Willa White's Blog

Contemplation is the practice of stilling ourselves before God, moving ever deeper into the core of our being and simply offering ourselves to God in a totally vulnerable, loving way.  By offering ourselves to God in this way, God leads us into a life of amazing centeredness.  Each day, in this way, we experience a life through which God LIVES IN US for others. Thomas Kelly (a Quaker missionary, writer, & scholar) explains this concept further:  "What is here urged are secret habits of unceasing orientation of the deeps of our being about the Inward Light, ways of conducting our inward life so that we are perpetually bowing in worship, while we are also very busy in the world of daily affairs.  A Practicing Christian must above all be one who practices the perpetual return of the soul into the inner sanctuary, who brings the world into its Light and rejudges it, who brings the Light into the world with all its turmoil and its fitfulness and recreates it." I keep findi

While in the midst of holiday shopping, I had the pleasure to speak with someone whose life is changing in a couple of weeks.  This particular young man is excited to be moving onto a better life and enthusiastically shared the details with me. His car was recently totalled.  Most people would feel devastated if their car was totalled.  Not this young man - he sees it as an opportunity - now he has a great new car! And this attitude paves the way for more good to come into his life. After working in a small mall shop for four years, his 'ship has finally come in' and he has been hired to be a professional web designer in a different city. New job, new home, new car.  In a matter of weeks, his entire life has changed dramatically.  Opportunities have showed up in definitive ways.  He followed his intuitive hunches, labeled his life a SUCCESS, and now has a manifestation of good, happiness, and supply!  He is an example of attunement with Spiritual Natural Law.  If you

Definition of DECENTERED HUMAN EXISTENCE:  having lost the true center of human identity in loving union with God, attempting to determine for itself the nature of its own being.* Each one of us is created to experience our truest Self and deepest purpose through an intimate and loving union with God at the core of your Being.  When we play god in our lives, this union is lost.  We become self-referenced beings who have abandoned the center of our true identity in God.  And we see ourselves as APART FROM God instead of A PART of God. Many biblical stories share this theme of decentered human existence.  In fact, a main example of this happens in the first chapters of Genesis. After Cain murders his brother Abel, he "went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden".  Notice that God did not abandon Cain.  Cain turned his back on God and the result was extreme decentering in Cain's life.  He finds himself in a land of wandering (t

I had the opportunity today to attend the Empty Bowls fundraiser.  What a wonderful event!  A friend and her daughter accompanied me and my son, and we saw many familiar faces. [Hi, again *smile* you know who you are!] Do any of you have Empty Bowl fundraisers in your community? In case you are interested in finding/creating such an event in your community, I have located a helpful website: http://www.emptybowls.net/ What is the Empty Bowls fundraiser?   It is an event sponsored by the local potter's co-op and all monies raised go entirely to local food pantries.  Volunteers and businesses have generously donated the time, material and food.  Local potters have donated bowls in a variety of shapes, colors and styles, which sell for $10, $20 or $30.  Also available is a simple meal of bread and soup. Purchased bowls are wrapped and taken home or washed and sanitized for a serving of delicious soups prepared by the BOCES Culinary Arts Students. When I unwrapped our bowls at