Our Prayer for The State Budget

The power, purpose and presence of God is all there is. It is the only truth. Everything else is a lie.
The truth of God is perfect love.
The truth of God is perfect abundance.
The truth of God is perfect peace.
The truth of God is perfect joy.
The truth of God is perfect wisdom.
This being the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth there is no way to be outside the truth.
It is the be all and the end all, the alpha and the omega, the whole enchilada.

And so I know that I am one with God, that the divine consciousness of the one Truth is accessible in, as and through me.
As I know that for me, I know that for each and every person in California. The people of California are the living embodiment of God.
As I know that for the people of California, I know that for their elected leaders: the Governor of California, each and every member of the state legislature, the Finance Director and every staff person or lobbyist connected with the State budget process.

Specifically I know that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Assembly Speaker John Perez, Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, Assembly Minority Floor Leader Martin Garrick, Senate Budget Committee Chair Denise Ducheny, Senate Budget Committee Vice Chair Bob Dutton, Assembly Budget Committee Chair Bob Blumenfield, Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chair Jim Nielsen, State Finance Director Ana Matosantos are each connected to the one Truth, the One Mind, the One living consciousness of the Divine God.

I know that each of us is an elected representative of God, a representative of love, a representative of abundance, peace, joy and health.

Elected by the people who are the living embodiment of God and being the living embodiment of God themselves, our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern. They are servants of the One Mind, the One Heart, the One Love, the only force, the only truth, the integrated whole of the universe.

There is no separation on the planet.
The lines that separate us are fictional. Republican, Democrat, left, right, lobbyists, legislators, citizens, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, the environment, labor unions, trial lawyers, oil companies, polluters, auto companies, utilities, poor people, disable, teachers, students, prisoners, guards, hospitals, doctors, patients, children, elderly, women and men, we are all one.

Humankind has worked with its own creative God-given powers to bring into seeming reality the following limitations: deficit, recession, 2/3 voting requirement but these too are artificial constraints, more easily removed than it may seem. In God, there is no deficit. In God, there is no recession. In God, there is no structural impediment to change. In God, there is no 2/3 voting requirement.
In God, there is no furlough Friday. Simply put: In God there are no limits.

All are simply appearances of the One, illusions of the human mind, powerful stories that are only stories, not the truth.

Today I relinquish my attachment to these stories.
Today I relinquish my attachment to these limits.
Today I relinquish my attachment to the parameters of the possible.

I embrace infinite creativity.
I embrace infinite change.
I embrace infinite abundance.

There is enough.
Just as there are enough stars in the sky, sand on the beach, water in the ocean, love in our hearts, there is enough food, there is enough shelter, there is enough money, there is enough ideas, time, willingness and willingness.
There is enough.

Our leaders can do this.
Our leaders have the resources, the support, the intelligence, the willingness, the creativity and the political will they need in, as and through God showing up as the people of California and them.

The water we are swimming in is the Divine Water of God. It is great, come on in!

Thank you, thank you, thank you Divine Mother-Father Spirit for blessing this state with the amazing people, beauty and treasures that it has. Thank you for our trusted public servants. Thank you for our democracy. Thank you for seeing fit to allow millions of people to come together and pool their resources to create a better life for each and every Californian and each and every person on the planet.

Thank you for the safety and health of the People of California and their leaders. Thank you for food, shelter, health care, education, security, jobs, clean air and clean waters. Thank you for balance and integrity. Thank you for everything that you have provided.

Knowing that the leaders and people are one with God and that everything we need is right here, right now already I know that this State budget is already divinely created, balanced and funded. I release my need to control the details or the outcome and simply let go and surrender to the One.

I know the great law has already said a resounding Yes!

And so it is.

Amen.

How the Prayer at the Capitol Went

On Wednesday, June 16, 2010 the Center for Spiritual Awareness, along with a rabbi, a Catholic priest, an Episcopal priest, a Lutheran minister, a (scheduled but didn't show imam) and several other new thought ministers held a prayer service at the Capitol for the state budget. Attendance was modest (maybe 20 people in addition to the clergy), but the feeling was high. Rev. Georgia Prescott, my minister, led off the event with a prayer/treatment I wrote. I think I'll post that separately so that you can read it but it doesn't muddy up this post.

The press coverage was decent though. After an interview over the phone, the New York Times wrote this cute piece which is actually not all that snide. Click here for the official link but here's the cut and paste version:

Big Budget Gap? Call In the Big Guy
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: June 16, 2010


LOS ANGELES — And on the first day without a state budget, the men and women of God gathered in prayer at the Capitol to beg that he guide the mortals in closing a gap of biblical proportions.

A day after California lawmakers missed the June 15 deadline to have a budget in place, leaders representing 10 faiths sought “divine wisdom” on Wednesday, offered prayers and demanded that God occupy a seat at the budget negotiating table, joining the so-called Big 5: the governor and the four ranking Senate and Assembly leaders.

“We are calling for a Big 6,” said Sara Nichols of the Center for Spiritual Awareness, a former lobbyist and minister-in-training with the nondenominational religious community that organized the event. “We wanted to bless them and say, ‘They can do it.’ ”

It just may take a while; last year, the budget came in a month overdue, and the year before that, the budget was delivered a record-setting 85 days late, and the year before that — well, suffice to say it is more newsworthy when the $83 billion budget is on time.

This year, the fiscal misery befits Job: a $19 billion deficit, legislative gridlock that has defied even a governor with an action-hero past, that same governor mightily resisting the lame-duck mantle, and an election year that makes compromise — increasingly a four-letter word — harder still. All this while the state comptroller warns that it gets harder to pay bills the more the state pushes past the July 1 start of the fiscal year, just two weeks away.

Mere “human creations,” Ms. Nichols scoffed. “They don’t have to tie us down. There is room for creativity and divine intervention. What is inspiration? It draws on the other power we have.”

Representatives of the five mortals at the table said they would take whatever help they could get.

“This is going to be a tough budget,” said Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, “so we appreciate the support.”
A version of this article appeared in print on June 17, 2010, on page A15 of the New York edition.

The Capitol Weekly ran a photo of the collected ministers (including yours truly). Click here and scroll to page 3 of the June 24, 2010 issue to see it. I can copy the picture but can't figure out a way to put it here.

Ed Howard's Speech Is Already Making a Difference

I'd really like you to take a moment to watch my friend Ed Howard's speech on to the PTA on foster youth. Beyond being an extraordinarily powerful and moving speech it's already generated enormous interest and is moving people to make a difference in the lives of foster youths in their communities, particularly as they "age out" of the system at 18. Let me know what you think. It seems to me that if every one of our communities sponsored one of these kids, there are such a small number, we could really make a difference in their lives

PTA Speech from Children's Advocacy Institute on Vimeo.