#14:  Whew! Last night I counted how many states I have visited or driven through this year, it was fifteen states and one Canadian Province. No wonder I feel a bit drained; it is time to get my batteries recharged because it will soon be time to move my house once again. This has been a fantastic year already and there are more than three months left! I have many pictures and I would be glad to show them whenever.

The following quote from the Urantia Book will need a bit of explaining but I chose it because it relates to a thought I had during the meeting near Boone North Carolina which I will discuss below. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Urantia Book, one of its important teachings is that each of us is indwelt by a prepersonal fragment of God called the Thought Adjuster (it is also described by other names such as Mystery Monitor; one name which occurred to me is God’s Promise of Eternity.)

"The Thought Adjuster is engaged in a constant effort so to spiritualize your mind as to evolve your morontia soul; but you yourself are mostly unconscious of this inner ministry. You are quite incapable of distinguishing the product of your own material intellect from that of the conjoint activities of your soul and the Adjuster.

"Certain abrupt presentations of thoughts, conclusions, and other pictures of mind are sometimes the direct or indirect work of the Adjuster; but far more often they are the sudden emergence into consciousness of ideas which have been grouping themselves together in the submerged mental levels, natural and everyday occurrences of normal and ordinary psychic function inherent in the circuits of the evolving animal mind. (In contrast with these subconscious emanations, the revelations of the Adjuster appear through the realms of the superconscious.)"  Urantia Book (1207.2,3) (110:4.2,3)

I flew to South Carolina and met three members of our Summerville study group; we then drove to Boone North Carolina. The actual meeting celebrating Michael’s birthday was nearby at Valle Crucis, but the sleeping arrangements there were dormitory style so we stayed in Boone instead. This photograph gives an idea of the beautiful countryside and this building is where we had our meals.
 

The meetings were inspirational and varied: Dick Bain showed some of the Jesus videos he has done, there were musical sessions led by an expert hammer dulcimer performer and a workshop session, more on this below.

 

 
The leader of the group was Steve Law who is at the bottom left in this photograph. As usual, one of the most rewarding parts of the meeting was the time spent talking with other readers of the Urantia Book. There was also a small chapel next to the lodge, one evening there was a moving service using a fine pipe organ (unfortunately I managed to misplace my meeting notes so I cannot give the special name of this service.)
 
One afternoon we split into groups for discussions. I chose the one on outreach efforts since I have started doing something along this line. During the discussion the above quote was read to our little group. At that time I had the inspiration that such thoughts which arise suddenly could be tested as follows. If the thought or proposed action glorifies God then it might perhaps have originated from the Thought Adjuster but if it glorifies me or another person then it is unlikely to have a worthy source. It has happened more than once that the messenger gets glorified while the message becomes secondary.
 

One afternoon I hiked to some nearby falls. This young lady was not part of our group, but she has the proper meditative attitude for such a beautiful place.

There were a group of young students sharing the small facility with us who were singers from the Charlotte school system, frequently we could hear them practicing. On the final night our group gathered on the above porch for a short serenade. The singers filed in quietly and the director gave an introduction. The porch was in total darkness and it would have been better if we could have seen them, but their music, accompanied only by crickets and other night sounds, was heavenly.

After the meeting the four of us drove here to Hidden Valley and then into Canada, but that is the subject of another blog.