What makes Susan Taylor tick? The author and social activist has long employed Unity principles in her daily life. Our own Stephanie Stokes Oliver, who got her start in publishing from the woman who led Essence magazine to success, visits with her former boss and asks her about it all: How Daily Word inspired her, how she found Unity, and why, after 37 years, she chose to leave the magazine that she helped mold.
Q. You've mentioned that Daily Word has been a part of your family for generations. What is your earliest memory of it? How has it continued to inspire you?
A. I don't remember a time when Daily Word wasn't in my life. Both my mother and grandmother would read it every morning along with the Bible. My mother changed her faith from Episcopalian to Catholic so my brother and I could go to the neighborhood Catholic school, which was far better than the public schools in our Harlem community. Then, and for as long as she was able, Babs started her day by saying the rosary and reading her Bible and Daily Word. As she aged, I so loved bringing her the large-print copy each month.
I, too, begin each morning with my Daily Word before moving on to meditation and listening inwardly in silence. No matter what I may be going through, in just a few minutes, reading my Daily Word puts me on a joyful path of understanding and reassurance. I'm reminded that “I am with you always, and all is in divine order.” Common sense and wisdom shine through on every page. The little book has helped me heal huge wounds. It has reminded me to see people's pain and not their behavior, to be forgiving when I've been hurt, to not strike back and put my power in others' unsteady hands. I don't always read Daily Word chronologically. Sometimes I look for the lesson I need or just allow the pages to fall open. The voice of the Divine is always there saying, “Seek harmony, seek peace, seek understanding, seek Me.”
Q. How did you find Unity?
A. I was introduced to the principles Unity teaches during what seemed to be a time of unbearable emotional pain. My first marriage had ended, and I'd lost my business with the relationship. I was 24, a new mother and struggling on every level, which exacted a physical toll. I thought I was having a heart attack, but the doctor in the emergency room that Sunday told me it was an anxiety attack. Relieved and needing to save my last five dollars, I started walking home from Manhattan to the Bronx. A force I didn't understand then pulled me into the United Palace Church, where Rev. Alfred Miller was preaching a sermon that changed my life. “God is alive in you,” he repeated. Raised Catholic, I thought the nuns and priests had the direct line to God and that the quiet sanctuary and the wafer placed on my tongue during communion were holy, not me. Holding on to the thought that God is within me began my transformation and led me to my beloved teachers Eric and Olga Butterworth, whose Unity of New York services took place at Lincoln Center each Sunday, directly across the street from where my daughter, Shana, and I had moved.
Q. What was your relationship with Eric and Olga Butterworth?
A. Eric Butterworth was my minister for more than 25 years. He was a scholar, so wise, so gentle and powerful, but, in retrospect, both of us were shy and never made a deep personal connection. But what I learned from Eric is immeasurable. Truth is, he saved my life. He taught me not to waste my time and energy doubting and fearing and to not run away from myself or try to dampen my pain. He'd say that we are here to learn and grow, that “life is a schoolroom,” and so we must look to the “why of things,” look within—no matter what the challenge—to the Presence and Power, to Oneness. Eric taught his congregation that it's possible to heal any wound through understanding and holding in our hearts and minds the positive thoughts and emotions we want to host and build upon. Near the end of his life when he was losing ability and I was asked to deliver the Sunday sermon at Unity, I finally found the courage to hold him near, to hug and kiss him and express my love and deep gratitude for all he had given me over the years.
Olga sought my friendship, and we came to know and love each other. She was as wise a soul as Eric. Her meditations before his talks each Sunday were reason enough to go to Unity. Her words were healing and would bring the thousands of us in attendance such comfort and peace.
Olga and I found safe harbor in each other. There was trust between us. We both had our insecurities, which we'd share over lunch. We saw greatness in each other that we didn't see in ourselves. She would encourage my work, and I hers. I wanted her to see that, like Eric, she, too, was a minister and that the congregation would benefit from hearing her give talks as well. For Olga it was all about Eric. She just adored the man. I encouraged her to write and to begin with a book to help mature women understand and embrace our wisdom years. She'd send me love notes in green ink in her beautiful handwriting. When Eric started to slip and they began sharing Sunday sermons, Olga reminded me of what I'd been telling her for years. It all worked out in divine order. Her recorded meditations are among my greatest treasures.
Q. Did Unity principles help you as a single parent raising your daughter? Is it informing the values you are passing on to your granddaughter?
