The reading this morning is a quote from Hellen Keller:

“I have for many years endeavored to make this vital truth clear; and still people marvel when I tell them I am happy.

They imagine that my limitations weigh heavily upon my spirit, and chain me to the rock of despair. Yet, it seems to me, happiness has very little to do with the senses.

If we make up our minds that this is a drab and purposeless universe, it will be that, and nothing else. On the other hand, if we believe that the earth is ours, and that the sun and moon hang in the sky for our delight, there will be joy upon the hills of gladness in the fields because the Artist in our souls glorifies creation.

Surely, it gives dignity to live to believe that we are born into this world for noble ends, and that we have a higher destiny that can be accomplished within the narrow limits of this physical life.”

I think you have all heard the story of how I told Glenn and Heather I would never do a talk. They had been telling us in class that we all have gifts that we don’t know about yet and at that point I didn’t know I had the ability to write talks and then one day I had an epiphany and wrote my story on how I discovered spiritualism.

I felt compelled to take out that talk and dust it off because I think my story on how I found spiritualism is slightly different than most of you. 

In my life I have always strived to be a good person. I like to do nice things for others so they feel special and loved. It makes me feel so good when I know I may have made someone’s day just a little bit brighter. I try and help people as much as possible, sometimes to my own detriment because I take care of everyone else first. I’m still working on getting that balance right.

The sixth principle is: Actions create results according to natural law.

I think this principle has guided me to change my life since I started coming to church and classes but I will get to that story a little later.

The Spiritualist Church of Canada states the: Natural Law is a code of God’s laws manifested through infinite wisdom and harmony. They ensure that Divine Order prevails. These natural laws are immutable and constant, applying to everything and everyone without exception in both the spiritual and physical worlds.

Natural Laws can be seen as truth in action and have existed since the beginning of time. Other names for these laws are Universal Laws or Divine Order.

Most of you know I was diagnosed with Melanoma Skin Cancer about 8 years ago and I underwent the only type of treatment for that type of cancer at the time which was Interferon. Being on Interferon made me feel like I had the flu 24/7. I found out recently that they don’t do this treatment anymore for Melanoma and have found alternate treatments but that is beside the fact.

Most days I kept very positive about it and found that the side effects of the treatment weren’t really bad. On the other hand, the days I had negative thoughts about the treatment my side effects tended to be a lot worse.

Positive thoughts brought positive results. My actions to stay positive during my treatments helped me get through it. It wasn’t always easy to stay positive all the time during treatment. Especially on those days that I felt so sick I couldn’t even get off the couch. Thankfully there weren’t too many of those days. I had to remind myself that I decided to go through this treatment so if it were to come back that I knew I had done everything I could to prevent it.

I never realized how much a negative outlook on life affects your health and well-being until I started to come to this church.

As some of you may be aware, my husband and Glenn worked together for a long time before Glenn retired. Glenn was doing a talk at a service at another church before they opened this church and asked if Clint and I would come and support him.

We walked into that church and I seemed to have a peace come over me, a feeling of belonging. I received a message that evening. The message bearer was a person I had never met before and he knew nothing of me. He was able to tell me that I was going on a trip – which I was. I also had a bit of a sore throat that night and he asked me if there was something wrong with my throat. He suggested maybe getting it looked at. I went to the doctor later that week and found out that I had strep throat.

Glenn and Heather invited us to another service to celebrate them being ordained as ministers in the Spiritualist Church. Again, we went to support them and I had those same feelings of peace and belonging.

When Glenn and Heather started this church, they invited us to come to the first service and of course we went to support them. I felt a real connection with spiritualism that day. I decided that I needed to continue to go to the church to see if it was the right fit for me. I loved the thought that Spirit was always with us helping us through our day. I think sometimes Penny May gives me little reminders that she is there so that I remember to call on my guides for help.

I started classes with Glenn and Heather the next year to learn more about spiritualism. I was still apprehensive about it since I grew up in a Christian household that went to church every Sunday. I was very involved in the church activities. I sang in the children’s choirs when I was young and then joined the adult choir when I was old enough. I sang in a praise and worship band that was responsible for the music on the Sunday’s that we were singing. I was a youth group leader and I also taught Sunday School for a few sessions but I never felt I truly belonged there.

