Rev. Cath DePalma - Today is the Day!

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This is the transcript of a talk given at Center for Spiritual Living Prescott on July 30, 2023 by Rev. Cath DePalma.

You can also experience this talk by watching the video or listening to it on our podcast, Love Spoken Here.

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Good morning! What a great morning we have here. Oh wow, today is the day. Today is the day.

So, I got to see online your weekend, last weekend, your Sunday. I couldn't see the whole thing, but that was quite a Sunday you had with Reverend Tracey. I could feel the energy over all the way into Seattle, so I'm sure it went even farther than that.

But you know, you created that. That powerful weekend that you had with her, you created that. Everyone played a part in the creation of that. Oh, powerful creators that you are! Give yourselves a hand.

Well, you know, “Today's the Day” started out as a joke. Many years ago when my husband John and I were expecting a child. So it's very apropos that you mentioned the birth thing because really what's been going on with The Center is a birth thing.

But anyway, we used to joke around about, you know, today's the day, you know, today's the day that he's coming. We didn't know he was he— I don't think we wanted to know at that point. But we would say, “Today is the day” and I think it was because John was a first time father at the age of 46, so I think he was preparing himself.

Anyway, we kind of laughed about it until one day I walked out of the bedroom and I was not laughing, and I had a very hard time spitting out those words. Three-and-a-half hours later, Joseph was born. So yes, today's the day. We do play around with that still to this day, even with other things.

So today is the day, trying to wake up to the day.

So I'm doing this meditation series by Deepak Chopra. I really love him. He's just doing some wonderful work and this one is shedding the weight, mind, body and spirit. In it, he says every brain cell in our body—all 100 billion of them—are fully present in the moment. All 100 billion in our brains, every cell of them is present in the moment. So what does that mean?

Well, think about it. We wouldn't be here if they were not fully present. It's not that they're just there, they have to be fully present to what is going on. They have to be in on what's happening with us. They have a job to do to keep us alive. All systems are a go and depend on them, all the functions of our body could not take place without them being fully present in the now moment, responsive to our needs. What a miracle that is. And yet it's such a natural, and it is evidence of this Infinite Intelligence that created us and what It can do. This is just only a small little thing of what It can do.

So the point of mentioning that is, is now, the now moment, is where it's at. It's where everything happens, where the magic happens, you know where the juices, where like the life forces, where our essence resides, where our higher self, if you want to say it that way, resides. That is all present. And sometimes, where are we? Sometimes where are we? We're off somewhere else.

You know, we go on these beautiful walks. There's so much nature where we live. And, you know Nature gets it. The bees have been on the lavender—oh my gosh, they know where the feast is! They're enjoying themselves. So what gets in the way of us living with this, living on, and and being in this place?

Well, what gets in our way is when we focus on our attention on the past. Anyone ever do that or is it just me? Just me; okay, I'll skip over that one. Anybody ever get caught up in their old story? It's easy to do, even though we know better. Anyone believe that is the only story? Or believe that you know that's who we are?

So whenever we move out of alignment with those 100 billion brain cells and out of alignment with life and how it works, whenever we move out of alignment, then we get into all sorts of trouble, don't we? Just just lots of things. Nothing, nothing's happening. Fretting about the future is another one. We all are familiar with these, so we're not going to spend much time here.

So what helps us get back on track? Well, our spiritual practices. And those look very, very different from one person to another. You know, long ago I used to think, oh yes, everyone has to do it this way because this way is working for me. And then I learned that whether you're aware of it or not, everyone has some little practice—maybe they need to elaborate on it a little more, or maybe they need to change it up a little bit more, or center in on it more. But everybody has something they do that kind of calms them and brings them to the day, you know, brings them in. So that's what we want to do. Spiritual mind treatment.

What is the purpose of spiritual mind treatment? The purpose of spiritual mind treatment is to get our heads on straight, to focus, to be able to think straight, to be able to know the truth, to be able to remember who we are.

Who are we? What are we? We're eternal beings. We're invincible beings, here to have a good time. Who's having a good time? Good, good answer. I can't stress this enough that in the now moment, the now moment is our power to create alongside the Universe, alongside the Creator of Worlds. And whether you know it or not, that's what you as a community have done, with your sacred covenant and all the work that you've been doing. You've been working alongside the Universe, the Infinite, this Infinite Intelligence, to bring about what is. So this now moment is where the action is. It's not later when we leave these doors. It didn't happen before we entered—it was happening at those times, it'll happen again—but right now, is where it's at. This is where creation is happening; in this sacred space, creation is happening. Are we present enough to enjoy it? You know, we have to, you know, keep calling ourselves back into the room from our To Do list or what we have to do later or any of those other things that are calling us because we have them, you know, but we have to enjoy the moment.

So there's a great little story about Marilyn Monroe. Some of you might have heard it. She's walking down the street one day and nobody recognizes her. And in her day you would recognize her. I googled her because I wanted to know how to describe her and they said that she was the most popular sex symbol in the 50s. Now this is how we've come a long way in how we talk about women, praise God! But she was considered a sex symbol and you would have known her if she was walking down the street. So a person asked her, “Well, how can that be? How could they not recognize? No one recognized who you are?” And she said, “I hadn't turned her on yet.” “I hadn't turned her on yet.” That wasn't the real her. Who knew what the real her was? I think there's a movie out kind of telling more about who she really is, but, you know, she hadn't turned her on yet, and I think we can use that concept.

