Good morning. My name is Sandra Higgins Smith. I'm a member of Unity of East Louisville. I've been a truth student for over 20 years, and I'm currently enrolled in Unity Urban Ministerial School as a ministerial student.
Today I'd like to share with you my healing journey as it relates to Myrtle Fillmore's healing letters. For some of you that may not know Myrtle Fillmore was the co-founder of Unity. She, fortunately for us, wrote her healing journey down in the form of letters to help us to understand how she was able to heal herself. On July 27th, 2017, I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma cancer of the left breast. And as most of you can imagine, when you hear the word cancer, it's devastating.
I knew as a nurse that I needed to feel my feelings, I knew that I needed to walk through all the hurt and pain in order to get to the other side intellectually. I knew Kubler Ross' stages of grief and loss, anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance. I knew all that, but it didn't make it any easier. I was devastated. I had just gotten married three months before to my soulmate. Our life was beautiful. We had an amazing trip to Ireland for our honeymoon and a routine mammogram made my world stop spinning just for a moment.
As a truth student, I knew that everything was going to be okay somehow, deep in my soul. The essence of me knew that I was going to be okay. So what did I do? I prayed. And then I prayed some more. And then I asked for prayers and then I continued to pray. My prayer was "Help me." Sometimes that's all you can muster when you're in such a deep, dark dismal place. "God, please help me, help me to know what to do me to take the next right and perfect step."
Then I gave it up. I just gave it up. I lifted it up and said, "What I need to know will be revealed." Ironically, on three separate occasions, I had received what I needed. I just didn't realize it. The first time was in the back of church right before Easter, about this time, it was a daily reader, similar to our Lenten pamphlet. I looked at it and it had cancer and it had Myrtle Fillmore's healing letters. And I thought, I'm not going to keep this because I don't want this negativity of cancer in my life. This was before I had cancer. So I throw it away. Then I get the booklet again, a couple of weeks later in the mail and I'm thinking, "Oh, I'm going to be a ministerial student. I'll keep it. Maybe I can help somebody with this."
The third time was when I actually had the diagnosis of cancer and I was talking to a friend of mine that was awesome ministerial student. Her husband was healing from lung cancer. She shared with me Karen Drucker's healing music and Myrtle Fillmore's healing letters. And I said, "Okay, God, sometimes you hit me over the head with a cotton ball sometimes, with a tennis ball. This is my bowling ball. I'm going to pay attention to this. And what I discovered in Myrtle Fillmore's healing letters was that she was able to heal herself from tuberculosis. In the spring of 1886, Myrtle Fillmore's doctors told her that there was nothing that they could do for her, that she didn't have long to live. Myrtle once said, for most of her childhood and into adulthood, she experienced all the ills of mind and body that she could bear. Medicine and doctors ceased to give her relief. And she was in despair. The turning point for her was when she went to a lecture by E. B Weeks. It was a lecture on new thought in Christian science. What she heard in that lecture was "I am a child of God. I do not inherit disease"
From that moment Myrtle's whole outlook changed. It was like a bell ringing in her head. "I am a child of God. I do not inherit disease."
Myrtle's letters go into deep detail of how she refined and disciplined her mind to use divine power in powerful and positive ways. After reading Myrtle's letters, I had a new sense of empowerment. I used Myrtle's healing letters as a blueprint for my healing, and they can be divided into five easy steps.
In step one, Myrtle wrote, "You are a human being made in God's image. Your essence is divine." Myrtle suggested that we accept our God given perfection. This is sometimes easier said than done, right? We can probably name a handful of things right now that are wrong with us. High blood pressure, gout, arthritis, depression, you name it. We can probably at least name five things that we think are wrong with us, or that we've been given a diagnosis of. Myrtle didn't mean that you don't get sick or that the disease that you're experiencing isn't real. What she meant was the spiritual you, the essence of you, is perfect and whole. You might have a diagnosis right now, like Myrtle. You might've been told your whole life that you're sickly. You may not have treated your body well in the past. The blessing is that you can let go of your old beliefs and start new today.
