Each year at the Oak Park Church we select an overarching idea that is the catalyst for conscious evolution of our thinking patterns. This year was designated "the year of happiness," and it seemed like a good idea at the time. I say this because through the history of this practice, one thing we look forward to is opportunities to deepen our understanding of what we say we want. This deeper understanding usually comes through some not always foreseen dissipative structures.

I began the year thinking that happiness would mean doing more of what I want to do and less of what I did not particularly enjoy doing. Now I see that happiness as subtraction is not the way to go. It is much better to figure out why we are not enjoying our own creations than to try to get rid of them. My job, my boss, my family, my income, my opportunities are a reflection of my thinking. So, to have more of what I would enjoy more, I need to figure out what I must be thinking about me and about them that prevents me from enjoying myself. We need to ask ourselves: How am I giving that which I am getting back that interferes with my happiness? Do I believe that I am adequate enough to handle my responsibilities?

One important consequence of pursuing happiness as subtraction is that it interferes with the money in our experience. From the point of view of our Principle, doing less means that we need less, and so money tends to go in the direction of less as well. Remember the sound prosperity adage, "If you want more money, you have to have a clear and definite ideas of what you intend to do with it." Money must have a purpose other than our own security. To have our peace of mind rest on the fact that we have enough money in the bank to take care of ourselves is a sin, a mistake. For true and lasting peace of mind, our confidence and trust must be placed in the Reality of Being, in Life Itself, in our freedom and power and our ability to use it effectively to live the life we want to live, which by the way is the foundation of happiness.

Now, if we do not enjoy being responsible for what is going on in our life (and responsibility, by the way, begins and ends with giving good direction to the Law, our faithful and supremely capable Servant) and have the attitude that one more responsibility (one more thought, a different thought) is just one more chore, one more burden for us to bear, we find ourselves in the curious situation with regard to money. Since more money means more responsibilities, money then becomes something opposed to our happiness. This frame of mind says that it is better for us not to have more money if we are to have a chance at being happy. But we are happiest with money, so while we are resisting our responsibilities we end up with neither, no money and no happiness.

I think we can all agree that we are happiest with money. But, money means responsibility. With more money comes greater circulation, more activity, more paperwork, more business relations to cultivate, more decisions to make, therefore, we need to get the consciousness of loving our responsibilities so that we can joyfully accept more of them. How do we learn to love our responsibilities? We need to get the feeling that we are very capable of handling our affairs and that we are well enough endowed to do it successfully. We need to accept the truth that we are surrounded by a loving and a friendly universe that supports us; that everything and everyone in it wants us to have our good the way we want it. No matter where we go, we will never run into anyone more friendly, more supportive, more enthusiastic or more hostile to what we want than we are. We are the measure of our happiness.

Choose to be happy with money. Learn to love being responsible which means, being responsible for what you will choose to think. Thinking is all the doing we are capable of anyway. We are responsible for what we think. And as we know better, we do better, so, unconditionally love yourself and everything you create. Happiness begins here.

No birds, no flowers, no butterflies, no bees,
No, No, No, No, No—November!  This common sentiment about this time of year is my paraphrase of a poem by Thomas Hood.

Clyde Watson, another poet adds, "With night coming early, And dawn coming late . . . The earth sinks to rest until next spring."

The year has turned its circle,
The seasons come and go
The harvest all is gathered in
And chilly north winds blow
Orchards have shared their treasures,
the fields, their yellow grain,
So open wide the doorway—
Thanksgiving comes again!

The antidote to the chilly No, No, No of November, is the Yes, Yes, Yes of our grateful hearts. It is true that it is easy, or easier, to be grateful when the storehouse is full of provisions for the coming winter, but what if the supply seems a little sparse? What if the outside opportunities for making money have dwindled, for example. How can we keep from worry? How can we feel grateful when we are full of "good" reasons to worry?

