One of my favorite gospel songs is “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.” I like to interpret the lyrics metaphysically, knowing that to walk with Jesus is to acknowledge that the Christ consciousness lives within us.

Sometimes people who are new to Unity find this concept confusing, thinking we believe Jesus, the man, resides inside of us.

What we believe is that the Christ consciousness that Jesus demonstrated is available to all of us; accessing it is as easy as affirming that we are all expressions of God's divine idea.

And so we dedicate this issue to finding God, inside and out.

With vacation season firmly under way, many people seize upon this annual break from the routine as their only opportunity to recharge their lives. It needn't be that way, as Paul John Roach notes in the cover story “Beholding Heaven on Earth,” on page 10. We can reconnect with Spirit by simply taking a walk and communing with nature, he notes. Indeed, these uncommon experiences can be found in our own backyards!

That said, many of us travel great distances in our quest to find God. Our literature is filled with everyday heroes—from Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz to Odysseus of Homer's Odyssey—who learn the truth of themselves on their journeys.

With this in mind, we interviewed Kristin Powell, a Unity minister who leads the Unity Rising travel ministry, to find out her favorite spiritual destinations. That story, on page 14, details her most meaningful journeys, pilgrimages that fed her soul growth.

In the spirit of Unity, we honor the idea that connecting with God doesn't take place in the outer world, but rather within ourselves. In her account of her 40-day silent retreat on page 20, Rev. Paulette Pipe tells us how she continues to receive guidance from her time of deep reflection.

So with that, I hope you have new ideas for how to savor the idle moments that summer brings. Remember, my friends, there's no place like home, metaphysically speaking.

Your fellow traveler,
Toni Lapp, Editor
lapptm@unityonline.org