Change & Creativity | Rev. John Riley

Change & Creativity

Good morning. Good morning. I gotta say, that was incredible. Margot Russell and Ronnie guys brought tears to my eyes. Thank you. I’m just gonna sit here. Is that okay? Thank you, John. So it’s been a week. Just, it just had a little head cold, not covid, just…everyone…I took all the tests. And the interesting thing is, you know, we forget that, you know, we can just get colds these days and my, my kids get got colds and, you know, so there’s, again, it’s like the kid family thing going on, but I’m, I’m coming on the other end of it. I just wanna, I just wanna sit here if that’s okay.

We’re coming in happy November, by the way. Did everyone have a safe Halloween? Yes. Good, good. We enjoyed it, it was low key. I was sitting on the couch in the heat of my cold, and so the, the Tiffany would be answering all the, all of the doors and I could hear all the kids celebrating. And every time the doorbell rang, I would pop on nightmare before Christmas. So it was Danny – Nightmare before Christmas song would start playing. Of course, I know there’s only three people in here who know that movie. That’s okay. It’s a joyful movie. And I really enjoyed that. But as we move into November it feels to me like the anxiety is starting to rise. Like the energy is starting to rise. Like you know – because we are in the midst of change and we’re changing into getting into the holidays, of course, the clocks change.

We have a wonderful opportunity to exercise our right to vote on Tuesday and that creates change. And there’s all kinds of change that’s inherent in the holidays when we start to think about the, the plays and the ballets that we’re all all going to be going to, we start thinking about the, the parties and, and the family that’s going to happen, and the music that’s gonna be playing while we’re while we’re there. It’s just a fabulous thing. And so sometimes that energy just starts, you know, moving us along. It’s okay, June, don’t worry, I’m not gonna point you out. It’s okay. It’s just God calling. Tell her I’ll be with her in a moment.

Change in Our Culture

So this idea of change is occurring. And when I think about change between this year and the year before, you know, last year at this time, we were just barely coming out of Covid. I mean, we’d been here for a couple of months in the sanctuary, but, you know, we were still, everyone was still very concerned. And, and we were, you know, very, of course following the guidelines and spacing people out and all that kind of stuff. And do you remember that, that was just a year ago. And how much has changed in a year? Not just, I mean, changed in how we do business, how we do things. You know, sometimes we’re, we’re no longer, some of us are still no longer going into the office. Some of us have changed jobs, maybe jobs have come and gone through that time.

The grocery stores have changed. You know, the way the lines worked at my local grocery store used to be…yeah, you just kind of go up to the whatever registers and it’s a free for all. And then once c hit, it was a long line and people that behavior continued. And so the line is out here, and people wait patiently until there’s space and much to the chagrin of some of the cash reg. No, come on…we’re open. We’re open. Just come on down. 

So there’s that idea that when things happen, you know, it takes us a little bit of time to shift our awareness, to shift consciousness. And I do believe that there’s actually even a change in culture beginning to occur as well. And of course, cultural change takes years, but any time there’s an event like we had that’s three, four years ago everything speeds up. So change is a part of our life. There are some things that have changed with us here. And whenever you encounter change, it’s kinda like, how do we deal with it? You know, what is the method in which we wanna meet it? Because human nature is trying to keep things very consistent. Human nature’s trying to say, You know what, I don’t want any change. I want things to go exactly the way I expect them to go. Anybody have kids? Have you gone through the experience of expectations.

Right? Well, you say, “Here’s my expectation for you.” And they don’t quite meet the bar. Well, we’ve trained our kids so well in that they apply that bar to us. So you have, they have an expectation, or we’ve set an expectation and we don’t quite meet it. Well, mom, you said, Of course it’s never dad because we’re so resistant to change. So I think in this time, it’s really important for us to become comfortable in it. They say that technology is changing at an accelerated rate. You know, that exponentially every few years that we tend to create more things and better things and things shift, significantly faster and faster nowadays.

Start Getting Creative

And so we start to become comfortable. I know our kids are very comfortable with that kind of change. And I think some of the ways in which we become comfortable, if we do it intentionally, then we have the ability to be in that experience and not feel the anxiety or the stress about it to be in the experience of change and, and, and be centered and grounded in that. So I have a few things that I thought might help. And the first thing that I thought about was creativity. Because when change happens, we get to be creative about how we show up. When change happens, we almost have to get creative. We have to look at how we’re doing life or how I’m showing up and, and look at it differently or see how we can show up differently, how we can get creative.

In his book, Practical Metaphysics, Eric Butterworth, Unity Minister and author, once said, “What happens in your mind happens as a result of your attitudes and your feelings and your habit patterns.” Your mind is your domain. And so when change happens, that jolts us. It’s a reminder to be aware of our thinking, be aware of how we are reacting to that change, and can we get curious and creative about how we approach it. The idea here is not that we’re going to just have, happy platitudes all the time, right? My my brother-in-law always talks about Unity. Oh, that’s the happy, happy church. Everyone’s always happy there. And, that may be true for people who are really, living the principle, but the principle isn’t happy platitudes. The principle is, is making the choice to not get triggered and not get hooked by all of the disruption in our life. To be creative about how we can live in it and how we can move through it. And so the idea is to turn into that infinite potential, that creative process that’s within you to pause and just get curious, how can I look at this differently? How can I take this situation and create something new?