A. No doubt, Unity principles helped me stay on course; but if there is one thing I wish I could do over, it is to mother my daughter, Shana. I was impatient, distracted, and at times overwhelmed by the competing pressures of work and parenting solo. Shana felt that I was giving more to Essence, the magazine I edited, than I was to her—and she was right. I raised her while I was raising myself. Unity helped us survive me and some of the unwise choices I made. I was always rushing and dragging my little Shana along—always with my body in one place and my mind far down the road. When Shana went off to college, I began to understand what I had missed and denied her. Only then did I really see the great gift that parenting is.
With my 10-year-old granddaughter, Amina, I feel I've been given a second chance. Unity has helped me understand what matters most in life, and I'm not battling sadness and loneliness or struggling financially and with love relationships as I was when Shana was 10. More than anything, I want Amina to value herself, to respect her mind and intuition, and to love how God made her. I want her to love her skin color, her hair texture and her body, and to not suffer the insecurities most of us females have about our looks. Given the beauty ideal that's elevated and celebrated in Western culture, this is a major challenge for black girls and women. I want Amina to know, as Olga Butterworth would say, that each of us is a “divine original.” I'm thrilled that Shana, my “son-in-love” Bernard, and Amina attend Unity in Norcross, Georgia, where John Strickland is the minister. I hope that in Sunday school Amina and the other children will learn that self-love and service open the way to inner peace and happiness.
Q. In remarrying, do you share that sense of spirituality with your husband?
A. Spiritually, Khephra is light years ahead of me. He doesn't seem to have the neurotic and existential conflicts most of us are working to resolve. He doesn't yearn for material things, has his ego in check, and hardly ever complains. I can wake up my sweetie in the middle of the night to help me out on a project I'm struggling with, and he won't be the least bit annoyed. In fact, he might even finish the work while I go to sleep. Khephra lives love. But don't look for him in church or any organized religious setting. He did love Eric Butterworth, that he was well-read and a philosopher. Khephra, too, is brilliant. He's a writer and an activist. He's passionate about exposing hypocrisy and injustice and ushering in change. This is the point where our souls marry.
Q. At work, when you were the editor-in-chief of Essence, you were known for using Unity languaging—such as "divine order"—with your staff and for praying before power lunches. Your popular monthly editorial, “In the Spirit,” shared spiritual concepts long before other magazines, such as Oprah's, did so. Were you ever afraid to be so bold and to break out of the mold of just stating what was in the magazine that month? Did you ever get much backlash from readers? How did you get comfortable with letting your spiritual light shine so bright?
A. Although black women are far from being a monolithic group, in addition to our shared history, it's our faith in God that transcends class and connects us. Through praise and worship, black women survived the nightmare of slavery and eased the hurts, fears and world-weariness that threaten us today. In the 27 years that I wrote about the power of the divine in us, not a single reader ever questioned why I was writing about God in a lifestyle magazine, although many non-black journalists interviewing me did and still do. What surprised me most was the degree to which readers embraced “In the Spirit.”
During my early days as editor-in-chief, I sensed that some staff members were uncomfortable with my bringing spirituality into the workplace, but no one ever spoke to me about it. I think in time, though, those colleagues who felt uneasy about it came to appreciate working in the caring, compassionate, and loving environment that's created when spiritual values guide behavior. My use of spiritual terms and saying a nonreligious prayer or affirmation then and today when doing business are for those of us gathered to remember that we are there to serve and that, if we follow a moral compass, are humble, and bring our best self to the task every day, we'll deliver at the top tier. Sure, it was and still is a challenge at times to break out of the box and be my authentic self, but at Essence, as is true today with my National Cares Mentoring Movement, which is dedicated to securing our at-risk young, moral and emotional intelligence are the competencies most needed among the leadership working to move black people forward. The African-American community is in a state of emergency. We have no time for infighting, tearing down, or fooling around.
Q. Recently, you made a life-defining decision to leave your position at Essence after 37 years. What part has faith played in that transition? Tell us about your new endeavor, National Cares Mentoring Movement, and how readers can get involved.
A. It was time to put the reins of Essence Communications fully in the next generation's hands, and 37 years of monthly deadlines was quite enough. Now I feel that I have an even higher calling, which is offering a lifeline to black children who are drowning educationally. Today, 57 percent of black fourth graders are functionally illiterate. Underserved schools are the pipeline to a for-profit prison system built on the overincarceration of young black men and women. Most poor black children are in schools without textbooks. In some cities fewer than 18 percent of black males are graduating from high school. AIDS is the primary cause of death among young black women; among young black males, it's homicide. Enough is enough! My community needs me and other privileged people to care more and work more assiduously on its behalf.
The National Cares Mentoring Movement, founded as Essence Cares, is a call to commitment to the black community to secure our vulnerable young. There are more caring white women and men mentoring black children than there are black adults. We are asking every able African American to step up. People can log on to www.caresmentoring.com and input their ZIP code. A list of local, vetted mentoring opportunities will appear on the screen. Choose one, sign up and save a child's life. Another way to help is to make a donation to the mentoring movement that is now in various stages of development in 24 cities. The plan is to form a Cares Mentor-Recruitment Circle in every city and hamlet where our young are in crisis. It's a simple model. Those in the circle initiate and sustain the recruitment effort and connect mentors to local organizations working to serve our vulnerable youngsters in desperate need of adults who will love and help guide them. A minimum of four hours a month is all that's required. Mentoring changes and saves lives. We must do what public policy and political will have not done.
Q. Your new book, which we are excerpting here, is called All About Love. What was the inspiration for it?
A. So many readers have asked me to put their favorite “In the Spirit” columns into one volume. I added my own favorites and expanded many of the offerings to incorporate what I know today about experiencing the fullness of serenity and happiness, and, most important, living with joy and gratitude during these anxious, stress-filled times. All About Love is all about having inner peace and loving relationships. It's about active caring and our commitment to personal transformation and social change.
Q. What's next for Susan L. Taylor?
A. I'm looking forward to spending more time with my beloved Khephra, family and friends and to not wishing people would cut their conversations short so I could get on to the next thing. I want to learn more about personal transformation and how to inspire people to work together for social change. In the wealthiest country in the world, with more highly educated people than anywhere else, we have thirty million hungry people, three million homeless, and millions more who are hopeless. I've been thinking, writing and speaking throughout the nation about these things for many years. Now I am taking action. I learned from my mother and Unity that where there's a will, there's a way. We will secure the most vulnerable among us—poor black children—by pairing them in mentoring relationships with caring adults. We will turn around failing schools and make them the supportive and empowering learning environments that most suburban schools are. This is the only way to end poverty and violence in underserved communities. For every personal and social problem there's a solution; we are creative intelligence, human and divine, made in the image and likeness of God. These are the truths that Unity has instilled in me. These are the spiritual concepts I want to activate on the ground, in suffering communities. I'm investigating how studying at Unity Village might enable this work. A new world is on the way, and I am making myself available to God to help give birth to it.
Let God be God in you. Practice putting your faith in these empowering words: “Thy will be done” and “Though the earth do change, I shall not be moved.”
“Let go and let God.”
We know these words so well, but putting our faith in them is a challenge for us all. So often, without our being aware of it, our negativity blinds us to the good and the gifts that are always around us. How we experience life is always directed by our thoughts; they are creative energy with the power to embolden or terrify us.
We are more than we seem, much more than mere channels for God's activity. We are the very activity of God on earth, created to be earth angels—the eyes, ears and material body of the Master. Spiritual teacher Paramahansa Yogananda, a leader in introducing Eastern philosophy and yoga to the Western world, called us an “Ocean of Life,” each of us a tiny wave. “When in every action you think of Him before you act, while you are performing the action, and after you have finished it,” he said, God in you is revealed to you. “You must work, but let God work through you; this is the best part of devotion,” the revered Indian Guru added. “If you are constantly thinking that He is walking through your feet, working through your hands, accomplishing through your will, you will know Him.”
Every circumstance in our lives is meant to help us end conflict and suffering, awaken us to our powerful spiritual nature and the presence of the Infinite within our bodies and behind everything we encounter. There is no need to doubt or fear, only to connect with the Source.
Not long ago, I was racing to catch a flight to Los Angeles. New York City traffic was at a standstill. As my shoulders began to tense and my stomach tightened, I remembered that there was no need to race. This time, unlike most other times when I travel, my meetings and events weren't scheduled for within hours of my arrival but for the next afternoon.
Practice what you preach, Suga', I told myself. Everything is in divine order: just let go and let God. I would do my best to make the flight, but if I missed it, I'd simply catch the next one.
