Universal Life Church

Contemplation
A commentary…

When we think about something, we are contemplating. Contemplating what to do next, what would be best, what course to follow. 

Contemplation is a most useful skill to develop--as we usually make the wisest choices from forethought.

Before I go to sleep each night, I spend some time reviewing what happened that day, and how I wish to proceed on the issues for the next day. Contemplation is a way to mentally houseclean the day's activities--and prepares the space in thought, for tomorrow's unseen situations.

We can also contemplate on qualities we wish to develop in ourselves. By assessing the pros and cons about a quality, we can determine if it will uplift our lives through making us a better person, Because, as we grow in consciousness, we become more conscious of the greater plan for our life in the world. We attain a more universal overview of life.

Contemplation serves as a clearing house in our mind. We bring out a situation for review, process it, and then pass it on into usefulness or discard it as unusable for us. Or maybe send it back into our memory storage to be brought forward at another time. 

Contemplation also buys us time to think over and digest new ideas that may come from outside sources--other people or the media. 

Contemplation gives us the time to allow a good solution to come to mind. If we are in a hurry or pressured to make a decision quickly, we might not instantly come up with the most useful answer. But if we instead say--I'll think that over and let you know later--tomorrow or next week or whatever future date we choose, then our mind will have time to digest, mull over the situation, and come up with the most workable solution.

As we contemplate we can take notes on ideas that come to mind. Writing down my ideas while contemplating helps me evaluate the best course to follow. I look over my notes and decide the pros and cons of each idea before making an important decision.

As we progress in upgrading our consciousness through sticking to the virtues and truths we have decided to follow, we will more quickly be able to make the best decision when called upon to decide spontaneously.

As we upgrade our consciousness

our conscious decisions become more spontaneously

for the best

Time spent in contemplation

uses our mind optimally

Stirs our thoughts and sifts out the dross

Leaving just the right answer for us

each time

 1999 Susan Kramer

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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.

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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I fixed the Forum!!  I think it was a re-direct problem, but it should be okay now.  Check it out and let me know if there are any further problems. Sorry about that! --Amy ******************************* The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive and affordable online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, a beginning course on  Wicca, as well as a beginning course on  Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is a free and lifetime ordination, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. We also make available many free wedding ceremonies for your use, as well as funeral ceremonies and other types of ceremonies.   The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program where you can earn the coveted title of Chaplain. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church materials to help you with your professionalism and confidence.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and an amazed by the frequent upgrades and new functions of the seminary.   Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Universal Life Church

