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This Sunday’s Talk was a major shift for me. When I first saw the title as “Cinderella, Fairies, and other Impossible Truths,” I had no idea where this was going. But it gave language to not only what I was learning, but also what was manifesting in my own life.
I am embarking on a “project” that I’ll discuss another time. Though I’m mentally ready for it, I have been vacillating between feelings about it—do I think positive at all costs? Do I give in to the fear knowing that what I think I get? I attempted the first way, but ended up having anxiety dreams. My spiritual sister Jae said that it was all the unspoken feelings coming to the surface. I knew I had to find a new way to be.
So back to this sermon (after a year of attending this church, it just dawned on me this past week that they call it Sunday Talks instead of sermons). Here's a run down of what I learned*. Pastor Tenaglia used the Cinderella story in its many iterations to illustrate how we can overcome negativity to open our Selves to wholeness and joy. First, we have to realize that this human experience is just a part of who we are—our whole Selves are one with Divine. We are made in His/Her image and are part of the Divinity of the universe. We are on this planet so that our souls may discover and learn the lessons it needs so that it can return to our Source.
To overcome our ego and return to our Divine Selves while on this planet we have to go through four main steps
Grieve.
You cannot heal from anything you don’t acknowledge and give space to. Grieving is uncomfortable and brings up so many feelings we’d rather not have. We’d prefer to affirm it away. Pray it away. Quote scriptures to it. But the reality is that if we don’t grieve, and give ourselves permission to do so, we will relive our personal traumas over and over again, even as we pray not to.
We come out of our grieving when we finally GET that disease and misfortune and diagnoses and relationships ending is NOT punishment. It is just a part of our spiritual journeys and provides opportunities for us to learn something. Once
Work and Let Go.
After we grieve, we speak the truth of what it is we get, knowing that God wants nothing but the best for us so that we may learn and share it with the world. But we have to work for what we need. Cinderella’s fairy godmother didn’t just give her the dress and the man, but put her to work gathering what she needed and then she stepped back and let Fairy Godmother do her work. Likewise, we have to gather what we need and then get out of the way to let God do the work, trusting that S/He is.
Know.
“What you expect, you get.” Know that God is for your good. Know Who you are. Know that all will be revealed to you as you need it. Know that it is for you. Know that through your talents, you are to love, appreciate, bless, and behold the God in others.
And so it is.
* Paraphrased from Paul Tenaglia. March 25, 2012. Cinderella, Fairies, and Other Impossible Truths. Presented at Unity of New York, New York, NY.