How can I be in this flow of change and be a force for changing for good? Our purpose here at Unity is to transform lives. To transform lives, and to inspire people to go to do good in the world. So what good can you bring to the world during this time of change in the next few months? What good can you bring into the world to help create positive change? What good are you willing to do to step into that flow? There were a couple of ideas that, that have come up here at Unity Palo Alto. , , you know, we’ve had for a while a, , , an after the service spiritual coffee talk where people can log in through Zoom and it kind of dwindled because it was difficult to go from the livestream to the Zoom. And, so what we did is we created, we got creative, and we’re piloting beginning today a new program that if you are not here, I have to say being here is the best way to experience church, the best way to experience these incredible musicians.

The best way to experience this spiritual community. But if you’re online, if you’re, if you are on a live stream, or if you’re watching during the week, maybe try coming online through Zoom as a spiritual community. It starts at just before nine in the morning when, Sue or Moge leads our Sunday morning meditation. And then after the meditation, you have some connection time for about a half an hour. And then a few minutes before the service, we plug in the service. And so… “Hi everyone on Zoom who are watching our Sunday service.”…And then after the Sunday service, you can stay on for spiritual coffee talk and discuss, you know, what, things were really sparked in you. So it’s just, it’s a new way to experience our spiritual community. And it’s interesting because a few weeks ago someone said, You know, I wish everyone would just come back and stop being online. Can you turn it off? Well, that’s a choice. We can turn off the livestream, we can turn off the Zoom. And every time we’ve made one of those kind of changes, like I remember years ago we had an 8:45 service and a 10 at 11 o’clock service, and people would come for the eight, five to five service at around nine o’clock. They said, Well, why don’t we just make it about nine o’clock? So we moved it to nine o’clock, and guess what? People started coming at 9:15. 

Creative. They were creative. Yeah, that first 15 minutes wasn’t important to them. And so we try and experiment new things. We get creative and try something out. And if it works, great, and if it doesn’t work, it’s okay. We can continue on. What in your life have you tried and it didn’t work, and you got, you can move on? The challenges, of course, we get really stressed out about it if it doesn’t work. Anybody have that experience? Yeah, we get really stressed about it. If something doesn’t work right the way I want it to work, and when it doesn’t work the way I want it to work, then I start to hesitate. You know, I start to, well, maybe this isn’t the right change. I’m worried about the change. We start to second guess it as we’re doing it. And so it, it tends to not go the way we want to anyway. So being willing to be creative and just putting it out there. I think is very powerful.The other creative thing that we’re going to do to do good in the world is in the first Monday in December, we’re going to get back to holding our toy drive concert with Margo the Duke. So I’d like to invite Margot to come up and talk a little bit about that.

Well, you know, that’s my heart. I love kids. I love giving. So come out and bring a toy unwrapped, put it back in under the tree. I think there’s a tree back there, or wherever the tree is. , I’m super excited because there’s gonna be a couple of surprises. I’m not telling you because there’s surprises, but I don’t care how it goes. I just wanna get together, not unless just like kick off the holidays. Everything has been, so don’t you wanna just, I have a purpose now, so let’s just have fun and make some kids happy. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Margo. So mark your calendar. That’s gonna be the first, first Monday of December. That’s December 5th. No, that’s okay. And, and I don’t know what time. Seven. Yeah, seven. Okay, We’ll do it at seven. And again, this is a toy drive for homeless kids. And Margo’s amazing. And she’s done this for years. We’ve done, I don’t know, 15 years and how many years here at most of that are half of that at least. And it’s just an amazing experience of, of being able to sing and together and come together as a community and bring toys. And then, , later we give them to, homeless shelters around the, around the Bay area. And, and it’s only gonna be here because we don’t have the rights to live stream all the music. So, mark a calendar for that. And along the way of being creative, it’s important for us to be balanced, to remember that in the stress and strain in all of the activities, to create and maintain a state of balance within us, within ourselves.

Move Forward to Find Balance

This is especially true, I think, very pertinent when we start to connect with one another, with family, friends, with, you know, the people, the grocery store checkers and just remember that in everything there is a state of balance. And when we start to get out of balance in our wanting things to go our way, I know none of you have that problem. When we start to get out of balance by not doing things that we know that we should do or being hesitant, you know, we start to swing, the pendul starts to swing within us, and you know, we tend to get stuck. We tend to get a little dizzy from that. So balance is very important for us to remember. It’s the idea of being in the world, but not of the world, right? That’s saying that, that you are here to be that spiritual being.

You’re here to, and you’re here to do the work that you’re here to do. We’re not here to just sit on a hill and meditate 24 hours a day. We’re here to be that light and to experience it and express it in the world with balance. And with balance comes the idea of rest and rejuvenation and sitting down when you need to sit down. But it, it comes with the idea of, I think another way is balancing your judgements, balancing those that that feelings of this is right and this is wrong of that black and white feeling of this is the way it has to be during the holidays, and this is the wrong way to do it. Maybe have an, an idea of, well, what’s showing up in the world? Let me just be with what’s showing up in the world, and especially within relationships, to keep moving forward, to keep making progress. This is from Albert Einstein. He wrote this in a letter to his son, Edward. He said, “It is the same with people as it is with writing a bike. Only when moving can one comfortably maintain one’s balance.” So in our experience, this coming few months of all of the change that’s happening in our lives, keep moving forward. Keep maintaining that balance. Keep knowing that you are on the right path, even when the road shifts.

Creativity, balance, and resilience. Resilience is a third component. There’s a Japanese proverb that counsels us to fall down seven times and stand up eight, fall down seven times and stand up eight, keep going. Even if you fall down, keep going and stand up. And when you fall down again, stand up. I’ve had this wonderful conversations with my kids around this idea, because everyone falls at some point in time or another. Sometimes it’s really big, sometimes it’s small, but it’s how you stand up that matters. It’s how you stand up standing in that truth of who you are, not standing and identifying with the failure, the, the fall, the whatever it was, but standing in your truth that you are a spiritual being, that you were here to shine your light.

Those are a wonderful safety net that we have. And that’s the internal connection of our spiritual wholeness. You know, especially in the holidays, that idea of wholeness. We may not feel whole, whether there’s something in us or something about us or you know, that that idea of wholeness, , just may not resonate with you. But within the realm of spirit, you are whole, with the realm of God. You are perfect, a perfect child of God, because within you lies that potential to express it. So when we come from that spiritual wholeness, that potential within us, then we’re able to, we’re able to be more resilient in life. And the best way to be resilient in those times is to practice self-compassion, to practice self-care, to practice. , being aware of what your thoughts are and saying, Okay, I have dominion over my thoughts. Rule nber one, how can I get more creative with it? And when we’re practicing self care, that and self-compassion that leads to compassion for other people and other situations, because we have compassion built up within us, then we can express it more authentically in the world by cultivating that inner environment, connectedness, safety, caring, and self-compassion, we begin to soften the inner critic. Anybody have an inner critic?

Be Centered in the Allness of Life 

This is just to keep you awake. Two inner critics. I’ve got a whole balcony of inner critics. And when we fall, who’s the first to chime in the inner critic, even before the outer critic, as Renee Brown calls them, right? The, the critics in the cheap seats, right? The people who aren’t showing up as our higher self, but are ready to sling the tomatoes. Well, that starts in here. And when we be, when we come from that state of self-compassion, that inner critic begins to soften, begins to mellow, begins to not be so loud. And, and then that, that that nice voice, that other side of you, you know, I often talk about the inner critic as my shadow twin Skippy. Well, then there’s the other side of me, which is my whole, my authentic self. The authentic self that says, Okay, here’s how I can do things creatively different, better next time. So resiliency is key. And then finally, centered through all the change. Be centered in what is unchangeable. What is unchanging? Be centered in spirit. Be centered in the allness of life. Love and wisdom. Be centered in that one presence and one power, That principle of God that is everywhere present within you at all times. And doesn’t change that idea of divine love. God’s love doesn’t change. Our critics may think it does, but that spiritual wholeness is there and ready for you to become centered in that essence, that authentic self.

Butterworth says, the intelligence that is back of all thought is the intelligence that runs the universe, The intelligence that is back of all of your thinking. All of those inner critics, all of those authentic thoughts is the divine intelligence. And when we separate what the ego is saying within us and allow that divine intelligence to think through us, to speak through us, then we are living expressions. We are in the world, but not of the world. We are living expressions of that divine essence that is you. Now, a lot has changed over the years. , I think it was in, on the, let’s see here, about the November 26th. Anybody remember what happened? November 26th, 101 years ago?

I had a birthday. John had a birthday. John was born 100 and almost 101 years ago on November 26th. Yep. Yeah, that was a, that was a great day to be born. I’ll tell you I enjoyed it. Has anything changed in the last a hundred years? Yes, I have. Many times. John has changed many times, Many times. Change is the name of the game. Change is transformation. When we grow, when we learn, when we start to live life more fully, it’s change. What has not changed in your life, John? The fact that God is always with me. The 24/7. The fact that God is with us always 24/7, 365 days a year, 366. If it’s a leap year, any other calendars, we want to count. But God is everywhere present. Happy birthday, John. Thank you. You’re welcome.

Louise Hay once wrote, “No person, no place, and no thing can have any power over us.” Let’s just take that in for a moment. Everyone take a nice deep cleansing breath. No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us. For we are the only thinkers in our minds. We create peace and harmony and balance in our mind, and we find it in our lives. She actually said, When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives. Under any circstance, under any change, through the power, the a authoritative power of our own thinking, through our ability to align our thoughts with that divine essence, with the infinite flow of consciousness to allow us to move into it. And it takes resilience to do that. It takes practices. John and I can attest. We’ve changed many, many times because we keep practicing. We keep standing up. And every time I stand up, it gets easier, life gets better. My perception of what’s happening gets better. My ability to, to have balance amongst my relationships gets better. Everything gets better. And the best is yet to be.