We do kind of turn on to a public image. You know, we're something different at our homes. We're different when we're alone. We're different when we're with our family members and then we're in public, we're different.

But I'm talking about a switch here that goes deeper. It's one that we have to turn on and that's we have to turn our consciousness on. We have to get ourselves to that place where we're, you know, we're awake. Sometimes we don't want to be awake. Sometimes we don't want to face the day. Sometimes we don't want to face our problems. You know, that happens too.

But we can really tell when the switch is on and we know when we're off right. Sometimes we can see it in each other. We might say,”Wow, she's really off today.” Or, “She's really on today.” Or we might say to the person, if we can say this to them, “You're really not yourself today,” or “You're really, you're really on today.” Right, we've said we've said those kinds of things?

So that's what we're talking about when we have that “on” switch. That higher self, we know ourselves, we know ourselves as spiritual beings, as those invisible spirits. We take our power back; things just flow.

Reverend Tracey talked a little bit about that, her spiritual self versus her small “I” self last week. So when we're living in the present moment, fully engaged, giving ourselves our best love and attention, and giving all those around us our best love and attention, we rock. Energy abounds. You know, we're magnets for good. Just, you know, good just keeps coming to us.

You know, when we talk about a magnetic personality, it's because the attraction factor is on, because we turned it on, the person turned it on. So that's why I always say, “God, You're on.” So, God's in the room, you are on. Goddesses in the room, you are on! You know, it's a simple thing to just kind of remember, It's always there, It's always available to us. We just have to remember It before we go into the room with, you know, maybe a difficult conversation that needs to be had or something that we have to, you know, tell our kids or, you know, whatever it is, or just even our day. We have to remind ourselves that God is on today. Oh, goodie! I know that sounds so, so simple.

But how we show up every day makes a difference to the world. We don't know that we're making a difference to the world with everything that we do. No matter how we feel or what we're experiencing, we are the very power and presence of Spirit. We’re the very power and presence of Spirit as us, and knowing that changes everything. It changes everything.

So, while today IS the day, every day is The Day. Every day is the day—to the degree that we show up alive, awake, enthusiastic, ready to go, to what is. Every day.

So, today is the day for your big vote. That's huge. We've waited for this a long time. I didn't know I was going to be spending this much time with you either! But I have to say it's been a very, very good thing.

We made lists of things that have been accomplished yesterday with the leadership, the lists and lists and lists of things that have been accomplished. And, I can say most of all, everyone has gone deeper within themselves. They've gone deeper within themselves, so you're not the same people. I'm not the same person either that I was when we started. You're not the same person that you were when we started. So much good. We've been on a path and Spirit has been doing some really good work in and through and as us.

So, we are having a moment today, bringing our best love and attention to this situation and to this vote, to each other, and that's going to take us into a whole new story. So are you ready?! Okay, so it's kind of wrapping this up so you can make your vote.

I ran across this quote by Vernon Howard, who remembers Vernon Howard?... goes way back. Yes, and he wrote this in this book called “Psychopath Topography.” Yeah, it's old. And he says, “Remember this: The truth when it arrives, is always different from what we thought it would be. If we imagine that we already know the truth, that imagination is based on old and habitual ideas. But the truth is always something entirely new to the mind. Therefore, we cannot know what a new day is like before we experience it. We cannot think accurately about a new truth until we first live it.”

Good stuff, huh? The truth has arrived. And it is different. And praise God for that, right? We don't want the same old, same old. We've done that already. We want something new and different. Something that will excite us. Something that will get us out of bed in the morning.

So we have done some excellent work and the truth is that your beautiful demonstration of a minister that represents love, wholeness, and joy—which were the three qualities in the Sacred Covenant— Love, Wholeness, and Joy. That minister has appeared and you know when the conditions are right, just like when Joseph came in, when the conditions are right, things happen very fast. They are upon us.

So, now it's time for you to take the next step. And we don't know what the future looks like. We don't know how this is going to play out. We do know that it can only be more wonderful than ever before. How do I know that? Because that is how life works. It works. It's designed to get better and better and better, to free us up and bring us more joy than ever before.

I must say that you know, I again, I am very happy to be with you. You'll see a little bit more of me. I will be coming back in September. I will be helping with the transition of the new minister in and I will miss you all very, very much. I will. I will. And, you'll always be in my heart.

I ran across this beautiful poem by Kahlil Gibran on fear. This is what he says: “It is said that before entering the sea, a river trembles with fear. She looks back at the path she has traveled from the peaks of the mountains. the long, winding road crossing forests and villages. And in front of her, she sees an ocean so vast. That to enter there seems nothing more than to disappear forever. But there is no other way. There is the river cannot go back. No one can go back. To go back is impossible in existence. The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean. Because only then will fear disappear. Because that's where the river will know it's not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.”

Becoming the ocean… So today is the day, the moment is now. So let's know this together, that we do have the courage to move forward, that we are invincible spirits. There is much more to us than meets the eye. That we are immersed in this Principle, this Divine and Perfect Love, this Infinite Intelligence, this Universal God Mind is working with us. And while the future will require even more of us, it will also bring us greater joy, greater freedom, and greater love. And so we are the ones to take this to the next level and the next step to open the new door, because we are ready. We have been well prepared and we are ready. And, for this, we give thanks. Thank You, Spirit. Thank You, God. Thank You, Universe. And please say together with me, “And so it is.”

Thank you. Today's the day!