TESTIMONIES

Don Weiss
Justin: Welcome Don Weiss.  Thank you for sharing with us today.

Don: I remember consciously in college, making a decision that when I look back at my life, I wanted to be sorry for the things I had done and not for the things I had not done.  And it’s been pretty true.  Only a couple of regrets I have.  And after college I got married and then two children came and then I had a couple years in Japan.  That changed my life.  The simplicity and the closeness to nature, and in addition, the intergenerational things; the next generation gets to stand on the shoulders of the previous generation.  I really believe that generatively, that’s also been a theme of my life.  And so I’m marching along on my career path and a year in Germany and now two more kids so now I have four. 

After 17 years of marriage I got slammed in the face with a divorce.  And it was that which changed my direction.  The pain of not seeing my kids on a daily basis which caused me to seek counseling and in one of those sessions, the counselor asked who’s at home.  I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about.  But he knew that we were spiritual beings.  I didn’t know that.  And so I sought that out.  First it was Course In Miracles which happened to be at a Unity church and the wise leader – each meeting for four years she would say you’re a loving child of God.  Hmm… that’s fine.  I know Diane is but that’s a nice saying for me.  But at the end of four years, I could say that and feel comfortable but I hadn’t internalized that and then there was five stays of Benedictine Monasteries from two weeks to two months, and if you know the motto of the Benedictines, its treat each person as if he or she is Christ.  And that sounded okay.  You treat them kindly, you be good to them.  I had no idea that meant see the divinity in each of us. 

And fast forward to June of last year, I’m in my condo in Florida and I literally feel like I’m dying.  I get on the internet, the telephone and I rent a place in Sun City.  And one of the first things I do when I get here is I go to the yellow pages and I come through to find out what is the closest Unity church.  So the first Sunday here I come to Unity of Hilton Head.  It’s nice.  I’ll come back but Justin being the pastor that he is, the next Tuesday he knocked on my door.  I wasn’t there but he left a note and there was the  book Discover the Power Within, Eric Butterworth.  That became my mediation guide for the next three months.  That was my really saving grace because I knew no one here.  I spent a lot of time alone but as I mediated and the Unity principals became alive and Christ’s teaching became alive through the words of Eric Butterworth, that which we say each Sunday, there is one power and one presence in the universe and in my life, God the good omnipotent.  That became my mantra.  That became important; that I wanted to be the center of life.

And then I joined a small group and we’re now using Eric Butterworth’s book Discover the Power Within.  And from that group, I can thank one of the members for saying Jesus is my brother.  I can reach out now, put my arm around Jesus and see him as a brother. And another member said we’re never separated from God.  Yeah, we’re never separated from God.  It’s not like Jesus but I’m never separated.  And that was part of it.  I never felt alone.

Anyway, the great discovery, the divinity is within each of us.  And another member of our group suggested let go, let God, and that’s my challenge at this point.  I know there is a difference between the creator.  I always call God the creator; I was created.  Well, now it’s co-creation.  But…

Justin:   So you and God creating together.  So you’ve gotten to know that God loves you.

Don: I have.  The resources of the universe and I’m an expression of God; those are you words.

Justin: That’s beautiful.

Don: And Justin is also a prophet for me by challenging and inspiring us each Sunday and he walks the walk and he models the talk.  So and in the words of Lilly Tomlin, you know, Edith who sat on that high rocking chair and said “it’s the truth.”

Justin:  Thank you Don.  Please give him a hand. 

Don:  It’s the truth.

Carolyn Hubers
Carolyn Hubers: When I heard Linda Archinaco and then I heard Valerie's piece about their lives I thought, “Wow, I'm not going to have too much to say because my life before now has been pretty traditional.”  I was raised in a Prebyterian church and when Sunday came it was not Sunday unless you went to church. I was always looking around for something because I knew something was out there and I knew that sometime I would discover it.  So I only want to share some “aha” moments that I had.  So one “aha” and you know aha is I get it, I finally get it.  Is I've been reading Eckhart Tolli's book, A New Earth.  And in the section about inner purpose, I had the “aha” moment.  He uses your breathing -

Speaker: Its a great chapter. 

Carolyn Huber:  You use your breathing as a metaphor for your life.  And when you are breathing in you are accumulating.  So you accumulate part of your life, a lot of things, a lot of good things and sometimes not necessary things.  And sometimes stuff.  But when you are breathing out you are releasing.  So its like let go, and let God.  And that was profound for me because I realized that I could be open to this, open to the joy and people and wonderful blessings of knowing God.  So now I try to spend more time breathing in, not that stuff, but breathing in more of the spirit and God. 

The second thing came about when we were doing our discussion that we had in Sun City.  So we had a piece that was in one of the chapters, I don't remember which one, yea.  And that which you are seeking is seeking you.  “Aha.  I get it.”  Because I had been looking and you don't have to sometimes look so hard.  Sometimes things find you.  I found that I love to dance, I never did much dancing. I found the sacred circle dance which has really fed my soul and opened me to the message of the universe.  And the second thing is I was looking and I needed to find something and I realized that I didn't find humanity.  Humanity found me.  So I'm happy.  I'm really filled with joy and gratitude that I can share the next part of my spiritual journey with you all. 