One way Unity teaches is through denials and affirmations. The denial clears space, it helps you release and let go of things that no longer serve you. Can you think of a resentment, something that you've been angry about, or someone that you need to forgive? That's keeping you from opening your heart to love with affirmations. You open your heart to the ability to love, to oneness. For me, when I was healing, my denial was "Cancer has no dominion over me, in order to release my fear and discipline my thoughts and alignment with spirit." I use the affirmation: "I draw my strength and power from an infinite stores of love." "Knowing that every cell in my body is whole and perfect," Myrtle said, "Fix your undivided attention upon the creator and inner pattern of perfection. Keep bringing your thoughts back to your ultimate truth. Know that God is bigger than any disease or injury."
Step two, Myrtle said, "Be aware of your thoughts or actions." Myrtle said, look deeply into your memories to see if anything in the past is affecting your body. Myrtle had been told she was sickly like her father, her whole life, and probably would die young. She believed it and stayed sick until she changed her belief and began affirming. "I am a child of God. Therefore I do not inherit disease."
We all go through times in life when people say things or behave in a way that is hurtful toward us. We can choose to ruminate over past actions or events, but it will ultimately weigh us down and sap, our energy. A camp counselor once told me, that if she could give me any advice, the one thing that she would like for me to know from our time together was that dis-ease causes disease. She had osteosarcoma of her femur, which is bone cancer of her thighbone. She had five different reoccurrences with the last being she had to have an above the knee amputation. What she said to me was that she didn't let go of those people, places, and things that caused her dis-ease. She didn't forgive. She held on to all that poison inside of her. She was convinced that that is why the cancer kept coming back in her leg and why she had to have an amputation. That was a strong message for me. Your body may be giving you a signal that you need to take action. I invite you to examine what is weighing heavy on your heart. Let go of those things that no longer serve your highest good.
Step three, Myrtle rejoice. Remember that you have the God power to change conditions. Myrtle reinforced in her letter to keep your attention centered on divine consciousness. Remember that the same power that is in Jesus is in you. If you're sick, it's not an illusion. Seek treatment as you feel guided and know your divine essence is spirit. "The spirit of truth is within you" - John 2:27. "The anointing that you receive from him abides in you. Seek it, wait patiently for it to guide you in all the truth about all things" - John 16:13. Your divinity is longing to express through you. Listen to that still small voice that speaks to you and use divine spirit to seek perfect health and wellness. How do you listen to that still small voice? The answer is through meditation. I'm sure you've heard that prayer is talking to God and meditation is listening to God. In order to listen, you have to be quiet. You have to be still. Once you're quiet and still the answer will come.
Step four, Myrtle said you were created whole, perfect, and complete. Your body naturally returns to balance. Some people may disagree with Myrtle. I think I may have been one of them at one time. As I mentioned, I am a registered nurse and I worked at a pediatric hospital for 28 years. I can tell you that in my mind, I saw a lot of children that didn't seem perfect, whole, and complete, but when I really think about it, when I look in their eyes, I can see their divinity. I can see their essence and their essence was love. So perhaps Myrtle was right. God does not create imperfection.
Myrtle's last step. If you know, you're truly an expression of the divine. If you keep your thoughts focused on the power of the infinite within you, and you remember that health is your natural state, then what could you be? Be one with all that is. The more you practice this awareness, Myrtle said, the more powerfully it lives in you. It becomes part of your self image and your expectation for living. You feel at home within the great and whole absolute good God as love and health reigns supreme in you. Myrtle said it is who and what you are. It is who and what you are. It is you.
What I am is who and what Myrtle was by practicing these five steps. Myrtle was able to cure herself of tuberculosis. On September 18, 2017 I had a lumpectomy and three sentinel lymph nodes removed. When I went for my follow-up appointment with the surgeon, he handed me the pathology report and said there was no cancer in any of the four specimens that we took. My husband Patrick said, "How could this be?" The doctor said, "We think the cancer was so small that it was removed by the biopsy in July. Patrick and I just both looked at each other and smiled. We said, "We know differently." I'm claiming this healing. I believe that by following the simple steps of Myrtle Fillmore's healing letters and the five Unity principles, I was able to experience the healing.
We know that God as love and health reigns supreme. I believe, Just like Myrtle, that not only we can cure ourselves from disease, we're able to heal our mind, body, and soul in the process and let go of dis-ease.
I am grateful to be able to share my experience, strength and hope with you. I bless you and affirm that the love of God flows through each of you bringing wholeness and mind, body emotions and spirit. And so it is, and so it shall be. Namaste.
The podcast recording for this week is unavailable due to technical issues.