	This is the ULC Seminary Newsletter Announcement. To unsubscribe, click the link on the bottom of the page. "Doing That Which is Right"
		Happy Holidays! (Consider that all-inclusive) Hello! Thanksgiving is done and the shopping season has begun! Ugh. . AFFILIATE PROGRAM - I launched the affiliate program last month and so far so good. I still have some details to work out, so those of you who have signed up, you may not have gotten an email confirming it yet, but you are accepted. Please go check out the banners you can put on your site. The ULC Seminary is now offering an affiliate program! The link is: http://www.ulcseminary.org/idevaffiliate/. It's brand new, so more things will be added as I go, and there may be a few bugs, but I think it's ready to rock and roll right now. It's free to join You get a $10 bonus just for signing up. You earn money with every sale that comes through your link. You can track the link 24/7 to check on sales and traffic. You will get paid monthly. If you send me the pages that you have the banner on, I will help promote them through the search engines, which will help increase your sales. You can use any or all of the links on your website. I currently have several banners and some text links. You can choose which banner (s) you like, depending on what products you want to market. Each banner takes you to a separate category in the store that sells only those items. I am, of course, open to suggestions for improvement. The page it's on, currently, doesn't have the framework of the rest of the site because I haven't figured out how to do that yet, but I will learn more as time goes on. Once you sign up, there are a bunch of videos to help you get going. It's good stuff. Try it out and let me know what you think! I could use some people to beta-test it, so sign up and put in an order and you'll at least get a percentage off of your own order. I'm still checking to make sure everything tracks, so when you make an order, let me know and I'll go in and track it to be sure you get paid. I asked someone to beta test it, but he used the 'check or money order' option and I won't know how that tracks until the payment happens. So please try the credit card or paypal and I can track it and make sure it all works. GIANT SALE - I'm putting the Spirit Quest course on sale again for the month of December. It's $55 for this 8-month course. That's a $20 savings. http://www.ulcseminary.org/store/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=105 LATEST LESSONS - This last month flew by. Feels like all I did was work. What happened to the relaxing November and December from years before, when it was time to slow down, putter around the house, wrap presents, etc? No cookie-baking for me, I'm afraid. I haven't had time to do much of anything. I've been working on lots of things for the seminary. I've been updating all of the blogs, making sure they are all set up and linked correctly. That has been enourmously time-consuming. I've also been working throughout the internet to promote the Seminary. So mostly, I'm trying to mentally relax and just let things be. I had an overwhelming desire to tell someone 'close' to me what I thought of her, so I wrote a very clear email in that regard, then didn't send it. Won't do any good. I guess the trick to figure out what matters and what are pearls before swine. The other thing that comes up with the holidays is dealing with custody issues. For those of you who have children with someone you're no long with, you know what I mean. Either it's the stress of the back and forth, the stress that one parent isn't around for the kids, or the stress that the parent is technically there, but the kids don't want to go there. Not the ideal Christmas plan. Ah well, it's all an opportunity to grow, however uncomfortable the process may be. EVENT DIRECTORY - The event directly has been getting a lot of use. It's a great place to list all of the weddings, funerals and other events that you are doing as a minister. http://www.ulcseminary.org/eventdirectory.php Go to this page and you can input any and all of your weddings, funerals, handfastings, baby blessings/namings, etc. It will be recorded in our database for future reference. It won't be visible, but it can be retrieved if you ask. Check it out and let me know what you think. NEW COURSES - Too many things have come up recently for me to be able to commit to getting the new courses ready. It'll be a little longer until I get that going. ADDING ORDINATION OPTION TO YOUR OWN SITE - Another thing you can add to your own site, along with the affiliate program, is the ability to ordain others through your site. I've created a form that you can copy and paste into the body of a page of your website and your visitors can ordain themselves using YOUR website. It's something great you can offer people at no cost and little effort for you. I put the code at http://www.ulcseminary.org/ordinationform.php You can put it in a column, like I did at http://www.ulcceremonies.com or you can put it on its own page. I think it is a great way to spread the word of ULC and you're giving people the convenience of doing it right from your own site. There are also instructions to add a line to the code (cut and paste) so you will be notified whenever someone is ordained through your site. If you put the form on your site, send me a link and I'll check it out. :) Let me know if you have any problems and I can try to help. Please run a test on it to be sure it works properly. SPAM - INLCUDE A SUBJECT LINE PLEASE - The latest spam thing going out is to get emails from familiar addresses, but with no subject line. What that means is that if an email doesn't have a subject line, it will be deleted without being read. I'm sure I'm missing a few real ones that way, but to open all of them is very time-consuming, so please include a descriptive subject. If you're new to the Seminary, check out announcements from previous months at http://www.ulcseminary.org/announcements.php Warmly, Rev. Amy Long President of ULC Seminary Visit Our Website ULC Seminary http://www.ulcseminary.org 4714 Careyback Ave. Elk Grove, CA 95758 916-690-1682
		******************************* The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive and affordable online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, a beginning course on  Wicca, as well as a beginning course on  Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is a free and lifetime ordination, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. We also make available many free wedding ceremonies for your use, as well as funeral ceremonies and other types of ceremonies.   The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program where you can earn the coveted title of Chaplain. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church materials to help you with your professionalism and confidence.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and an amazed by the frequent upgrades and new functions of the seminary.   Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar