Unity Church of Castro Valley

10/22/2026

Come sing for democracy! A free online musical gathering on Sunday, November 1 at 5 PM CT with An Awakened Path. (Daylight Saving Time ends that day, so please check your clocks!)

Featuring Karen Drucker, Jami Lula, Amy Bishop, Daniel Nahmod, Eddie Watkins Jr., Amy Steinberg, and Gary Lynn Floyd.

You must register to be admitted. Sign up here: https://csl.zoom.us/meeting/register/6xPm-BVMTsORUTEjzt4XQg

10/21/2026

10/21/2026

You’re digging through a shoebox in the hall closet looking for your passport when an old photo slips out and lands face-up on the carpet. It’s you at about nine years old, standing in the backyard in a too-big T-shirt, holding a hairbrush like a microphone, mouth wide open mid-song. Someone caught you right in the middle of a full concert for an audience of nobody. You sit down on the closet floor and stare at that kid for a long time.

You start thinking about everything you’d tell her if you could. You’d tell her to stop shrinking herself to keep other people comfortable, and that the crush she cried over in seventh grade would be a funny story by twenty. You’d beg her to call Grandma more often, because those Sunday afternoons in her kitchen were going to run out much sooner than anyone expected. And you’d hold her face in your hands and promise that the reflection she spent years picking apart was beautiful the whole time.

Then a stranger thought sneaks in. What would she say back to you?

She probably wouldn’t care much about your job title, the square footage of your apartment, or how many emails you answered this week. She’d want to know whether you still sing that loud in the car, and whether you still dance in the kitchen when the right song comes on. She’d ask if you still lie in the grass and look for shapes in the clouds, or if being a grown-up turned out to be as boring as she was afraid it might be.

Most of us spend years trying to fix the mistakes our younger selves made. Far fewer of us stop to ask what they knew that we’ve forgotten.

Growing up asks you to give up a lot of things, and many of them are worth giving up. The tantrums, the fear of the dark, the belief that every friendship would last forever. Somewhere in that pile, though, we also quietly set down the parts of ourselves that made life feel bright, the silly songs, the dancing without checking who’s watching, the way an ordinary Tuesday afternoon could feel like an adventure.

That kid isn’t gone. She’s just been waiting for permission to come back out.

Maybe it starts with turning the music up on the drive home and singing the chorus as badly as you want. Maybe it’s dancing around the kitchen while the pasta water boils, or saying yes the next time your own child asks you to jump in the leaf pile with them. None of it will show up on a résumé, and all of it will make you feel a little more like yourself.

So tonight, if you can find an old photo of your younger self, prop it up somewhere you’ll see it tomorrow morning. Every time you walk past, ask yourself whether you’ve done one thing today that would make that kid smile, and if the answer is no, put on a song you loved at nine and dance around the living room for three minutes, because somewhere inside you, someone has been waiting a very long time to hear you say yes.

10/21/2026

My Sunday talks of late, those in attendance are given a handout - a reminder of the theme for the week, with some areas to practice....today's handout, for Living in I AM - enjoy!
💖❣️💖

10/21/2026

Click this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eipg5JZsG8HJuhqo1IdRDfkL-5d2Q3-G/view for the DeepDive Podcast of today's (10/11/26) talk by Rev Kathleen at San Francisco Center for Spiritual Living "Living in I AM"

Rev. Kathleen Geier leads a spiritual service centered on the profound concept of living in the I am, encouraging congregants to recognize their inherent oneness with the divine rather than defining themselves through limiting labels or negative self-talk. The message emphasizes that everyday language acts as a powerful prayer, urging individuals to direct their subconscious minds toward constructive healing and quickly return to their spiritual center when facing life's challenges. Through shared affirmations, musical reflection, and mindful awareness, the service aims to help participants embrace their divine identity and radiate peace, joy, and love into the world.

10/21/2026

Last weekend you finally tackled the hall closet. You pulled out a coat you haven't worn since 2019, three phone chargers for phones you no longer own, a stack of birthday cards from people you barely talk to, and a pair of jeans you've been "about to fit into again" for six years. By the end of the afternoon you had two full donation bags by the front door, and the strange thing was how much lighter the whole house felt, even though you'd only cleared one small closet.

Our hearts collect clutter the same way. It piles up quietly over twelve months, shoved into the back corners where we don't have to look at it, and most of us carry the whole stack right into January without ever checking what's in there.

The first thing worth letting go of is the grudge you keep rehearsing. You know the one. You still replay the argument in the shower and come up with better comebacks months after it ended. The other person has probably moved on completely, which means you're the only one still paying for it.