When we feel we have cause to worry is the time to remind ourselves of the Principle that governs our experience which says that: Power flows and increases that to which we give our attention. It brings us back to our senses when we realize that what we give our attention to, that we increase in our experience! So when we focus on lack, whatever that may be, we are increasing the experience of lacking that particular thing. This is why nobody has ever, or will ever, get ahead of their challenges by worrying.

Thanksgiving is the tried and true way of increasing good in our experience. It is right use of Principle. At a time when the outside offers little or no hope of providing more than what we have already harvested, we can turn within and use the power that will increase what we give our attention to. So, instead of complaining or worrying which can only increase reasons to complain and worry, we can choose to appreciate all the good that we have in our life right now and the power will flow and increase  good in our experience. Simple? Yes! Easy? NO. It takes commitment, persistence, discipline, willingness to stand alone and think independently of  the majority opinion, but the rewards are worth it.

So, why wait until Thanksgiving Day to be grateful, to appreciate, and to praise all the good that is in you right now, and all the good that you possess right now.  More money will not cause you to love yourself more. But greater self love, greater appreciation of who you are and what you have will cause you to have more for which to be grateful on Thanksgiving Day.

There is a way of being sad that is beyond sad. It is believing that success is for other people and not me. And what makes this state of affairs even worse is when the economic conditions make success challenging even for those who already have an established track record of success.
    Well, success has nothing to do with economic conditions. It has nothing to do with age, race, where we live, how much education we have, or how much money is available to us right now. Success is possible for you and me, and everyone because all that is available to anyone is available to everyone.
    Wallace Wattles in his book, "Financial Success" writes: "All that is available to everyone is available to you." All that is available to Donald Trump is available to you and me. Money, connections, opportunities ebb and flow even for Donald Trump, so what is the "All" that is available to all? To understand this is the key to success in all areas of living.
    Physically we are all made of the same stuff. A living being and a distant star are made of the same elements. What gives rise to these physical forms, at the most basic level, is the polarity of energy and substance. An example of the infinite variety of possibilities that can be generated from such a simple binary polarity is the artificial intelligence that runs our computers. It boggles the intellect with its ever expanding scope. So in life, because we are alive, each one is the embodiment of this energy and substance, and so, the building blocks of all expression are centered in you and in me. All is available to everyone to have the life they desire.
    Now, if all is available to eveyone, what is it that limits what we get to enjoy? The answer is simple and profound. We can have as much good as we can accept without triggering some denial of it within us. In other words, as much as we can accept, that much we can enjoy. We are enjoying in our life right now as much good, as much success as we can accept. But, we can expand how much good we can accept.
    We can expand what we can accept by contemplating the idea that "All that is available to everyone is available to me." I invite you to come to understand the full implications of this statement. Do you agree? Why? Do you disagree? Why? Let yourself be challenged in what you have come to accept as true about you. Reality is much more supportive of you than what you may have dared to believe so far, but it is, and with this understanding you dissolve your self-imposed denials to all good available to you right now. This new understanding will open the channels for  the life your heart is pining for.
    You were born to succeed.  You are designed for success. You are the power of success. As a great teacher once said, "It is done unto you as you believe." Believe life is for you, that all of life is right where you are, aand that if you do not oppose your success, nothing exists that can.

Laughter

What is laughter?  What is laughter?
It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
It is the sun poking its sweet head out
from behind a cloud
You have been carrying too long,
Veiling your eyes and heart.

It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
That is your Real body--called Truth

It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
To embrace everyone and everything in this world.

Laughter is the polestar
Held in the sky by our Beloved,
Who eternally says,

"Yes, dear ones, come this way,
Come this way toward Me and Love!

Come with your tender mouths moving
And your beautiful tongues conducting songs
And with your movements--your magic movements
Of hands and feet and glands and cells--Dancing!

Know that to God's Eye,
All movement is a wondrous Language,
And Music--such exquisite, wild Music!"

O what is laughter, Hafiz?
What is this precious love and laughter
Budding in our hearts?

It is the glorious sound of a soul waking up!