On the Island of Kaua`i, potlucks are the most popular way of getting together. It works because it takes the burden off the host of having to provide everything for a large gathering. We love to get together in large gatherings.

Since the COVID19 Pandemic, there has been a halt on potlucks at our Center. Our Thanksgiving Potluck was canceled; our women’s group potluck didn’t take place, and now our Christmas Sunday potluck will be put on the back burner until another year. So, what are we left with? The memories of potlucks of years gone by. I’m sure they will come back again, but for now I want to focus on a different kind of potluck. It is the potluck that takes place in our mind in every moment.

In the New Thought teaching, we know there is, as Emerson put it, “One Mind Common to all people.” We all share one Mind of Infinite Intelligence. We might call it the Collective Consciousness or Race Mind. It is the Mind of God in Action, meaning that it is aback of all creation. We are contributing to it and using it everyday. It is a sort of potluck of all thought that has ever been thought and all experiences that have ever been felt for ions. We are born into it and it may or may not run our lives.

Have you ever walked into a room of people and felt the atmosphere? Have you felt drained after being with certain people or uplifted for that matter? We are all-thought and we are transferring thought to one another all the time. This is why it is important to become a conscious and responsible potluck contributor. What are you bringing to the table and what are you taking from it?

At a food potluck, we make these choices very deliberately. We bring our favorite things, or those that are easiest to prepare or buy. Some of us our nutritionists, some are vegans, vegetarians or carnivores. We like sweets or we stay away from them. We are all individuals, and we make conscious choices about our food contributions and also make choices of what we will eat.

I invite us to do the same at our potluck of the mind. Let us be conscious of what we bring to the table and also what we choose to accept or reject. There are a lot of different ideas, beliefs and thoughts to choose from. We have the Power to accept or reject because we are at choice at all times. Why would we be able to choose what kind of food we eat and not be able to choose what kind of thoughts we think? We are beings of volition and choice and that means in all areas of our life.

During this season of limited food potlucks, enjoy a luscious, positive and loving potluck of the mind with each other. Bring the joy and receive the joy and drop the negativity in the trash where it belongs.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Co-Spiritual Director CSL Kaua`i