Book | Bonnie Barnard - Part 3

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A Day Surrounded by Dr. Ernest Holmes

Yesterday I had the privilege of being at Founder’s Church. THE Founder’s Church where Dr. Ernest Holmes, founder of Science of Mind, blessed the church at its dedication, ministered in it for four short months and then was the focus of the first memorial service. Dr. Holmes’ writings have been influential to my spiritual growth and unfoldment. Here is a taste of his early writing from Creative Mind and Success (1919): From selfish motives alone, if from no loftier reason, we cannot afford to find fault or to hate or even to hold in mind anything against any living soul. The God who is out of love cannot hear the prayer of the man who is not love. Love and co-operation will yet be found to be the greatest business principle on earth. “God is Love.” I re-read this passage yesterday out of a book signed by Dr. Holmes and it along with several others passages felt as though it entered directly into my bloodstream. Within Founder’s Church...

Until It’s Done: Celebrating a Big Completion

I pinch myself giggling. Close to twenty years of holding an idea and deepening into it, and two years of dedicated writing and rewriting, my book A Year of Go(o)d: Daily Lessons for the Mystic in Training is written, re-written, edited, re-written, published, and now available for sale. Pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch. Giggle, giggle, giggle. I stop, take a big deep breath, send an email to each of my friends, and celebrate this moment. It’s a big deal and I acknowledge it to myself. Until it’s done, was my mantra with this book. First came the idea. I was in a class studying the roots of the New Thought philosophy in the mid-1990s. I read Self Reliance by Emerson and felt like I was known. I read Judge Thomas Troward’s Edinburgh Lectures and had dreams of energy spirals, experiencing expansion and illumination. Then, I got to Emma Curtis Hopkins work and my body tingled, trembled, and experienced a cellular shift which I couldn’t ignore. Many in my class dismissed...

Loving Yourself Meditation

My friend Rhonda emailed the following message: Drop everything. Buy this book: Love Yourself as Though Your Life Depends Upon It, by Kamal Ravikant I went to Amazon, purchased this skinny book, and waited for it to arrive. You see, Rhonda and I have a relationship where we want the best for each other. When we find something good, we share it. So, I knew to click on my Amazon link and make the purchase. And, I did. Last week I placed this book into my book bag and walked down for my morning Starbuck’s experience and sat in my padded chair. With an iced, venti, green tea, no sweetener, in my left hand I opened this book with my right and read it cover-to-cover in less than ten minutes. And I knew the action I was to take. Meditation Mondays in May would be on self love and I would purchase this book for everyone who was to participate. After much brokenness, struggle, and pain,...

Revelation: It’s The Mother

I want to meet Richard Branson. My first step in cultivating the possibility of meeting Sir Richard is reading his biography, Losing My Virginity. This compelling book had me face first into it, gulping it down in parts and savoring it in others. I was with him as I read each paragraph. Then the insight hit me which shifted the way I now see the world. Oh my God, I begin yelling in my empty house, “success comes down to the quality of one’s mother.” Stay with me on this one; it shook me too. I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family. We were a family that would have killed for each other — and we still are. (pg 18) Branson describes his early years in scene-after-scene of family involvement and caring. His words paint the picture of a solid family foundation which he could always count on. As he becomes older and begins to take risks growing ideas into...

And A New Year, It Is

I have been fascinated with the idea of “new” this year. “New,” of course, means it hasn’t been before. I’m reading Billionaire Richard Branson‘s autobiography and aware he names his companies “Virgin,” as for him, each company and its concept for him is “new.” It is outside of the known. It is beyond what is present preceding this moment. The idea hasn’t yet taken form. 2013 is a time in history which hasn’t yet been. And, within this year I can experience newness by becoming new and courting The New. I can decide the way I will approach life. Will I choose to be a victim, complain, and judge? Or, will I choose to live from my Highest knowing of Spirit? Will I contribute my gifts, skills and talents to Life? And, in what forms? And, to whom? Do I dare to be the Authentic Bonnie as more and more of me is revealed to me? I say YES to entering into my own new experience of me....

Finally!! A Guide to Loving Myself

Last week I met with author Christine Arylo, author of Madly in Love with Me. She committed to learning how to love herself, and once she did the internal heavy lifting, wrote a guide book to lead individuals from loathing to love. It is a thorough piece of work offered to readers in a fun, inner-active format. I couldn’t wait to interview her for the blog. Enjoy!!! Rev. Bonnie: What motivated you to go on the journey of self-love? Christine: For example, while my high self-esteem helped me excel in school, climb the corporate ladder and show up confidently and strong, my lack of self-compassion led me to be really hard on myself. No matter how much I did or achieved, it was never good enough. My weak self-pleasure meant that I worked really hard but never stopped to enjoy or take in what I had actually accomplished. My lack of self-honor, led me to stay in the wrong relationship for 14 years and almost give up my dreams to...