Guilt about resting can go next. Somewhere along the way you learned that sitting down meant you were lazy, so even your days off come with a nagging list running in the background. Your body has carried you through a full year. It's allowed to lie on the couch without filing a report.

Comparing your life to everyone else's highlight reel is another heavy one. Their vacation photos don't show the credit card bill, and their smiling family pictures don't show the argument in the car on the way there. You've been measuring your whole messy story against a few seconds of their best footage.

Some people deserve a gentle goodbye too, especially the ones who only call when they need something. You can still wish them well. You just don't have to keep rearranging your life around someone who never seems to notice when you're the one struggling.

Waiting for the perfect timing is worth tossing as well. The perfect moment to start the business, have the hard conversation, or book the trip rarely arrives with a sign attached. Most of the people you admire started while they were still nervous and figured out the rest on the way.

Old goals that don't fit anymore can go in the bag too. Maybe you wanted something at twenty-five that simply isn't who you are at thirty-eight, and that's growth, not failure. You're allowed to stop chasing a dream that belongs to an earlier version of you.

The last one might be the hardest of all, and that's how harshly you talk to yourself. You'd never speak to a friend the way you speak to yourself after a mistake. Letting go of that voice won't happen in one afternoon, but you can start noticing it, and answering it with a little of the kindness you give everyone else.

None of these will fit neatly into a donation bag. They come out slowly, a little at a time, and some of them will try to sneak back onto the shelf when you're tired. Still, every one you set down makes room for something better to come in.

So before the year ends, maybe pick just one from this list and start there. Write it on a piece of paper, say a quiet prayer or simply take a deep breath, and then throw that paper away, because you deserve to walk into January carrying a lot less than you did when this year began.

10/21/2026

I, Rev. Kathleen Geier, Founder and Spiritual Director of God at PLAY Virtual Ministry, a Center for Spiritual Living Teaching Chapter, submit this Open Letter Regarding the Sacredness of Life: A Call to strenuously oppose, categorically reject, and emphatically deny not only the idea of a Public Ex*****on but also the end of the death penalty as a justified solution and deterrent.

To Our Community, Leaders, and Fellow Citizens,

I write to you today with a mind and heart deeply grieved by the state of this country and the world. This particular letter is in response to the concept of the United States of America supporting and televising a public ex*****on, and I am compelled by my human conscience, spiritual values, ethical, moral, and spiritual duty to express just how strenuously I oppose, categorically reject, and emphatically deny the recent statements regarding a public ex*****on and the continued use of the death penalty within our justice system as a cruel and inhumane interpretation of justice.

As a New Thought minister, my faith is grounded in the foundational principle of Oneness—the understanding that an inherent Divine Essence, Divine Consciousness, or Universal Principle resides not just within every human being but that this Divine Thing ItSelf is every person and all of creation. Because every individual is an expression of the Divine, every human life possesses infinite dignity, worth, and the eternal capacity for spiritual transformation and redemption.

When the state carries out a capital ex*****on—and particularly when it is elevated into a public spectacle—it denies this fundamental truth. Public ex*****ons do not cultivate peace, order, or genuine justice; instead, they appeal to lower states of consciousness, reinforcing cycles of vengeance, division, fear, and collective trauma. By making such a thing a shared reality that is sanctioned by the state, we are distancing ourselves further and further from our humanity as we become more and more entrenched in the "death cult" consciousness and behavior. Centering public life on state-sanctioned violence only deepens a culture of violence against "the other" rather than healing it.

True justice is restorative, not destructive. While we must hold individuals accountable for harm committed against others and support victims and their families with deep compassion and practical care 100%, ending a life forecloses any possibility of redemption, healing, restoration, spiritual growth, evolution, rehabilitation, and amends. We cannot build a peaceful, elevated society, i.e., a world that works for all, through mechanisms rooted in retaliation and the sensationalization of such retaliation as if we were watching the Super Bowl. This is a vile, reprehensible, and repugnant demonstration of political governance.

I invite our leaders, policymakers, clergy of every denomination and classification, and community members to reflect deeply on the values we wish to embody. We can move beyond punitive models of judgment and work toward a justice system that honors the sacredness of life, emphasizes healing, and reflects our highest collective consciousness if we make that our choice and then act!

While "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice," we must be the ones to bend it.

In Peace, Love, and the Power of Healing

Sincerely,

Rev. Kathleen Geier
Founding Minister and Spiritual Director
God at PLAY Virtual Ministry - Center for Spiritual Living Teaching Chapter