These passages have been an important portion of the framework on which I am building my beliefs. I use the active tense here. Belief, in my opinion is a constantly evolving, living organism. As long as we live, we must grow and progress. When growth stops, decomposition begins.

"We are one with God -- consider this: Go to the ocean, dip out a pail of water--In the pail you now have the ocean--Yes, or no. Obviously the answer is yes-- and no. It is the ocean, with a small o, in the same sense that each of us is God. And no matter what you do with that pail of ocean, pour it on the sand, carry it far away, leave it to evaporate in the pail, it will eventually find its way back to the Ocean with a capital O... God. Thus, although separate and insignificant, still ocean (God) and returning to its source, Ocean (God) All One, as always, yet separate for a time in place, still one in actuality." (Source Unknown)"

I often tell my husband that God and I have an understanding.... and fortunately for me, God is a very undersanding being. In being like God, we need to learn to deal with multilevel conciousness -- perceptions -- receiving multiple levels of information, then processing it on an unconscious level and storing it for future use. We let our "Higher Self" deal with these computations, while we do the laundry and carry on our daily lives.

The process of growth and becoming often begins as we become more conscious of our inner beings. We then begin to face portions of ourselves which we had previously ignored. When we learn to face those often not so pleasant aspects of our personality and nature, we begin to grow and become that which lay in us as a seed, awaiting the warmth and rains of spring.

As we work toward clearing up the emotional baggage cluttering our lives and holding us back, we feel freer and more capable. We cannot just wish for improvement, then sit around and wait for it to come about. We must actively pursue it.

As Mark Twain said, "We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it-- and stop there; lest we become like the cat that sits on a hot stove lid. She will never sit on a hot stove lid again--and that is well; but also, she will never sit on a cold one anymore." All experience is good for the growth of our souls. It is in the application of the knowledge and experience which is capable of improving our growth or retarding it.

A trap which we often fall into lies in our kindnesses and generosity. Many people are not selfish, but are self-centered. They are kind and generous, but their thoughts revolve around their kindnesses and their personal affairs. . . how they feel and felt, what others must be thinking of them, what they know, who they are, how much they love, what they do.... It is this "I" attitude which stops progress. They become prisoner to their own personality. It is a very subtle handicap...as it is often not brought to light of day. Only within the deepest part of each consciousness is the capacity to discover and correct this handicap. Since most of us never want to think ill of ourselves, we simply don't look within our self-centered little soul to see the flaw in its reasoning. . . The "I" generation, the "me" generation. . . where would this world be if everyone spent their life with that attitude?

I have heard it said that any "experience" we may have had which makes us want to tell about it is not a real experience; that when one has a "real" "experience", we will never wish to speak of it, because we will realize intuitively that each soul grows at its own pace and our visions are sacred and applicable to ourselves alone. I totally agree. On the other hand, if a seeker comes, do we turn them away...? Certainly not. But, we must be careful to offer freely, not expecting change, not expecting gratitude, indeed, not expecting anything at all. . . a gift by its' nature should be without strings of any kind.