I discovered Unity in the 1980s through Unity Magazine when I lived in a small mountain village in northern New Mexico. I liked the articles in the magazine and the prayerful, open, thoughtful attitudes it portrayed.

Unity principles resonate strongly in my life.

I think the fifth of the five main principles, “living the truth that one knows,” is perhaps the most essential since it is an outpouring of love, of God’s tender and generous grace.

This, for me, stems from a long habit of deep, unitive prayer. From this wordless, silent gazing comes a sense of belovedness that radiates outward to others the divine love of God present within myself. That love isn’t something we somehow earn; it is simply there.

Going into the deep Silence at the beginning and end of each day, I rest there and allow myself to be open to presence and to be shown how all the human and created elements of the world are interactive as the “body of God.”

Coming back into the swirl of activity in daily life, I am often suddenly and shockingly shown how this manifests itself, as if it’s emerging from a crystal clear pond that is utterly peaceful.

I think to myself, This is what heaven is—being totally immersed in love and in clarity. We don’t have to wait until after death to taste it.

Centuries ago, the Indian mystic Kabir once said of God, “When you really look for me, you will see me instantly—you will find me in the tiniest house of time.”

It’s true. We find God in everything, and the force of divine love and silent prayer fills us until everything in our lives becomes unitive prayer—God alone, Oneness in everything. We are One.

I think to myself, This is what heaven is—being totally immersed in love and in clarity.

This realization illumines everything else so that even when we are in chaos, we can remain at peace in the knowing that all is well.

Even when we cannot make sense of whatever is happening, we can trust in that higher power to always act in a way that ultimately brings all to the highest possible good.

After my husband died, I moved to California to take a college teaching position and to help my terminally ill mother. Decades later, I am still teaching, and my students are very special to me.

I hope to instill in them some of the principles Unity cofounder Charles Fillmore taught, especially the empowerment of love, the importance of our attitudes and our thinking in cocreating our environment, and the importance of action—of living our truth, the truth of God’s presence within us.

People used to think that only those who can withdraw from the world like monks could find such peace, but those who develop a habit of interior prayer can be “alone with God” even during everyday activities.

In fact, I would argue that the peace that can be found only by abstaining from human contact and everyday concerns might not be real peace at all. If we don’t first seek God within us, we will never find God anywhere else.

Therefore, I am learning to make everything my prayer—the mail carrier on his rounds, the birds soaring overhead, the rain pattering on the roof, the laundry waiting to be folded, the students sitting in my classroom. These are my truths. This is my call to the vocation of love.


This article appeared in Unity Magazine®.

About the Author

Anne Wilson is an adjunct faculty member at the University of San Diego, where she has been teaching composition and literature for the past 23 years. She also teaches occasional courses in multicultural children’s literature, theater arts, and comparative literature at National University’s San Diego campus and has taught for the University of California at San Diego’s extended studies program in creative writing. Wilson has been an instructor at writers’ workshops in California, Washington state, and New Mexico. She’s also published articles in many spiritual, religious, and contemplative magazines and journals, including Unity Magazine as far back as the 1980s

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