Wednesday Evening Service

  There are a number of ways we can find our way home to Spirit, many which we've explored in our Wednesday Evening Services this month.  Hospitality is one of the best ways I've found to feel at home in Spirit. In fact, I consider helping others feel welcome to be its own spiritual practice. And it's a powerful one.  Cultivating a heart of hospitality can make others feel at home no matter where they are. It also has the added benefit of helping the welcomer feel at home, too, because it's a way we share that feeling of home that's already within our heart. This is what we'll explore in our upcoming Wednesday Evening Service, 7 pm at the Center. Join us for music, freshly baked bread and other goodies, and of course, that feeling of coming home to Spirit.  See you at the service! -Russ

Wednesday, August 12 • 7 PM With Rev. Siota Belle What can happen when we meet life with a little more compassion? Maybe we pause and listen before jumping to conclusions. We stop needing to be right all the time. We let someone express themselves without trying to fix them. And hopefully, we extend that same grace to ourselves. It’s easy to be compassionate with people we agree with. But when we’re pushed: with the family member who sees the world completely differently, the colleague who drives us up the wall, or the parts of ourselves we’d rather ignore. That’s when compassion stops being a nice feeling and becomes an active practice. Join Rev. Siota Belle this Wednesday for Compassion: Coming Home to Spirit . We’ll take an honest look at what living with more compassion actually looks like in practice, and what it might open up in your own life. Event Details When: Wednesday, August 12 at 7 PM Where: Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa (2075 Occidental Road)

Peace rarely arrives as a single grand event. More my be built from small choices we make in how we listen, how we speak, and how we hold space for one another. This July, five voices from our community offer their own way into that practice, each bringing a different instrument to the symphony. We open the month with Discovering Your Peaceful Voice on July 1, with Dr. Edward Viljoen. Some obstacles to peaceful communication hide in plain sight, disguised as ordinary habits. This talk traces one path toward noticing them, and toward the voice that waits underneath. On July 8, Rev. Siota Belle leads us into Drumming To a Different Beat . There's a rhythm to peace that doesn't always match the pace the world moves at. This gathering explores what it means to find our own tempo, and to trust it even when it differs from the beat around us. July 15 brings Practicing Your Peace with Rev. Russ Legear. Peace as an idea can sound lovely. Peace as a daily practice asks something mo...

Have you ever walked away from a conversation wishing you could have those last five minutes back? Something small happened. A sentence was interrupted. An opinion arrived too quickly. A well-intentioned suggestion given before understanding had a chance to grow. Most of us don't set out to communicate that way. Yet it slips in. Peaceful communication might begin earlier than the words we choose. It might start in the space before we speak. This evening we'll explore a simple shift that has changed the way I listen, respond, and connect with others. It starts with something ordinary, something so familiar it often goes unnoticed. Yet it holds the power to change the quality of conversations at home, at work, and within ourselves. If you've been longing for a little more ease in your relationships, or a quieter way of moving through the world, this evening's gathering may offer something worthwhile. We'll also enjoy fresh baked bread, tea, beautiful music, and the wa...

Summer at the Center is moving. Two more Wednesdays in June bring us close to the heart of what this season holds, and July opens a theme that will carry us all the way to August. Finishing June On June 17, Lawrence Edwards, RScP, leads us into one of the most honest questions a person can ask: What Do I Do With the Mad That I Feel? Anger is rarely welcomed in spiritual community, yet it asks to be met thoughtfully. Lawrence brings his practitioner's sensibility to a feeling that deserves more than suppression. This is also our special Summer Solstice / Juneteenth Potluck, so come early, bring something to share, and stay for community. On June 24, Rev. Siota Belle offers The Gifts of Grief. Grief does not only arrive with loss. It also arrives with change, with love, with transition. Siota's gift is creating space where the full range of feeling is welcomed. July: How To Be An Instrument for Peace July's series takes its inspiration from a question worth sitting with: what...

  Emotions are a big part of being human. They're with us before we can even speak. Their power is that they can communicate in ways that often transcend words. There's no ambiguity in the joyful smile of a baby, nor in the tears that often accompany sadness and loss.  This is the idea we are going to explore in June: that when we build a strong, compassionate relationship with all of our emotions, we deepen our experience of life and equip ourselves to walk confidently along life's path. And the best part is that when we learn to love all our emotions, we can learn how to direct them as fuel to accelerate our spiritual practice.  Join me at 7 pm at the Center tonight. We're going to get emotional! -Russ