Terry Cole-Whittiker

 

 Terry at home at Mt. Shasta.

 

One day in San Diego, California, I stood in our front yard and called out to the Great Spirit: "I want this to stop and I want it now."

I had privacy as our yard faced a canyon, and from my cry, you might surmise that my life was in turmoil.

The following Sunday, I went to Terry Cole-Whittiker's church, and I've been on a spiritual roll ever since.

Yesterday, July 27, I mentioned Terry on my blog, and after that, I checked to see if she had posted anything recently. She hadn't. And then, I found that she had passed away peacefully in her sleep on October 22, 2024.

At first, I didn't believe it, for when you look up people on the internet, many times they will say they have died. But I kept searching, and I guess it's true.

I had spoken with her, I thought, within the year. I had emailed her and thanked her once again for the workshop I took with her at Mt Shasta in 2023. She said she would call, and we could catch up. We spoke on the phone, and I found that she was living in a Tiny House in Washington State, I think in Olympia.

This powerhouse of a woman once began a ministry for Science of the Mind in La Jolla, CA. She moved to San Diego and started Terry Cole-Whittiker's ministry, where she grew her congregation from 50 in La Jolla to over 5,000 in a Sunday service in San Diego. She also spread her message further through a television program.

I was a Sunday regular. That was home, and from that I branched out into other teachings.

During one of Terry's classes, she asked all of us to stand up, grasp the back of the chair in front of us, and grip it. Hold on. Hold on," she kept telling us.

Finally, some of us let go.

"Why did you let go?' she asked.

A voice piped up, "Because we were tired of holding on."

"That's the reason we let go of things," she said.

One day, I volunteered at their offices to take telephone calls, listen to questions, and say a prayer for the person.

When I walked into the room, I told the person in charge that I didn't know what I was doing."

"You'll learn it by doing," she said, pointed to the phone, and turned me loose with no monitoring.

I was impressed with her attitude and happy that I didn't have someone looking over my shoulder. I took the calls and had a blast.

Finally, Terry said that the ministry was running her, not the other way around, so she stopped. She moved on, being her own person, writing books, setting up workshops in Hawaii, traveling to India, and ultimately moving into nature.

She settled in Mt. Shasta, Oregon.

A few years ago, I decided to drive from our town outside Eugene, Oregon, to Mt. Shasta for a weekend retreat with Terry.  It was over a July 4 weekend, and the workshop consisted of one other person besides me.

Terry cooked Vegetarian for us, and on the second day, drove us to an alpine Meadow on Mt Shasta. I had never visited an Alpine meadow, and I was awe stricken. Water prickled through the meadow, flowers were in blossom, it was open and green, and astoundingly beautiful. We walked into the forest and followed a trail to a lake where we could dip our feet in mountain water, and throughout the walk and the day, Terry taught the principles for which she has become known.

 And I have never felt more loved.

After we closed for the weekend, Hanna, my fellow participant, had taken this retreat before and was thus relatively quiet during the discussions, wanting me to have the experience, escorted me to the town of Mt. Shasta to see the "Headwaters" of Mt. Shasta.

At the City Park, there is a pond where 50-year-old, hand-numbingly cold-water rushes from the ground through moss-covered rocks into a clear pool called "Big Springs."

Every day, people come with jugs to collect the water.  According to a 2009 study commissioned by California Trout, water bubbling from Big Springs – from an aquifer of the same name – fell high on the slopes of Mt. Shasta more than 50 years ago.

This is the same aquifer that Crystal Geyser taps for its water from a manufacturing facility on Ski Village Drive. The company has private wells and water rights to water from Mt. Shasta.

Terry’s home was a farm house in an open countryside in a beautiful setting, surrounded by lush green pastures, and no houses close by. She ran around barefoot connected to the ground she adores, and took people on spiritual excursions.

From high stakes in San Diego, a darling of Hollywood, and once wearing designer suits and high heels, she at Mt. Shasta, bought clothing from the local Thrift store, walked barefoot through a mountain meadow, preaching as she had always done.

Terry was home.

"Thank you for Loving Me," a video of Terry Cole-Whittiker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20VJdlMKG6g/

Love you girl.

Blessings on your journey. 

 

 Terry in her meadow.

Something is Stirring

For a long time, I've been interested in self-help books, seminars, workshops, Tony Robbins, Abraham, and bodywork. I've taken two six-month trainings in—now, so many years later, I don't know what to call those two full days a week for a year. They included rebirthing, spirituality, a sharing of feelings, and a process that leaders called a Breakthrough. From what to what? I used to think that if it wasn't painful, it wasn't working.

Well, that's a bunch of crap.

After all that, I'm glad I did it, now I am at a crossroads. Perhaps you feel that way too, feeling confused, angry, and physically tired in a way that lying down doesn't alleviate. We are seeing the collapse of many things we hold dear; things we thought would last forever.

Yet something is stirring. Do you feel it?

Something is happening.

Not the deportation of people, the threats of losing citizenship, the firing of comedians, the silencing of voices, of public media threatened, not all that.

It’s a rising up of people.

  

A new day is coming, a day filled with hope and joy, where we care for each other, the earth, the animals, plants, water, and even things we don't consider living.  

Consider this: even gangs and mobsters are loyal to their families. They have a shared belief, not necessarily a good one, but with it comes a need to belong—to love and be loved.

In moments of crisis, we rise to the occasion. We are good people. Some people would jump into ice-cold water to save a stranger or an animal in need. We talk people off bridges so they don't jump off. We care at a level we don't even know we have.

I hear voices crying in the wilderness. They are calling forth a new day. They are the hope of the future.

Can you hear them?

Can you feel them?

Notice how it feels when you walk into a room full of people.

Part of that feeling comes from your own anxiety, but you know when you feel safe and when you don't. You know when you are welcome and when you aren't.

 

I used to attend a Church in San Diego, California, whose minister was Terry Cole-Whitticker. The day I walked into that church, I felt at home. 

Terry's church rang, it sang, it danced. It was positive. Terry spoke while looking at the audience, she spoke of good things not bad. She told the choir to memorize their songs so they sang directly to the people. 

One day, at a service, a man gave me a flower, and that simple flower meant so much. How can we make it better? You give it to someone else. How much love can a single flower give? 

One day Terry said that if we brought a hurting person into that room all the love that was stirring would heal them. This energy level takes more than one person. 

But Terry was one person with a dream and determination, she brought people together, motivated them, and they synergistically raised the collective consciousness.

When you leave this blog my hope is, my determination is, that you will feel uplifted.

 

 

 

"We're the ones to make a brighter day, so let's start giving."

                         --written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie

"We're The Ones to Make A Brighter Day" is the largest-selling Charity single record In 1985 it raised more than $80 million (equivalent to $229 million in 2024) for the people of Africa impacted by the 1985 famine.

 

"It's in every one of us to be wise…"

—song by David Pomeranze

I'm singing that song today.

 

Forgive me but this made me laugh so hard I have to post it.

From Scotland: