I believe that wisdom teaches us to discern the meaning of human differences while not using those differences to judge others as superior or inferior in some way that means I cannot relate to them or they cannot relate to me as equals in God’s favor. Although I am a follower of Jesus, I am not the typical Christian whose understanding of Jesus may come mostly from the Bible and place great weight upon interpretations of that sacred text that others have passed down from generation to generation through filters of human prejudices and political motivations (ego’s perspective).  I live as if the Spirit of Truth lives within my heart and yours and guides all of us as we learn to listen to it.  By God’s grace, I am learning to allow my life to evolve according to God’s divine design. I believe that the Spirit of Truth and Love abides in all of us naturally — and that each and every one of us has the capacity to listen to it if we develop the disciplines needed to listen.  I’ve found a book called A Course In Miracles especially helpful to my understanding of how life works.  I’ve found many other books helpful too and would be pleased to share with you my small library of readings about many paths of faith if you desire.  My services as a faith consultant and coach will help you to develop your own deeper insights and understandings into the Mystery of Life that await anyone who explores Truth and Love diligently.

By the Spirit’s guidance, I do my best to implement in the modern era principles of love Jesus and other honored teachers of various paths of faith model — especially all that compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation call forth from within me.  I believe that there are many paths of faith by which people grow in awareness of their relationship with a Supreme Being (by whatever name addressed) who is devoted to the welfare of all of us. We all are welcome in the Divine Heart regardless of our age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender orientation, life experiences or any other label or classification criteria others might want us to use to define us. Instead of classifying and judging members of the human race as ego does, I do my best to treat each of us as a child of God who hungers to be honored and deserves to be honored.  I believe that God does that perfectly and that I can strive to do so with increasing excellence regardless of my own failings, shortcomings and other imperfections.  God has accepted and loved me just as I am as I’ve struggled along in life.  I seek to do the same for you too.  I ask the same of you as well. Sharing the struggles of life enhances our joy and reduces our sorrows.  Sharing is God’s form of relief from grief.

I believe that we are all good/God-natured people who are naturally filled with enlightenment and wisdom but that modern society teaches us to believe otherwise and to disregard our natural capacity as whole people to follow our heart’s intuitive wisdom. Enlightenment is not an exotic experience reserved for the few. Humanity’s divine destiny is to become increasingly aware of the divine truths we know naturally “by heart.” These truths seem to many in modern times to be Great Mysteries.  Yet they need not be such mysteries even while God remains the Essence of Mystery.  The natural truths that we can restore to our awareness set us all free to enjoy life together in solidarity with one another as a single human race – sharing a divine origin and a divine destiny.  We need no longer divide ourselves into warring camps simply because we seem to be different from each other in some ways and may hold different viewpoints about some issues and don’t yet know how to reconcile those viewpoints.

Yes, life is filled with mystery, including the mystery of yet undiscovered answers to life’s most important questions. We are capable of thriving amid the mysteries of life while sharing this planet with each other as mutually appreciative and encouraging neighbors. We can master the art of living amid our questions and expressing our hearts and minds eloquently for the benefit of all humanity. We don’t have to be a famous leader, guru, artist, poet, author, musician, scientist or celebrity of any kind to have personal value and contribute valuable ideas and talents to our communities. Neither popularity nor the ability to inherit or earn and amass wealth qualifies one person more than another to discern wisdom within his or her heart.  We all have meaningful contributions to make as we celebrate being ourselves and enjoy building the better world we want to experience person to person.  In the process of dismantling walls and building bridges, we need not succumb to the temptation to let social approval or disapproval set limits on how we investigate and invest in life or explore and express ourselves.  We are explorers of the new world that the Creator invites each of us to co-create with Him/Her.

I believe in unity amid diversity and live as best I can as a timeless spirit in the midst of the mysterious paradoxes and tensions of human life that may seem to threaten to pull us apart – both internally from our own integrity and externally from one another. We all have the inner strength needed to not allow these tensions to separate us from our integrity or from one from another.  I believe that all forms of violence that humanity inflicts upon ourselves arise from dishonesty about what matters most – deeply within our hearts.

