I feel grateful to be writing this blog with enthusiasm and joy in my heart as it wasn’t that long ago that I was living a very sad and depressed life.  I had “bottomed out” several times and, for those who haven’t experienced depression, it is literally a feeling where you don’t think you can go much farther down.  I dreaded getting up in the mornings and even though I had a fair amount of success (two great kids, a devoted husband, career, etc.), life held little meaning and the depression was getting worse year after year.  

I had given up on life – until one day, I found hope at the Center of Light.   I felt peace in the teachers and priests and learned of the possibility of having this for myself.  I realized then that this was what I had been searching for without really knowing it.  I began to attend classes and services and life began to take on new meaning.  I found myself smiling in the mornings instead of dreading getting out of bed.   I became present to my children and began to reconnect to my husband.  Life got better.

And as I have traveled this path, I have learned that I am a soul with strength and power to do whatever it is I choose.  I have learned that my joy comes from a real and meaningful relationship with God, Jesus and Mother Mary.  I have experienced this as reality and it has changed my life.  

I now experience peace daily, moment to moment, wherever I am.  I live in the present without fears of the past weighing on my hopes for the future.  I know myself to be a soul that is eternal.  And I am in love with my God who brings me the greatest joy I have ever experienced.  

I am blessed!

By Deacon Leona