Beloved friends, if you are here in Maine reading this we are almost to the middle of August and the next few days are going to be extremely warm. Please make sure you hydrate well and stay indoors if you can.

August also brings us our long-time friend and musician Julie Thompson. Julie will be with us in-person this Sunday and also on the 22.

An important update if you missed seeing it last week: Your Board of Trustees, upon the advice of Maine CDC, implemented masks required for our in-person service. This requirement will be in place until further notice. Thank you for your cooperation.

A shout out to those who have made their way back to our in-person service and to those who are with us online at either Facebook Live or YouTube. An interesting fact is that those online number about the same and maybe even more than the number of people in the sanctuary. If you are joining online, if you place a comment in the chat box, I would love to hear from you. I always read the chats when I get home.

The series Tales That Teach ended this week with a parable from the Buddhist tradition Jataka. These are moral tales written down around the 4th Century. These tales are native to India and are about the previous births of the Buddha in both human and animal form.

The story I told was about a young prince named Sutasoma, which means brilliant moon, and Kalmasha, who was the son of a king and a lioness and had a reputation of a wild, cruel being. This story is a story of truth… the power of your promise. It can also be seen through the lens of nonviolence. Sutasoma rejected using military power and trusted that seeing Kalmasha as a human being and not as evil and could see that his heart could be changed.

Sutasoma tells Kalmasha, “Let truth control your heart, not the hungry lion within you.”

BINGO! That’s the lesson for us – it reminds us that we always have a choice, we can live our life from a higher consciousness, practicing truth principles, living from love, compassion, kindness, or we can move through the world from a lower consciousness, from the level of fear, anger, and distrust. The choice is ours.

Take time to watch the message; it is worth it.

This Sunday we will be revisiting a series that was done a few years ago; however, it is as relevant today as it was then. It is based on The Four Agreements written by Don Miguel Ruiz. This week will be the first agreement… be impeccable with your words.