In learning to deny the full, caring expression of our emotions while trying instead to live with diminished hearts, we drive ourselves to abandon our natural wholeness and integrity and instead to adopt false identities (called by some “egos”). In doing so, we run the risk of becoming disheartened, even depressed, and of progressively developing addictions and other mentally and emotionally unhealthy orientations to life as our futile way of temporarily masking or escaping from our pain as we try to survive. To survive (but not thrive), we cope with but do not openly and caringly express emotions we buried in our hearts and minds when we were not free to express them earlier in our lives. Our confusion about how to cope with the dilemmas of life in a modern society ruled by Ego adds to our pain.

To rise free of confusion and other pain that disable our minds, I believe that we need most to connect again within our hearts as naturally sensitive yet also courageous beings, identify the pains beyond which we need to move by experiencing the process of legitimate grieving and learn again that we are delightfully playful and loving beings here on earth to share life as innocent children of the Creator of Life, free of guilt and blame as well as pride and shame. We need to learn again to distinguish between experiences that the ego falsely mischaracterizes as desirable and experiences the Spirit of love discloses as truly desirable. By using our re-awakened powers of discernment, we can implement wisdom as we transfer our allegiance from ego’s fear-based orientation to the Spirit’s love-based orientation:

Ego’s fear-based orientation:                               Spirit’s love-based orientation:                          Emotional numbness (temporary truce)            Peace of mind (readily recovered if disturbed) Ambition (blinds us to caring)                              Hope of heart (vision of justice and beauty)      Self-centered pride (corrupts relationships)      Joy of spirit (restores/sustains relationships)

We can become intentionally more and more aware of our inner state of peace of mind, hope of heart and joy of spirit if we choose that orientation. (Our spiritual orientation is most important. Arguments over sexual orientation and its possible origins too often distract us from the higher call to engage in our spiritual orientation as children of God. That’s why the ego promotes such arguments. As I use the term, “spiritual” means “meaning, purpose and direction of life” and opens the door to our experiences of love as our hearts crave to experience it.)

Spiritual orientation is a choice to regain our natural identity and let go of ego-identity, which is a false concept of self.  If you decide that you need extra help to achieve the goal of healthy expression of your emotions, ideas and talents or to address any other issue you identify, I will help you to seek and find the extra help you want. Consulting me for wisdom in making decisions does not substitute for such extra help. Consulting with me gives you clarity about the help you want and the courage to seek and accept its added benefits to nurture you and cultivate your dreams into reality.

The Golden Rule as Our Goal Standard

To encourage mature teens and adults of all ages to be authentic, wholeheartedly satisfied men and women who develop their creative ideas and talents fully throughout their lives with an abiding sense of personal integrity, I offer to be available in the role of a seasoned veteran of life with whom you can talk heart to heart as you explore your own ideas, feelings and faith in regard to any topic concerning which you are trying to make a wise decision.  Let me say at the start that although, for people who can afford it, I charge an affordable fee for my help, I am open to helping anyone who genuinely appreciates and makes good use of my help but cannot afford to pay for it now. If you ask, we’ll find a way for you to benefit from encouraging wisdom today. My goal is to help you enjoy a more enriched and rewarding future and find your own way in life as you seek to be true to yourself by having faith in yourself, others and a Higher Power.  This is an honorable path to becoming a contributing member of all communities in which you choose to belong and within which you share your creative ideas and talents for the benefit of yourself and others.

If you don’t have the ability to pay me now but gain income or wealth later, you can always pay me later if you believe that I was helpful to you.  At any point when you become aware that my help has been beneficial to you, you may want to help support ways in which I reach out to others who are financially limited.  In that case, please feel free to contribute what you want to share as your way of seeing that others enjoy the same benefits you’ve enjoyed.  I work with low-income adults in need of help and would appreciate any contributions you make to help meet their needs.  Your contributions will not be tax deductible, but they will be an investment in your future from which you reap dividends according to the Golden Rule.  That’s simply how life works!  Sow helpfulness and compassion to reap helpfulness and compassion.