:)

I’ve joked to friends before that I’d like to “Dick and Jane” some of these spiritual teachings down with cartoons and maybe even acted out so that others can find freedom and peace of mind in new ways that are so clear that no one gets left behind.

Kind of like Spiritual Kindergarten. A Spiritual Sunday school or a garden for adults to grow and expand their consciousness. And maybe for children too.

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Our authenticity is powerful.

When I first saw a short clip of this video on Instagram (watch for the first 1 minute and 16 seconds or so) it seemed to capture something helpful - I never did watch Lili’s full episode of the podcast with Jay Shetty, but I recognized the content of the material she’s using from an Allan Watts’ YouTube based on the Buddha’s teachings, but I think Lili expresses the teaching perfectly in her unique beautiful way.

She’s struggled with anxiety and depression openly and you can feel her sincerity.

Videos are another medium that others may find more helpful than words on a page.

There are many ways I could add more depth and dimension to this Substack to be more clear and helpful. I’m excited to get started this summer and look forward to sharing my harvest with you this fall.

All this kindergarten talk has reminded me of how we used to have “show and tell” and that could be another fun way I share these spiritual concepts:)

More like an all-inclusive or universal “Sunday School”.

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Gravity & Grace

It’s a shame that most of us learned about a version of God in the church where God is separated from creation -not the living light and holy life force energy that we encounter in and through creation.

The primary principle in the Universe that holds the planets in place also holds us in our lives perfectly. It can be trusted.

Everything is alive and supporting us.

There are so many wonderfully supportive practices from many faiths and traditions around the world that can be truly helpful and I’d like to share some of my favorites with you this fall as well to show you how others connect with God or Source to tune inwards.

One example that comes to mind, even if we did go to church or Sunday school, most of us never had the pleasure of learning about the power of affirmative prayer - only the old way of praying to a God concept outside ourselves and asking for things and favors rather than aligning ourselves with a power greater than us, that we’re a part of so we can heal and experience our abundance and share our gifts in new ways.

Do any of you remember at least the first paragraph of this?

It never occurred to me that I could die in my sleep before I saw this. But now I see how beautiful it is.

Communing with a higher power gave me great comfort when I said my prayers before bed when I was little. Taking a moment to give thanks and bless our loved ones is sadly something many children today are not taught and anxiety levels for all children are on the rise.

Maybe it’s not just the phones that are to blame, maybe we are.

Or the powerful indigenous or ancient Christian Celtic and Essene practice of intentional alignment with the earth each day in a simple, fundamental, central, and sacred way to balance our bodies and connect to our elemental selves with wind/air, water, earth, and fire not just on the special occasions of the equinox, the solstice, and full moons but by simply feeling grateful in our minds and by kicking off our shoes and taking 5 seconds to FEEL it every day.

To step out into the sunshine in our pajamas and bare feet to sip a warm drink, listen to the sounds of life, give thanks, and connect to nature. And to our true nature - not the ticker tape of thoughts going through our brain.

Lacing up our shoes to watch the sunrise and to commune with what the Essenes called the “Angels of the Earthly Mother”.

We’ve forgotten how we ARE a part of nature and how it can guide us in the most miraculous ways when we open to it it will speak to us.

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I’d like this Substack to become more than words, I’d like there to be an accessible way for you to be able to reach out in a private group so that we can practice applying some of these spiritual teachings to your life in real-time with others on the same path.

To ground these teachings down to earth in the most practical ways and share your experience.

And more than anything I’d like the work I put out in the world to be a catalyst for you to have your own sacred, felt experience of having an energetic connection to ALL of life.

By raising our level of consciousness.

Finding new, fun, and creative ways to help others master this inner shift from fear to love because what I’ll be sharing this fall is not being taught in a way that feels palatable or relatable in modern life.

Dense books like A Course In Miracles are so intelligent and helpful in shifting our perception, but many people struggle to understand the spiritual concepts or fail to make any headway with the workbook and give up before day 70.

I’d like to help change that as well.

I see a clear three-fold path to help us unfold a deep sense of inner peace and connection through:

1. Ancient & Modern Spiritual Wisdom from all lineages

2. Nature

3. Consciousness.

Using both science AND Spirit because if we’re using science we only accessing our separate physical and material-minded potential we are operating at only half our human capacity.

Our consciousness is where we unlock the quantum dimension in us.

I find it revealing that Quantum Physicists have tried to share the intelligence of their studies with the public in recent years, but they’ve hit a wall. It’s been too challenging to translate it in a way for the average bear to understand it with a materialist worldview.

My friend Robin told me that she once heard that when you’re teaching a new concept, even to adults you should aim for it to be a grade 6 level so no one gets left behind. I think she’s onto something.

There is no grade 6 version of quantum physics, so let’s create one.

Why are we so resistant to these new concepts?

Because it gives us an ice cream headache and fills us with dread.

It seems as though reality is too shocking to our “ordinary sensibilities” - because it challenges our ways of interpreting the truth of our existence.

