I Heard in the Singing Brook
Ernest Holmes

I listened one day to a little brook as it went singing along. It babbled to me of cool spots and of shady nooks away from the haunts of others.

I followed my little friend to a place where sweet-scented ferns and grass, shaded by the trees, whispered thoughts of peace to me. I lay flat on the ground and listened to the voice of Nature.

I slept, and in my sleep a vision came. I was shown that all Nature is alive and filled with One Presence. I beheld in the brook the laughter of God; in the overhanging branches the protection of the Infinite; in the waving grass and ferns the whisperings of God’s Love. I sensed in this atmosphere the vitality of Life; and the sun reflected in the little stream covered all with a golden glow.

I woke refreshed and renewed in mind and body, and I went again into the places where people live, confident and happy.

Excerpted from A Holmes Reader for All Seasons by Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind Publishing.

An electronic version of this book can be obtained from the Science of Mind and Library Foundation.

New from Mark Nepo

Exclusively for Science of Mind readers, author Mark Nepo shares his poetry.

On August 13, Reduced to Joy, a new book of poems by Mark Nepo, was released. The book contains seventy-three poems, retrieved and shaped over the last thirteen years, about the nature of working with what we’re given until it wears us through to joy.

Here is some praise for Reduced to Joy: 

"Reduced to Joy has many different kinds of poems, all of them clear, wise, beautifully put, spare. Mark Nepo has a great heart. His poems are good company."

—Coleman Barks, translator of The Essential Rumi

"Mark Nepo’s poems in his new book, Reduced to Joy, reduce me first to grateful silence, and then to tears, and then to laughter, and then to praise. He joins a long tradition of truth-seeking, wild-hearted poets—Rumi, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver—and deserves a place in the center of the circle with them." 

—Elizabeth Lesser, Cofounder, Omega Institute, author of Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

How a Corporate Executive Became a
Unity Teacher/Buddhist Minister
Janet Taylor

My story is one of dreams and drama…a path with twists and turns, many failures and some sweet success. I began studying Buddhism in college, but once I graduated, making money became my only priority. I was tired of being poor. Going to work for a large corporation at twenty-eight years old, I found the perfect place for my ambition. I became a workaholic, as well as a selfish, insensitive, domineering jerk. Feel free to ask anyone who knew me in my thirties—he or she will be more than happy to confirm this fact.

This strategy worked for about a decade. I married and divorced twice and became estranged from my family. I slowly realized that I was no longer living a life I valued. I found Unity in the Yellow Pages when I was looking for a chapel to get married for the third time. I eventually divorced the husband but kept Unity. Unity and Buddhism ended up saving my life. Having been raised Methodist, I had never heard of the New Thought movement. I became intrigued by the idea that my thoughts create my reality. This is the essence of the Buddhist message as well.