I was the last of my siblings to leave the church we grew up in. I always felt I would disappoint my Mom if I didn’t keep going to that church but I felt I needed to explore Spiritualism for me to see if that was the path I was supposed to take.

Trusting my guides didn’t come easy for me. Back in those early years of learning about Spiritualism I had guides that basically gave me a slap on the wrist and told me that I am in the right place and I can do things. I found out they may not give you what you ask for but they will give you what you need.

I had to test my guides in those early years. I had to prove they were around in little ways. When I was going to cancercare so often the year I was in treatment and parking was always at a premium there I would ask my Joy Child – Penny May – to help me get a decent parking spot so I didn’t have to walk too far. Every time I remembered to send her ahead I would get a good spot. The day I forgot to send her ahead I had to park a good couple of blocks away. That helped me to trust my guides.

If it weren’t for Spirit I wouldn’t have found the church and I wouldn’t have truly understood how actions create results according to natural law. My year of cancer treatment could have gone way different in the negative direction.

Turning your thoughts from negative to positive can be a challenge but in the end, it is so worth the extra effort. You will feel so much lighter and happier when you put a positive spin on something. The more positive energy you put out into the world the more positive energy comes back to you. Life is so much better and easier when there is positivity in it.

Like the 6^th principal states: Actions create results according to natural law. I think my experiences in the church have proven this to me tenfold.

I feel so blessed to be part of this church family.

Thank you.

Good morning everyone!  Our reading for today is taken from the Spiritualist Church of Canada principles.  We acknowledge…

Principle 2.  Unity and Equality of All.

Principle 3.  Communication, Guidance and Healing from Spirit and Angels.

While preparing today’s message, I had many thoughts and stories rambling through my head.  My oldest son, Braden, now in the spirit world, helped me prepare today’s message along with my spirit guides.  Teachings from the Joseph Communications have also been enriching my spiritual understanding and help to color the picture I present here today.  For those of you who don’t know, the Joseph Communications are a series of channeled books that deal with the realities beyond this early plane.

As most of you know, my oldest son, Braden left his physical body back on August 29, 2015 related to a traffic accident in Vietnam.  At that time, I was not actively involved with the Spiritualist church and his physical death was definitely a shock to me, my family and our community.  Although I believed in my heart that life continued “beyond the veil”, I did not know what that looked like or how connection would continue between my son and me.  Although I had experienced the deaths of older relatives which affected me, I had not previously been so deeply affected by the death of a loved one.

After my son’s accident, our family received many signs and messages that provided us with comfort during our grief.  On September 3, 2015, when I was getting out of our car a very small bird landed right between my feet on the driveway.  A quick touchdown, then it gracefully flew away.  A quick hello for me, a mini miracle, an event I never previously experienced nor experienced again.  

Some days later while watching a Wayne Dyer movie with my husband, I had left the computer on upstairs with Facebook on the screen. I heard the keyboard clicking and commented to my husband. “I hope some Trojan Horse Virus has not high jacked our computer!!!”  Later I went upstairs and found in my Facebook activities that while I was downstairs watching the movie, I had “liked” a post about a mascot at Northern Illinois University, a post I had not seen before and certainly would not have liked!  We chuckled as our son, Braden had always had a gift with electronics and it seemed his gift continued!

Many, many other unusual and inexplicable experiences happened around us over the next weeks and months involving touches, clothing, lights, sounds, birds, flowers, butterflies, cologne and a key chain.

Due to the complexities of our son’s death and bringing his bodily remains back to Canada, the memorial service for Braden did not occur until the evening of September 24, 2015.  Two of my friends were unable to attend as they were attending the Life After Life Conference in Scottsdale Arizona.  When they returned, they had a message for me.  

They told me that on the same evening as the memorial service in Winnipeg, they were in a session with Suzanne Wilson, a renowned medium, when a young man in spirit, Braden, aged 20 years old, came through with a message for his mother.  My friend, Val stood up to receive the message on my behalf.  My snowboarder, skateboarder son in spirit who Suzanne described as a beacon of light for his friends and loved ones, came through with a message for me in Scottsdale, Arizona the same evening he was being commemorated at his memorial service in Winnipeg!  