The well-published and documented entanglement experiments have revealed that we’re all a part of a single vast web of interconnected particles that remain in contact with one another over ANY distance and in no time. No movement, no “transfer” of energy or information.

It’s instant.

This means that our physical reality is a single quantum system that responds to itself with further interactions. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know that we can heal in an instant?

Can you guess which language they have turned to to help us understand it all?

Spiritual language. The language of the Mystics.

I suppose we find it challenging because modern science is at odds with our old scientific and religious worldviews.

What we thought was reality is not.

This is very inconvenient for all of our established institutions.

But is that a good enough reason to look away? Because it threatens our worldview? Or our religion?

The facts are that we’re BOTH made of earth elements AND we’re stardust and the implications are HUGE.

It feels like we’re in a moment in history when we are living between stories.

The old rules and our fetishment of quantifying everything have made us deny forms of new knowledge. Like consciousness. Near Death Experiences. Pre-cognition.

Our ego and personal self is a conflation of the old story and it’s time for us to see it for what it is.

I’d like to step up and begin to tell the new story, not as an intellectual but as a human being seeking clarity and sharing from a more authentic heart space.

“We simply do not have a stable story at this global moment”.

Thomas Berry

We have begun to finally understand that we ARE one and we are responding to ourselves as creators.

In the West it feels like we’ve inherited a false sense of superiority in our material mindedness, a false security, and false righteousness it is no wonder why our culture, religion, and politics are in the state they are in.

Only a healed, more compassionate, and contemplative mind can help bring forward the new consciousness needed to awaken a more loving, just, and sustainable world.

This requires not just a healing environment and supportive practices. It means admitting we were wrong. Dissovling or egos so we’ll do that work here as well.

It may take us a few more generations and more suffering, but we’ll get there.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Matthew 5:5

HOW DO WE DO THIS?

Moving forward, we can undo a lifetime of false ideas and shift our perceptions to a new possibility aligned with the spiritual intelligence in us.

I’d like to invest my time, resources, and energy to support others willing and interested in creating personalized practices to touch and transcend their unconscious conditioning.

To learn how to align with our Buddha nature, our Christ Consciousness in fun and practical ways using ancient and modern spiritual concepts.

To develop a healthy ego that is aligned to serve the greater good so we can see more deeply, wisely, and justly.

Creating a more humble, loving, and patient community with the marriage of science AND spirit.

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I’d like to leave you with a dream from one of my teachers.

Brian McLaren shared his vision of a restored Earth where humans live equitably with the Earth, other humans, and the more-than-human world:  

I dream that the wisdom of Indigenous people, the wisdom of St. Francis and St. Clare and the Buddha and Jesus, the wisdom of climate scientists and ecologists and spiritual visionaries from all faiths could be welcomed into every heart. Then, we would look across this planet and see not economic resources, but our sacred relations … brother dolphin and sister humpback whale, swimming in our majestic indigo oceans, with sister gull and brother frigate bird soaring above them beneath the blue sky. We would see all land as holy land, and walk reverently in the presence of sister meadow and brother forest, feeling our kinship with brother bald eagle and sister box turtle, sister song sparrow and brother swallowtail butterfly, all our relations.  

In my dream, the reverence we feel when we enter the most beautiful cathedral we would feel equally among mountains in autumn, beside marshes in spring, surrounded by snow-covered prairies in winter, and along meandering streams in summer.

In my dream, even in our cities, we would look up in wonder at the sky, and a marriage between science and spirit would allow us to marvel at the sacredness of sunlight, the wonder of wind, the refreshment of rain, the rhythm of seasons.

At each meal, we would feel deep connection to the fields and orchards and rivers and farms where our food was grown, and we would feel deep connection to the farmers and farmworkers whose hands tended soil so we could eat this day with gratitude and joy.  

In my dream, our life-giving connection to each other and to the living Earth would be fundamental, central, and sacred … and everything else, from economies to governments to schools to religions … would be renegotiated to flow from that fundamental connection.

In my dream, we would know God not as separate from creation, but as the living light and holy energy we encounter in and through creation: embodied, incarnated, in the current and flow of past, present, and future, known most intimately in the energy of love.  

This is my dream too Brian.

And I know it is for many of you reading or you wouldn’t be here reading every Sunday.

Thank you for helping me by supporting this Substack to confidently venture out into the world. I’m excited to develop and tap into more helpful ways for all of us to move forward, to create the new earth or the more beautiful world we all know is possible.

Sometimes it’s only when we decide to leave the old behind and then eventually in the light of the new that our growth and expansion of consciousness can take root without any restrictions.

Looking forward to seeing you again this fall - stay tuned for a few personal updates and progress reports this summer!!

Until then, have a wonderful summer and if you have any suggestions or ideas for me hit reply I’d LOVE to hear from you.

Cheers to our continued personal growth.

With love,

Rev Nona

ps. One more for the road…

Thay often said when he looked in his tea, that he saw a cloud. He would go on to explain that what was a cloud yesterday is now his tea (the rainwater:)