Leadership Series for Navigating Struggle, Uncertainty and Crisis, Part 8: Transcendence
with Rev. Pat Bessey
A shout out to Yvette Nadeau, who volunteered on November 11 with the Sebago Lakes Region Fuller Center for Housing (SLRFC) event. There were three work parties happening at different locations on this day. Jim McBride, board member and treasurer for SPRFC, had this to say about Yvette: “Yvette was on my team and she was truly a delight to work with. She jumped right in and worked hard throughout the day. She hit it off with Claire and worked with her on brush removal and gutters. They worked for five hours with a short break for lunch! She also connected very well with the homeowner and was eager to hear the full story of her husband’s journey with advanced ALS.”
Unity Center for Spiritual Growth is a founding partner of the SLRFC. It was founded in 2019 just prior to COVID-19. Our service area is in the Sebago Lakes region, including the towns of Windham, Raymond and Standish, Maine. We will focus on home repairs for people in need with the hope that people can stay in their homes safely. The scope of these repairs may include minor kitchen and bathroom, window replacements, building of ramps and other repairs. To learn more, go to https://fullercenter.org/sebagolakes/.
This past Sunday brought to a conclusion the series from Paul K. Chappell titled A New Peace Paradigm: Our Human Needs and The Tangles of Trauma. I had good feedback from many of you that you enjoyed learning about the nine non-physical needs.
Transcendence was the ninth and last non-physical need.
Paul says: Human beings have a need for transcendence, which means to transcend our sense of time, to feel a sense of timelessness, to touch and taste the eternal. Transcendence can occur when we lose our sense of time, when we are lost in the moment.
There are healthy and unhealthy ways to transcend our sense of time, and transcendence can be experienced at varying depths. When we live according to our highest human ideals, this can help us transcend time in deep and healthy ways.
Eckhart Tolle writes: “Transcending the world does not mean to withdraw from the world, to no longer take action, or to stop interacting with people. Transcendence of the world is to act and to interact without any self-seeking.”
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell quote: “Transcendence gets you beyond ego. If you go beyond ego, you see all of this in a more decent perspective and you can start to put all the pieces together. We haven’t done that yet. Not as a civilization.”
You are a blessing in my life,
Rev. Patricia Bessey
Labyrinths are ancient geometric figures. One leaves one’s worries and stress at the entrance and walks meditatively to the middle. As one walks to the center she/he becomes centered within her/himself, calmer, and more grounded. 
