Hello, Friends – This email continues something new – a once-a-week email on Friday written by regular participants in our Fillmore Wings Study Program. This week’s post is by Karen Flavelle, a student of Unity’s teachings at Unity Church of Truth in Toronto Ontario. She grew up in Unity Sunday School and Y.O.U. there, and has been a student of these teachings for about 50 years. For this, and so much more, she is truly Grateful. Karen facilitates a Fillmore Wings class at Unity Toronto two Tuesdays a month at 7pm and attends Mark’s class on Tuesdays weekly. In this message, she reminds us that through daily denial and affirmation, we make room for Truth, release old patterns, and discover the divine potential already present within us.

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Blaze of Glory

If you could experience "[instantanously] a full realization of the Absolute" would you want to? What would you do with that experience? Would you know what it was? How would it change you? What is our capacity for Truth?

A picture popped into my mind, of the scene in the movie "A Few Good Men" where Jack Nickolson, in character, yells, "You can't handle the Truth!".

Spiritual Truth is different than material world truth. The spiritual Truth often sought by those who are thirsty for it, can sometimes seem illusive. In fact, sometimes it seems the harder a person looks, the harder it is to find. What can someone do while waiting? What if we could experience with "wholehearted conviction" through the faithful affirmation "the living word of Truth, ... , it's blaze of glory throughout the consciousness"? This sounds pretty electric!

In paragraph 23 (lesson Denials and Affirmations), Charles Fillmore implies that it is unusual to experience as a Blaze of Glory. And perhaps it is. But through right use of denial and affirmation on a day to day basis, as a way of living, we can get ready.

There may be resistance to denial, as a negative state of mind, or error thinking, does not want to let go. A person may even get a "Change back!" message from self or others around us when the hard work of personal chage through denial is attempted.

It takes work. Just like learning an instrument, learning the principles of advanced math or physics, or even learning how to crawl, then walk, then run. We may feel down or make mistakes, we may slip in our resolve, but is that failure? Certainly not. We are a work in progress. A Wonderful Child of God, spectacular, whole, with perfection as our template. We have so much potential!

At times, the work of growing a new skill can be daunting. Our progress, individually, is our opportunity to keep trying. It may not always be easy to be our best, most loving, forgiving, compassionate, courageous self. But are we making progress?

Denial and affirmation, as a practice and a way of living, makes room for us to grow. By clearing out (denying) the old ways of thinking gently and resolutely, we make room for the good. We make room for the Blaze of Glory moments. The peace we seek can be found in a noisy chaotic moment, by simply inviting the Presence into the moment. Every moment.

Life will not be without hardship, but by using the power of our thinking capacity, establishing patterns over and over with practice, we can improve. Make room for the full Glory by letting go of error thinking. By letting go of victim thinking. By letting go of things in our past that are too heavy to keep carrying. Forgive self and forgive others. Dust off your feet and try again.

We become accustomed to a pattern of thinking based on our circle, our messages growing up, our coaches, our mistakes, our teachers, our family, our friends, our successes or failures, the books we read, the news we watch. These may or may not be helpful but we are certainly 100% committed to our current set of beliefs and habits.

Why not try to watch what you allow on the movie screen of your mind. What repeats? What justifcations do we make for ourselves? What excuses do we tell ourselves about why we can't, or won't, change?

In the second lesson of the Unity Correspondence School, and Wings chapter 2 Healing, paragraph 18, we are reminded that we don't want to give power to that which we want to deny by constantly searching for error thinking. We can change the focus of our thoughts by focussing on the good that we want and affirm it. Do not give power to that which we want to deny by focussing on it, feeding it. Be aware of the thoughts and states of mind that we need to change and which contribute to our current state of health or affairs, and change those thoughts. This creates a change in our experience of our life now. When we give up error thinking by denying it, and denying it power, and replace it with Truth, we become overcomers.

By planting new seeds in the garden of our mind we can have a beautiful new way of experiencing life. But if we first weed the garden of our mind to make room for the Glory, what a different result we can have. We can even chage our experience of the past by changing our perception and labeling of past experiences. We can change our mind! And when we change our mind, we can change our heart.

But what if you don't like weeding, and you don't want to let go of old ways of thinking or old hurts, to let go of the old movie playing in your mind? We always have a choice! And how wonderful that is! To know you can choose how to think, what thoughts you want to give attention to, and which beliefs are no longer serving you. What if life is not Happening To You, but rather Life is Your Opportunity? "I can't wait to see the good that will come out of This!" is one of my favourite affirmations, especially in a time of big challenge. Putting trust in the Good, the True, and the glorious, in us now, around us now.

What can I do today to make myself more aware of the work I have to do on me (the plank in your own eye) to make everything around me Awe-some? It is funny that when we work on ourselves, everything else around us gets easier and brighter. Things don't bother us as much.

If we practice each day Denial and Affirmation on ourselves and our circumstances it is amazing how much easier it is to be open to the Blaze of Glory and how we begin to see the Wonder in every single thing. Let your Yea be yea, and your nay be nay. It's going to be awesome!

–Karen Flavelle
Friday, July 24, 2026

Return to Fillmore Wings Newsletters

Hello, again, one more thing – Right now we have four ongoing Fillmore Wings groups meeting. THERE IS NO PREREQUESITE for entering a class. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE, but we ask you to identify your name in the Zoom session and try to turn on video if possible. To join in, go the Events page for days and times; look for these classes:

• Sundays–Unity Correspondence Course with Marty Keller and Capital City Unity
• Mondays (starting July 13)–Fillmore Correspondence School Christ, The Only Begotten of the Father with Dara Bermick, LUT
• Tuesdays–Fillmore Wings Study Program with Rev. Mark Hicks
• Fridays (on hiatus July 24 and 31))–Fillmore Fridays with Rev. Melissa Hill Greenbaum