I ran across one of those old fortune-telling machines in an antique store in New Orleans. More than 100 years old, it proudly sat near the entrance of the store. Created in a time before bathroom scales, it promised to accurately tell us how much we weighed, and as an added bonus, our future.

Fortune Cookie

This one had a note that said, “Mechanism works, but out of cards.” It was on the little cards that your “fate” was inscribed.

Fast forward 100 years and some of us still believe that our future is already written. We believe in the “destiny” of meeting-up with special friends. We might have our fortunes read or pay to have our astronomical charts interpreted for us. We say that certain things “were just meant to happen.” We discuss fortune cookies over a plate of Chow Mein.

But I’m not buying it. It’s not that I think these activities aren’t fun. It’s not that I can’t even see an element of truth in them. It’s that I know I’m always at choice.

Instead of “fate,” I see these predictions as “possibilities.”

When I hear a prediction like, “The economy is bad, so you won’t get the raise.” I know this is only one possibility. When the doctor says, “Your mother died of heart disease, so we need to watch your cholesterol,” I hold open the possibility for a different outcome for me. Anytime something or someone appears to “predict” my future, I stop and think. Is this really what I want?

I believe it’s up to me.

Science of Mind teaches that our thoughts and beliefs control what happens to us. Knowing this, if I change my thinking—if I create a new set of beliefs—I should be able to influence what happens to me.

I am able to live a long life—despite what happened to my parents. I am able to have healthy relationships—no matter what the ones from my childhood looked like. I am able to claim a measure of abundance and comfort—whether the economy is “up” or “down.”

If I believe, it is so.

Free will may not be entirely free. It requires believing, strongly, in what we want to experience. It requires changing some of our core beliefs and acting upon these beliefs even before we can see evidence of those changes. It means accepting a greater measure of life—even when other peoples’ lives may seem full of fear and doubt.

But it is possible to achieve everything that you desire. It is possible to bring your thoughts, ideas, feelings and intentions into alignment with what you want to experience. It is possible to write out your own fate according to your closely held expectations.

In short, it’s up to you!

Sigmund Freud gave birth to psychoanalysis and, by extension, the whole field of cognitive therapies and counseling approaches collectively known as “Talk Therapy.” Although eclipsed in modern times by prescription medicine, the results of these therapies were significant. People got better. Symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and trauma were relieved and eliminated.

Sigmund Freud and that cigar

But I wonder if it was just the talking.

If it was just the talking, we should always be getting better—we’re often talking about what’s wrong with us. We tell others what happened and how we felt about it.

No, I suspect it was the listening that was important.

You know: really listening.

When someone’s really listening, we know that we’ve been heard. We know that the world—or at least one part of it—understands us and validates our experience. We know that someone cares enough and that we are important enough for progress to be made.

It brings us hope. Although hope is only a second cousin to certainty, it is a place to begin when all seems lost. Hope for something better is given when true listening occurs.

Spiritually, listening sets up the framework for something else to happen. When listening occurs, we have two people in understanding and in agreement about what a situation is—and what the outcome can be. It is the “two or more gathered” that creates a space for the healing nature of God to be present. Through listening (and talking), spiritual truth can be found and an affirmation of healing can take place. Our thoughts will change and our lives will benefit.

Have you been available for listening, lately? Have you given this most precious gift to the people you love?

Listening, really listening, is what most of the people we love want from us. They want to be heard. They want to know their opinions matter. They want us to “get them.” They want us to understand.

Together, let us help to heal the world through the power of listening.

When I was seven, Grandma taught, “Silence is Golden.” The silence was for me; the silent moment was golden for her.

“Nothing in all creation is so like God as silence.” Meister Eckhart

But come to find out, silence is good for everyone. Research studies have shown that spending even 10 minutes in silence every day will boost our immune systems, quiet our minds, lower our blood pressure, calm our nerves, promote healing of our tissues and mitigate built-up stress.

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My partner, Daniel, is a ballroom dance teacher. He teaches adults, but also has many classes of fifth graders throughout the city. In addition to dancing, he teaches them how to ask someone to dance, how to respectfully touch each other, how to behave if they turn you down and how to politely “pass” on a dance.

Ballroom Dancing

I recently overheard him explain why dancing is sometimes boring. He was telling a young fellow that it was up to him to make the dance fun. He said that if you don’t initiate any changes or lead any new steps, the dance just keeps going with the basics. The “leader” of the dance has to decide what steps will be interesting—otherwise, it will be the same step over and over again.

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But then, it should be. I keep it exercised.

What I mean is that I work at keeping my idea of God as big as possible. In Science of Mind, we believe that God is all there is—so that means everything. God covers a lot of ground: every person, place, concept and event (seen and unseen) is part of God. Yes, that big—infinitely big.

God (as humanly depicted in the Sistine Chapel)

That’s why we can say that God is Omnipresent (everywhere present), Omnipotent (all powerful) and Omniscient (all wise). God would have to be, since it covers everything that ever exists and ever will exist.

And it’s important to have a big idea of God. Then you know that nothing is outside of God’s capability of healing, or of loving or of supporting. Everything that we could ever need or want is within God—part of God’s nature and substance.

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Ever see the brightly lit boats off the coast during winter’s night? Wonder what would make fishermen and women brave the dark, cold and potential danger of winter’s turbulent sea?

Night Fishing

It’s the fish, of course!

In the shortened days of winter, with food relatively scarce, the resident fish are hungry for what is available. They know that light brings warmth and the promise of the “food chain” at work. The stark contrast between the black of night and the bright lights from a boat are a powerful lure to sea creatures. They know that where there is light, there is life.

So it is with us.

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