Finding the Creator’s Messenger

Imagine, if you can, what life must be like for people incarcerated in a maximum security (supermax) prison. Then further stretch your imagination to how being in solitary confinement would affect you.

Such is the story shared by Dr. Michael Nichols in the May 2023 Science of Mind magazine. Nichols, who fully takes responsibility for a crime he committed as a teenager that resulted in a life sentence, explores his situation for readers by discussing his focus on the birds he could see through his window.

“I spend hours looking out my small window watching birds,” he writes. “One particular year, I was inspired by a pair of robins. A female was determined to build her nest on top of a fence in the recreation yard by one particular gate. As inmates entered the yard, the gate would slam shut so hard that the beginning of her nest would fall down, but she’d try again. It happened so many times, I would say an affirmative prayer that she would abandon her efforts and choose a safer site, but she held onto her power of intention and wouldn’t budge.”

As the story unfolds, Nichols creates an analogy of finding his own light within the shadows. He follows a baby robin, whom he named Little Hawk, and shares this account: “I turned around, and there on the fence was a robin with the most beautiful orange plumage I had ever seen. It was so orange it looked surreal. … I picked up my shirt and walked toward the robin. When I was about eight feet away, I raised the shirt up and down. The robin moved its head up and down. I stepped another foot closer, put the shirt down and raised my hand in a high-five gesture. The robin responded again. Just then this beautiful robin started singing such an incredible song that I held my breath. 

“At that moment, I knew deep in my heart that this was no ordinary robin. This was Little Hawk. My mind flashed back to the Science of Mind principles and my belief in positive prayer and the power of intention. Little Hawk was my Creator’s messenger, specifically designed to deliver hope to me. I’m eternally grateful, and so it is.”

God Knows the Answer

By Rev. Joanne McFadden

Plastic is a colossal problem for the environment and our health. Although we've been led to believe that it is widely recyclable, it isn't. According to a 2022 report, the plastics recycling rate dropped to between 5% and 6% in 2021. What's more dismal is that after it’s recycled once, the plastic is so damaged that it's not recyclable again.

The solution would be not to produce it, but society is a long way away from that point. However, a compromise is underway. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder may have found a way to make plastic perpetually recyclable. Through a process called reversible or dynamic chemistry, they’ve broken down the polymers into single monomers that represent a new class of plastic material, which then can be used in a continuous cycle — to make things, be broken apart and then used to make other things.

“We are thinking outside the box about different ways of breaking chemical bonds,” said Chemistry Department Chair Wei Zhang. “Our chemical methods can help create new technologies and new materials, as well as be utilized to help solve the existing plastic materials crisis.”

This illustrates the truth that before a need ever arises or a question ever is asked, God knows the answer. We live in a universe of infinite intelligence. We have everything we need. We just need to open ourselves up to it. These researchers have done just that.

— Daily Guide for May 22, reprinted from the May 2023 Science of Mind magazine

Uncover Your Talent

By Ernest Holmes

Life has placed at the center of every person's being an urge to live, to love, to create and to find fulfillment in joy, in happiness and in communion with others. Life is like a great force flowing through us, coming from a hidden source.

It is the nature of a bird to soar and sing; it is the nature of a seed to burst with the gladness of its existence. So it is with all the gifts of life we possess. They, too, are here to be used. But too often we wait for some great day to arrive or some big event to transpire that we may become heroic figures in the drama of life. And just as surely as we do this, we delay the day of our receiving because we have refused to give out such gifts as we already possess.

If we have but one talent, we should use it, for in so doing, we shall uncover other talents. And there is a talent we all possess, and that is the ability to be kind, to have an understanding heart and mind, to be tolerant and well-disposed toward others. In using this talent, we need not wait for any great event, for all around us there are those who are famished for the lack of just a little bit of human affection, just a morsel of kindness, just a bit of understanding, something that will make them feel that they, too, belong to life.

— Excerpted from the May 2023 Science of Mind magazine