Smitty Haller
I was asked to say a few words about Unity and what it’s meant to me and I’m really very grateful for this opportunity because Unity has meant quite a bit to both my wife and to me.  I was brought up as a Presbyterian, my wife was raised as a Christian Scientist; didn’t realize what that meant when we first got married but as we were married and my wife’s father was very interested in Unity, spent a lot of time studying Joel Goldsmith, a guy by the name of Bruton that he studied and got me interested in it to the point that I started going to the Science church.  Later on he got very much involved with Unity in Cleveland where we’re from and we joined him at the Unity church so I was familiar with it.  We came down here in 2000 and we bought a small place down in South Beach and Gail looked in the phone book and sure enough there was a Unity Church here and at that time we were greeted at the door by a real tall, slender person with a ponytail and a beard by the name of Harry Williams and Jo Williams was his wife.  Elizabeth McGinnis was often presiding, her daughter was playing the keyboard, Robert was there; I see Robert’s here, Pat was here.  Many people that are really wonderful friends of ours now and part of the Unity family made us very welcome. 

What is interesting is that we didn’t join this church for a number of years.  I think a lot of people thought we were members and it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that we actually formally became members of this church and decided that this is where we wanted to make our church home.  It is without a doubt the most loving congregation and group of people that we have ever associated with.  It’s meant a tremendous amount to my wife and myself as we have learned so much about Unity and about our spiritual selves by being associated with this congregation and it’s what prompted us to decide finally to become consistent givers.  We felt that if anything, we wanted this church to grow and to prosper and we’re just very proud and happy to be able to participate in the services when we’re down here and enjoy the fellowship that this church offers.  We’re very blessed with Justin and we do feel very close to him; I actually played Golf with him once, which is a humbling experience, but we wish him all the best now as he deals with the loss of his father in his transition, so thank you very much for giving me this opportunity.

John Toth
Good morning.  I’m John Toth.  I know I’ve met many of you but not all of you.  Hope to do so soon.  I did arrange with Cathy and with Justin to give this very brief talk about us, meaning my wife and I, and Unity, which has become a very big part of our lives.  Just by way of background, like a lot of people in here I was brought up in a Catholic family.  I was kind of a precocious kid.  When I was 11 I said, “To hell with this.”  And I was helped in that regard by a very nasty little Irish nun.  I was framed.  So anyway, I just- well depending on the day of the week I would tell people I was an atheist or an agnostic which I believed myself to be.  Unity was really not familiar to me.  I knew about Unitarianism.  I was a member of the Unitarian Church before I moved here in Charlotte.  I haven’t gotten active in it for some reason down here.

But I had a conversation one day with a lady, a good friend of ours named Adelaide in Orlando who was known as “A”, and she was very bright.  But in addition to that, she was a very wise woman.  And if “A” said it, I would take it to the bank.  She was terrific.  Unfortunately, she is no longer here.  She passed away about 10 years ago.  However, in this conversation we got talking about church attendance and she said that on Sundays she went to two different services.  She went to – and I can’t remember which Protestant denomination it was.  It could have been Episcopalian or something like that.  She went there for the music and she went to Unity for the message.  So after I attended here for awhile I said it’s really too bad “A” is not around to visit us because I’d tell “A”, “You can come to my Unity and you’d get the message and the music in one sitting.  You don’t have to travel around, find another parking space.”  I’m very sorry she can’t be here.  You all would like her very much.

Our introduction to Unity, (my wife may know more about it than me), but other than that mention, well I just didn’t know that much about it.  A good friend and neighbor of ours was Rita Litz, who many of you knew, and we went to her service.  And as you’re aware, Justin spoke and we were very impressed of course with Justin, himself personally, and with what he had to say.   So anyway, we looked at each other and we said, “Well, let’s go.”  And for the first time in 25 ½ years my wife and I found ourselves standing next to each other in church.  The only other time was our wedding and a couple of funerals.  That’s about it.  But since then, I guess it was about mid-November, one of us, or usually both of us have been here every single week.  I look forward to it. 
What has made me realize is that all these years when I was professing atheism/agnosticism, what I really objected to was organized religion, with some exceptions.  I didn’t realize until I started coming to Unity that organized religion and spirituality are usually not the same thing.  Somebody said, “Everybody’s spiritual, but organized religion is the paperwork.”  So I realized that that was my objection.  But I didn’t have any trouble believing there was a higher power as he resided within us.  All my life I’ve had a guardian angel who literally saved my life many times.  I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him or her.  So anyway, Unity had become a part of our life.  I can write myself as a believer in spirituality.  I still feel the same about most organized religions.  I think they’re power trips really.  For example, my wife and I are going on a couple of trips in a couple of weeks.  And then in the summer the first thing we do is we go online and see if there’s a Unity church where we’re going.  One place we’re going is Utah, and there’s not many-  There is one.  It’s in Salt Lake City, and that’s it.  You’d be surprised at more than that.

But anyway, I’m very glad to be here.  My wife and I enjoy it immensely.  I really like everybody I’ve met here.  They seem to enjoy the same sort of thing.  I’m glad to be here, and I’ll see you next week.