February 2, 2025

Every one of us carries some form of documentation that confirms our identity. In movies, TV, and books, some well-known lines are: "Show me your ID," "Get out your papers," and "Have your passport ready." For many of us, our driver's license is our most ready form of ID; for others, it is our social security number or birth certificate. 

February 1, 2025

An authentic proclamation is a serious and formal announcement. It is a no-nonsense expression. My grandmother, who was born in 1892, used a colloquial expression of her day that I will never forget: It was, “Well, I declare.” She and others said this when they heard something surprising or unbelievable. When they said, “I declare,” it meant they declared what they heard as believable, valid or true.

January 31, 2025

A proclamation is a type of document. The first proclamations affecting our country were by King George of England. After our independence, proclamations were made by George Washington and every American president since. President Eisenhower wrote a proclamation admitting Alaska to the United States. And possibly the most famous proclamation in American history was issued by Abraham Lincoln — "The Emancipation Proclamation." 

January 30, 2025

Most documents hold true through different eventualities and scenarios. Their intentions and purposes stand throughout many seasons, generations, and eras. Our lives as living documents contain the repertoire of our possible responses to all of life’s eventualities. No one can change a legal document unless authorized. As living documents, we must approve any changes in our responses or deletions of responses.

January 29, 2025

A document is a communication which has a specific purpose. Its purpose is to make statements about a particular body of knowledge. It is official. For example, an insurance policy, last will and testament, governmental document, or any legal document communicates something important and carries some sort of weight or implies a type of agreement or covenant. Books, scrolls, films, videos, and recordings can be considered types of documents. Documents usually connote some action. They can uphold, announce, or sometimes infer specific consequences.

January 28, 2025

A document is information that serves as a record, authority, or reference. Documents can be written, printed, electronic, or in any form that facilitates their purpose. A "living document" is one that is meant to be changed or amended as circumstances change and can be interpreted and applied differently under different conditions. For those reasons, it is sometimes called an evergreen or dynamic document. The United States Constitution, with its amendments, is an example. The constitutional amendments add to the document, and all three branches of the government can and have interpreted the Constitution in different ways. 

January 27, 2025

Many may not realize that divine order includes our being loved as well as our loving others. Yes, being loved is a basic human need, and we are totally out of divine order when and if we are not loved. Decades ago, child developmental psychologists Spitz and Bowlby, among others, observed the behaviors of children and babies in particular. Their observations revealed that babies who were not nurtured or loved, and who formed no physical attachment with a caretaker frequently went into what is known as anaclitic depression, which if not treated, leads to Failure to Thrive Syndrome, and death.  

January 26, 2025

One of the most significant pieces of evidence of divine order is witnessing it in individuals we meet and know. The person’s life may not always be successful. It may have extremes of ups and downs. They are not always outwardly happy, and everyone may not always like them. But the person who strives to live in divine order is first and foremost grounded and driven by a higher cause than their ego alone. 

January 25, 2025

Sometimes, when at the drugstore, I get frustrated searching the card aisle for the right card for a special occasion. Right off the bat, none of the cards say what needs to be said. I go up and down the aisle, pulling out one card after the other, opening them, finding that they won’t work, and replacing them in the rack.

January 24, 2025

How do we know if we are in divine order? The answer comes after we ask ourselves,” Do I trust the pathway on which I find myself?” Trust is the first key to knowing if we are in divine order. If, in our soul, we trust the journey, that signals that we are in an order beyond ourselves. If we do not trust, we are probably not aligned with the divine pathway. 

January 23, 2025

Strange and painful things can happen at any time. Something goes wrong, someone hurts us, or they are disappointed in us, there’s a great loss, we are victims of circumstances beyond our control — these are examples of big things that derail us. But there are also countless small things that do the same, like when someone doesn’t do what they promised, when there’s a fender bender, when we say the wrong thing, when we lose important papers, or even when we are running really late for an important event. 

January 22, 2025

In 1929 Edwin Hubble observed that galaxies moved further apart, indicating an expanding universe. He learned that fact by calculating changes in the length of light rays sent from objects in distant galaxies. That our universe is expanding is known as Hubble's Law. If we look at Divine Order through the lens of the laws of physics, we see that Divine Order has properties of expansion and transformation. 

January 21, 2025

I was first introduced to the concept of Divine Order by the writings of Charles Fillmore (1854-1948) and Myrtle Fillmore (1845-1931), Founders of the Unity Society of Practical Christianity.

January 20, 2025

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven…

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

January 19, 2025

How do we stay in the moment? That is a good question, but before we address it, a more fundamental question is: Why should we stay in the moment? And the answer is that by living in the moment, we live more deeply, consciously, and longer. You may ask, "How is it possible to live longer by living in the present? 

January 18, 2025

Viking Cruises Chairman Torstein Hagen believes that time is the only thing you don't have enough of. He says," When you philosophize about life, you realize that time is the most precious commodity anyone can possess, so spending that time wisely is important." Torstein's answer to spending time wisely is to explore the world. 

January 17, 2025

Understandably, we each focus on our own years on earth. However, we strive to see the broader picture of life than our personal experience, unless we succumb to self-absorption. To understand more than our own life circumstances and to consider the larger picture is part of being conscious. 

January 16, 2025

The ego fancies itself as being the center of life and that life on Earth began with our ancestors. But that line of thought is flawed by its egocentricity. We tend to think our country's founding was long ago and that Columbus' voyages were way in the past. We picture Christ, Socrates, and other people of history as ancient. They were, but only if we view humanity as the center of the world and its appearance marks the beginning of time.