Universal Life Church

A Story to Live By

By Ann Wells

My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. "This," he said, "is not a slip. This is lingerie." He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite; silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached. "Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is the occasion." He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me. "Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion."

I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death. I thought about them on the plane returning to California from the Midwestern town where my sister's family lives. I thought about all the things that she hadn't seen or heard or done. I thought about the things that she had done without realizing that they were special. I'm still thinking about his words, and they've changed my life.

I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting on the deck and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden.

I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings. Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to savor, not endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.

I'm not "saving" anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event-such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom.

I wear my good blazer to the market if I feel like it. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries without wincing.

I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my party-going friends'.

"Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now. I'm not sure what my sister would have done had she known that she wouldn't be here for the tomorrow we all take for granted.

It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew that my hours were limited. Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with-someday. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write-one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them.

I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that it is special. Every day, every minute, every breath truly is...a gift from God.

by Ann Wells in the Los Angeles Times

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the , is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.


 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.  
 

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Minister Ordination

Greetings,

I have been very blessed to be able to work in long term care for over 20 years as a Certified Activity Director. I have had the opportunity to meet and become friends with hundreds of amazing people from all walks of life whom I would have never had the opportunity to know in any other line of work. The residents have taught me so much about living and so much about dying.

I believe my work is my ministry. I became a minister as a commitment to God to do His work, His will, His way. Most people do not know that I am ordained. It is not something I make known as it is not about me. It is all about HIM.

Rev. BonnieLee Dilworth

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. 

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.We also offer many free wedding ceremonies for your use.

 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.  
 

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Miracle of Prayer

Miracle of Prayer The first item to challenge my concept of free will came from this course.  I had always believed that free will was my innate ability to travel in what ever direction I choose to go spiritually.  Without boundaries, as so to say.  To me the concept of free will being the giving up of directions and paths chosen by by me to be the exact opposite of what I had conceived free will to be.  Though I resisted this alternate concept of free will from the onset, I am beginning to grasp its true depth of meaning.  Changing my thoughts of convention has never been a fast process for myself.  I at first viewed the concept of surrendering the guidance and purpose of my life to God was tantamount to slavery.  By fully accepting that I am a creation of God, then it would only seem to be natural that I should follow that course and directions set by my creator, my father.  That is a personal problem that logic should simply answer, yet I am stubborn (ego). As far as all creation being the sons and daughters of God, with Jesus as our elder brother was an easy concept for me to meld with my preconceptions developed from my series of studies over the years.  Even in the good book,Jesus had made this concept of spiritual brothers and sisters to be clear. The man versus the lesson, broadened my concepts of what his life's mission was .  I was raised with the emphasis being on the physical Jesus more than his actions, coupled with the teaching that we are not his equal in any fashion and that we should admire and emulate the persona.  Through various teachings, including this course, I have come to re-examine the focus of what I was taught and to in essence abandon the physical man and to grasp the Message of Jesus.  By accepting Jesus as a spiritual teacher, I have began to have faith in the unbelievable, the miracles that have always been taking place and not isolated to an era of time past.  This course has again broadened my understanding of the purpose of his visit, and given me a greater understanding of his spiritual life. To me prayer was always a give me, asking for what I thought I wanted or needed to make life a little better for myself or another.  Here I have taken a radical change in viewpoint.  While reading this course, words i heard as a child by President john Fitzgerald Kennedy came to my mind.  Blazened into my consciousness were the words, " Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country".  For the life of me, I had never made the connection to not asking what God could do for me, but what I could do for God. When it comes to healing depression , fear and relationships, I must agree that spiritual wellness is the key to a balance life of happiness.  Yet, I must respectfully disagree in that there are changes to the brain that are chemical in nature when serious trauma had unfolded, whether it be of a short and violent nature of having taken place over many years of one's life.  In my personal experience, I have found that spiritual growth will always be confounded by the inability to trust and the unwillingness to change from a know to an unknown.  This where medications and professional counseling have a place in restoring  and maintaining some semblance of balance in those encumbered by the socially dreaded disease of mental illness.   Try an experiment, tell other that you suffer from moderate to sever mental illness and see their reaction.  Then you will be able to grasp the trust issue, more often than not they will either treat you as if it were contagious, or will attempt to change the subject. Mieacels happen every day around us.  We are all capable of making them happen, if we just listen to the small quiet voice of God in each of us.  Miracles are rarely the catching of an airplane falling from the sky.  I believe that they are mostly seeing the pain in others that we ourselves have experienced and bridging that gap.  By making a bridge, they can begin to speak of it, and unleash the pain from a place hidden from far within.  What I have seen as ironic, though it is easy to help another, it is sometimes impossible to accept the same healing hand from another. What am I. In our societies we teach that we are what we own, what standing we hold, what we appear to be like, and so on.  This course had helped me further redefine what I am.  A spiritual being made from love and filled with love. This course had given me such food for thought.  I has radically changed some of what I firmly believed, reinforced other beliefs I have and has challenged me to re-think some of the foundation of my beliefs.  More so and most importantly, I believe that the lessons of the course will help me come closer to accepting that I can touch the spiritual face of God, and allow myself to begin to trust in what I know is true.  What I have just written seems like an oxymoron, and does not make sense.  Trust me, to me it does. Rev. James Price ******************** Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free  and lasts for life, so use the button. As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials. Many have been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and can attest to its ongoing growth and change. 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