Terry Drew Karanen's Blog (60)

            The fundamental foundation of my belief system relies on a personal faith through affirmative prayer. This simple technique changes my attitude about conditions and how they can impact my emotions. Just knowing what I want will change my experience. This same belief gives me the confidence to know that regardless of the problem, situation, challenge or opportunity before me, the outcome will be perfect for me.

            In theory, as stated above, that sounds just…

            “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is ingrained in our American culture. What makes you happy? Is it the same things that made your parents happy? Do things that made you happy in the past seem to have lost their luster?

            What makes us happy is a lot like marriages when you think about it. I frequently tell couples in counseling sessions that marriage doesn’t work. Never has. Never will. Period. Why? Because marriage is not an entity, it’s a…

There is so much happening in the world today, or at least that’s what we are told by the media. I would suggest to you that there isn’t anything more happening today than there was last week, last year or a hundred years ago. The Internet has provided the means to inform us of far more than our brains are capable of comprehending. We have allowed ourselves to become inundated with pieces of trivia along with information that might actually be vital for our survival. The trivia almost always…

I’ve never been into video games much, unless you count “Pong” (yes, I AM that old) or the original “Pac Man” (ditto on the age thing). I have been known to download a game app or two to my smart phone or tablet. It’s a great way to pass the time when I’m stuck somewhere. It was recently pointed out to me that I really don’t need to work constantly. My game aps are a means for me to do something that is relaxing, completely selfish and enjoyable!

I currently have 14 games…

I’m moved this week to write once again about faith. For my atheist and agnostic readers, stick around. This isn’t just going to be about God. It’s going to be about what we expect out of life. It’s about changing our thinking so that when we say, “I just knew it!” it will be an exclamation of joy for some wonderful event happening, and not a reminder that someone predicted gloom and doom.

Not long ago I met a couple who are complete atheists. They announced this to me while…

What’s Possible?

It’s easy to get bogged down in details. In fact, just fretting over how we will achieve a goal can be a stumbling block to success.  With an uncertain job situation it’s hard to figure out how we can afford to pay all our bills, let alone consider taking a luxury vacation. The same is true for our relationships. The single parent may feel he’s unable to date. A person in a city can often feel even more alone than someone living in a rural area. Finding a mate,…

As many of you know, I end my blog and most of my correspondence with “In Spirit, Truth and Playfulness.” This week I’m going to be a little heavy on the Truth and Spirit part. Some stuff has come up for a number of people in my life and there’s a difficult subject I need to write about.

For some friends and colleagues recent events have revolved around the need to know “why.” There are a number of situations that can come into our life. We are left in a state of confusion,…

Emma Curtis Hopkins once wrote that “order is heaven’s first law.” If the spiritual realm is perfection, and that perfection is reflected in our human experience, then why do our lives look more like a supernova at times instead of harmonious cooperation?

The quick and easy answer is that what looks like chaos can actually be order in motion. A hurricane, for example, is a very orderly and predictable phenomenon. Meteorologists can now use complex computer models to very…

             It is said that what we resist persists. The implication is that if we want to get rid of the problem we need to stop fighting against it so hard. But it can also sound like not resisting is tantamount to rolling over and giving up, which gets our ego in a total tizzy. Surrendering our ego doesn’t have to mean giving up either our values or our character.

            Adopting an attitude of acceptance about a person, situation or philosophy is possible without discarding…

            No, that’s not a typo in the title. It was a typo when I was writing an email to my prayer partner this morning and then it hit me:  The situation about which I was writing was a “consciousmess!”

            In both Unity and Science of Mind we teach that the Universe is abundant. But even those of us who have studied these New Thought philosophies for years can fall back into a fear and overall attitude of lack if we allow ourselves to do so. Ernest Holmes…

            It’s easy to look around, see what really needs doing (sorry for any of you not local – that’s a pretty basic central PA idiomatic expression), and then start complaining because “someone” isn’t doing anything. It can be our partner/spouse, our kids, our parents, the school district or the government. It doesn’t matter who. “Someone” should DO something.

            We have a decent-sized house that takes constant upkeep with three adults, three cats and nearly two acres…

            As a licensed social worker in clinical practice I’m familiar with the term “anticipatory grief.” As a son who was his father’s caregiver over the past three years, including two years of hospice care, I can appreciate this on a very personal level. Week after week of wondering when my father was going to make his transition took its toll on me physically and emotionally.

            Yet none of my worry, concern and anticipation of his passing helped me one bit in dealing…

It’s been said that the very young and the very old are brutally honest. Young children haven’t yet come to understand the concept of politeness in society. The very elderly, quite frankly, just don’t care sometimes. They believe they’ve earned the right to speak their minds without necessarily caring how it is received. The nearer I get to 60 the more that seems perfectly logical to me.

I decided a long time ago not to wait until I was in my 90s to start speaking my mind. I…

It’s been said that the very young and the very old are brutally honest. Young children haven’t yet come to understand the concept of politeness in society. The very elderly, quite frankly, just don’t care sometimes. They believe they’ve earned the right to speak their minds without necessarily caring how it is received. The nearer I get to 60 the more that seems perfectly logical to me.

I decided a long time ago not to wait until I was in my 90s to start speaking my mind. I…

Ministers are unapologetic about borrowing ideas from one another in an effort to serve their congregations. The title of my blog this week is blatantly copied from my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Arleen Bump. It was also the title of her talk last Sunday at her center in Fort Lauderdale.

Dr. Arleen’s talk was about letting go. To move forward in life we must live in the present while focusing on the future. I remember on Wednesday evening many years ago in Glendale,…

My body decided I needed to rest two weeks ago and I was in bed with the flu for the good part of a day. Apparently I didn’t bother listening to my body because I spent another day this week in bed with bronchitis due to fatigue. With all I have to do this week for the holidays I was lying there thinking, “WTF?!?”

Now, before you start hyperventilating, you DO know what that means in the metaphysical world in which I live, don’t you? Actually, it has two meanings, neither of…

Have you ever thought about how many issues, events, problems – even wars! – are created for us by others? In the past week we’ve had Grey Thursday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The results of these made-up days of shopping will be analyzed, scrutinized and victimized as the news media, Wall Street and politicians decide the happiness and security of the next month – or perhaps the coming year! – based on how much we spent.

Seriously? Do you realize that there have been…

Another holiday is upon us when society expects we will act a certain way and experience an approved of emotional response. In a world where everyone is a unique expression of God this expectation is a recipe for disappointment.

None of us experience events exactly the same way. That statement is a given for any of us sharing a Thanksgiving feast with family we’ve not seen in a while. What looks like a wonderful afternoon to us might be a chore to endure for…

I tried to sign into my Facebook account just now and received the response:

Account Temporarily Unavailable

Your account is currently unavailable due to a site issue.

We expect this to be resolved shortly. Please try again in a few minutes.

I thought to myself how very appropriate that my Facebook account is reflecting my mood. We know metaphysically that our outer experience reflects our…