I arrived at bustling JFK International Airport just minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart, found the least busy person at the ticket counter, and quickly asked him to call the gate and request that they hold my seat. “No way ya gonna make that flight, lady.” was his indifferent response. “Please try for me,” I implored. “Forget about it,” he returned.
Not a chance, I thought, as I headed toward the steps I'd have to climb before making the quarter-mile trek to the gate, with correspondence, newspapers, my computer and the clothing I needed for my week's stay in tow. But I was cool.
I moved swiftly and surely, telling myself to breathe deeply and rhythmically and surrender the outcome to Spirit. How confident we feel, how smoothly life unfolds, when we see that we have choices, and that nothing we need is at risk. Though anxiety would have overtaken me had I feared missing the flight, I witnessed how easily things come together—synchronicity, it's called—when we consciously let God handle the details—keep the faith and expect the best.
All along our path God has placed guardian angels to help us: A woman carrying only a handbag helped me up the stairs with my gear; a man in a motorized cart breezed me through a tunnel and the terminal. When we got stuck at security, he urged me to go on to the gate—he would manage the bags and meet me there. I arrived at the gate as they were about to give my seat away.
Sitting comfortably in that seat as we ascended through a canyon of cotton-white clouds, I marveled at how mysterious and finely choreographed life is and how much our attitude has to do with the way our experiences unfold. Fear is having faith in false evidence—in the illusion of random hazards, chaos and setbacks rather than in the reality of divine order. Fear blinds us to the truth that whenever you take a few positive steps, God gives you wings. How different our lives would be if we'd just remember our interconnectedness with the Holy Spirit, our Oneness.
How's your life working? Is there carnage in the urban community in your town? And what about the killing field the earth has become? Everywhere there is hunger and poverty, government dishonesty, loss of liberties, terrorism, war, theft of the national wealth. The pain in the world is an echo of our own pain, the life-destroying consequences of our forgetfulness and fear. We are learning the hard way that we must integrate the spiritual, our faith in God, into every aspect of our life.
Women and men committed to a spiritual life have to honor the bringing of peace and harmony to our personal, political, sexual and social worlds. We can't say we love God and then curse someone out. Can't say we are serving God and then not stand strong for justice. Our spiritual practice is irrelevant if we're just uttering “Have a blessed day” but doing nothing to bring blessings to the people suffering all around us—with the most vulnerable of these the children.
It's downright destructive to our community to support preachers whose ministries are all about show, building emporiums and taking the spoils of the pulpit without leading their congregations to do God's work. Today, we need literacy and job training and mentors for our young. Today's Civil Rights Movement demands that our churches and temples be dedicated to after-school homework help for neighborhood children, turning failing schools into safe, top-tier learning environments, as well as to embracing men and women coming out of prison and helping them find their footing, stay drug free, get workforce-ready and become entrepreneurs.
Having a true spiritual life requires more than having compassion for ourselves. We must also have compassion for others, must become emboldened with the courage needed to act on behalf of those struggling along the margin of our margin as we deepen our understanding of Oneness. A true spirituality has no boundaries between the inner and outer life. And it is revolutionary when directed toward justice. The only way God can end conflict, domination and suffering on Earth is through us. We are the light in this long disheartening night. Courage comes easily when you have a sense of higher purpose, and the fact is, few things are as fulfilling and empowering as fighting for social change.
Be on guard against fearful thinking every moment of your life. The minute you feel fear, remember to let go of it and let God handle the matter. Every time you succeed in turning away from fear, you strengthen your trust in God and your ability to live by the Authority imbued in you. Practice giving way to the Holy Spirit in the small things that happen to you each day. Challenge yourself to see God everywhere, in everyone and in all that comes your way. This will change your life: it will melt the fear that has held back love and joy.
No matter what the emptiness, God is the fullness. Practice putting your faith in these empowering words: “Thy will be done.” Echo the words of the Psalmist, “Though the Earth do change. I shall not be moved,” Let God be God as you.
SUSAN L. TAYLOR is editor-in-chief emeritus of Essence magazine, and over the decades has been the heart behind this most respected African-American brand. From 1981 to 2000, she served as the magazine's editor-in-chief, and in that role she began writing her column, In the Spirit.
Excerpted rom: All About Love: Favorite Selections From "In the Spirit" on Living Fearlessly, copyright © 2008 by Susan L. Taylor. Published by Urban Books.
