Using the ancient spiritual principles taught in Unity has allowed me to walk through my mourning. Seven years after my husband’s sudden death, I am no longer trying to get through my grief because these teachings let me walk alongside my grief.

I have been a Unity Truth student since 1989. I was hungry back then to learn spiritual principles, and now I am committed to living my life intentionally within them.

In 2004 when Tom Lee asked me to marry him, he suggested going on a two-year honeymoon with him through the Unity ministerial education program.

Actively choosing my thoughts after prayerful consideration, remembering who and whose I am, and knowing God is present are all allowing my new life tapestry to be created and woven with the threads of peace and wholeness.

As a newly married ministerial student, I am not sure I was awake to the gift of being mindful. Believe me, Tom’s unexpected death in 2012 forced me to become aware. I needed something to ground me, something to hold on to. I was searching for something that gave clarity to my being a widow at 53.

My go-to question was and is: “What does my soul want me to know so much that it would have me be in this situation?” Of course, after my husband, cominister, and spiritual partner made his transition, I asked myself the question. And the answer I heard was, You’ve got to live what you know. You’ve got to live the Unity principles.

Living the Unity Principles

Principle 1 is: God is Absolute Good, everywhere present. My task was to get myself back to knowing this not only in my head but also in my heart. Even in the midst of my greatest life transition and suffering, God was present. I had to recognize I was the one who had forgotten, not God. This reawakened awareness for me. I remembered who I was.

Principle 2 says: I have a spark of divinity within me. I am inherently good. Being a widow did not change this Truth of me. Being a widow did not, could not, and would not diminish my spark.

Principle 3 states: I create my experiences by the activity of my thinking. I recognized I had let the grief in my heart influence my thinking. I began to ask why I had distanced myself from my spiritual knowledge. This was a big aha for me. I was able then to shift my thinking and live from conscious intention.

Principle 4 says: Prayer is creative thinking that heightens the connection with God-Mind. I had let go of my once-dedicated prayer life. Just because my prayer partner, Tom, was physically gone did not mean I had to stop praying.

Because of my grief, I was inspired to return to prayer and what felt like communion with God. God-Mind is where I needed to be and where I want to be today because the principle continues, “It brings forth wisdom, healing, prosperity, and everything good.” I say, “Yes, please!”

Actively choosing my thoughts after prayerful consideration, remembering who and whose I am, and knowing God is present are all allowing my new life tapestry to be created and woven with the threads of peace and wholeness.

I am filled with gratitude, which today is out-picturing as my living and being the fifth and maybe the most important teaching.

Principle 5: Knowing and understanding the laws of life, also called Truth, is not enough; we must live the Truth we know.

Living the Truth is my commitment to my husband’s memory and his rich Unity legacy. I am God expressing today as a stepmom to three and grandmother (Nana) to seven, a minister, and forever Truth student. I continue to live through my grief with the foundation of spiritual principles as my five guideposts on this path I call life.


Excerpted from the Unity booklet Grief Is a Spiritual Practice.

About the Author

Rev. Therese Lee is the minister at Unity of Hilton Head, South Carolina. To learn more about these spiritual teachings, Unity invites you to read the book The Five Principles by Rev. Ellen Debenport.

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