Then some months later, at a dinner for his 21^st birthday, one of his best friends gave me validation of the medium’s message from Arizona.   He showed me the tattoo he had gotten on his upper arm in memory of Braden… a lighthouse, a beacon of light, with the words, “Find Your Own Way” and two tiny initials, BP.  Braden had always told him “Find Your Own Way, Man.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you what to do or believe.  Find your own way!”  His friend’s words confirmed what we had always known about our son, that he was a strong believer in “Free will.”

The Spiritualists believe that each of us have available spirit guides who once lived on this earthly plane, have left their physical bodies and are continuing their spiritual education and development in higher planes.  

However, we, on this earthly plane, are used to competition, conflict, judgment, war, division, hatred and envy.  We don’t immediately release these mindsets when we leave our physical bodies. Yet as we advance through the spiritual planes, with the support of loving and patient spirit guides, we can choose to let go of the earthly habits and beliefs we brought with us.  Free will continues.  Love, joy, wisdom, compassion and beauty shine forth with ever increasing strength in spirits who choose.

As Spiritualists, we are taught to ask that only the highest and the best spirit guides, helpers and angels under the white Christ light are attracted to us.  We are taught to test these spirits.  We tell them they can stay with us only if they are under the white Christ light.  Our spirit guides have infinite love and infinite patience.  But we have free will. 

We have free will… will we take the time to listen to our guides’ counsel which may just be a faint whisper?  We have free will…will we put our guides’ counsel to our hearts and discern the truth?  We have free will…will we choose to receive the light our spirit guides in the higher planes offer us to light our way?

Our guides are deeply committed to us.  They understand the meaning of unity mentioned in principle 2, that we are all connected.  They have infinite patience and know that when one of us progresses spiritually, we create momentum and a pull for others to progress with us. We are all connected.  

However those who leave their physical bodies continue to have free will about how quickly they will progress in their spiritual journey just as we have free will about how we progress in our spiritual journey while still in our bodies. 

Now going back to Principle 3, the second part of my reading, communication, guidance and healing from spirit and angels.   I want to talk more about love.  Love is a powerful bond.  One of my favorite sayings is that love never dies and crosses all dimensions.  Even when love is complicated by the challenges of living in this earthly plane, love can still shine forth across the dimensions to connect the traveler and the one left behind.

I have one more story to share.  My son, Braden had a long-time girlfriend however they broke up about one year before his accident.                                                

Their relationship had been difficult and although they loved each other, they did not bring out the best in each other. After his death, she went through a difficult time and through our shared grief, she and I reconnected and maintained occasional contact.  She shared about some of her experiences which to me confirmed her ongoing connection to Braden. 

On August 29, 2022, after a couple years without contact with her, I learned Braden’s former girlfriend had almost died on August 29, 2021, after having a watercraft accident.  

She was approximately 150 kilometers from Winnipeg and her sister, a doctor, called for emergency assistance immediately. STARS air ambulance responded and was able to get her to hospital in Winnipeg where she made a miraculous recovery over the following year.  She had not wanted me to know about her accident.  I found out on the one year anniversary of her accident, that same day also being the anniversary of my son’s accident.

On November 18, 2022, I attended a birthday celebration where Braden’s former girlfriend was also a guest. She told me that immediately after her watercraft accident in 2021, she knew her condition was very serious and felt herself slipping into unconsciousness.  She pleaded with God that she not die.  

Then Braden and another of her friends no longer in physical body, came to be with her in her altered state of consciousness.  They told her it was not her time and she would recover from this accident.  

The message she received that day from the spirits of her loved ones who had passed provided her with hope and comfort during the difficult days and months ahead… communications from spirits to one they loved in her darkest time.

While today, I have shared experiences about receiving messages and signs from my son, Braden who is no longer in his physical body, I am not saying these replace the joy I had seeing my son growing on this earth plane.  However, there is comfort for me knowing that he continues to exist and continues to grow in the afterlife… Continuous Existence of the Soul and its Personality.  According to the Joseph Communications, the opportunities for growth are even greater in the spirit world than they are here!!!

I thank you all for being with me today and allowing me to share my story with you.  I also thank my spirit guides, my many teachers, and my son in spirit, Braden for their help with this message.  May God bless you all.