Years ago, actually many years ago when I was 30 years old I went through what was (for me) a major psychological crisis.  The details are irrelevant but suffice it to say that I sought out a psychologist for help.  Indeed, he was good at directing my thinking, making me look at myself, and actually giving me "homework".  When I say "homework" I mean that he would give me an assignment for a week that would take me out of the box in which I had place myself.  Then, along the way, he introduced me to a book that changed my life.  The book is (I believe it is still in print) Dr. Wayne Dyer's Your Erroneous Zones.  The main theme of the book that I took away was that you cannot change what happens to you...but you are in charge of how you react to it.  Wow!  I found that so liberating.  If some event was awful to me...it was because I allowed it to be awful to me.  

I am there.

You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by. 
You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice. 
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.

I am at work, though you do not understand My ways. 
I am at work, though you do not understand My works. 
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.

Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me 
as I AM, and then but as a feeling and a faith.

Yet I am here. Yet I hear. Yet I answer. 
When you need ME, I am there. 
Even if you deny Me, I am there. 
Even when you feel most alone, I am there. 
Even in your fears, I am there. 
Even in your pain, I am there.

I am there when you pray and when you do not pray. 
I am in you, and you are in Me. 
Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for 
only in your mind are the mists of "yours" and "mine". 
Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.

Empty your heart of empty fears. 
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there. 
You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all. 
And I AM in all.

Though you may not see the good, good is there, for 
I am there. I am there because I have to be, because I AM.

Only in Me does the world have meaning; only out of Me does the world take form; only because of ME does the world go forward. 
I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of living cells are founded.

I am the love that is the law's fulfilling. I am assurance. 
I am peace. I am oneness.  I am the law that you can live by. 
I am the love that you can cling to. I am your assurance. 
I am your peace. I am ONE with you. I am.

Though you fail to find ME, I do not fail you. 
Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never 
wavers, because I know you, because I love you.

Beloved, I AM there.

                                  James Dillet Freeman 
  
 

In this day when the first headline I read is about the congress voting to defund Obamacare and shutdown the government, to starve children by slashing foodstamps, to allow "sequester" to continue, one does grow so weary and discouraged.  Whatever happened to "change that we can believe in"?  Yet, I realize that the only real change has to begin with me...and I think of the short sweet hymn that I learned at Unity:

I had first heard of this legend when visiting San Francisco in the late 1970s.  Someone at a dinner party fleetingly mentioned that San Francisco was the home to the lost souls of Atlantis...that these souls were gathering here once again and that is why the city was and is so magical.

Herb Caan, a noted columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, on occasion would mention this legend in his column...not in a sneering disbelieving way...but rather it was mentioned as part of the serious lore of San Francisco.  Again, in "Tales of the City" by Armisted Maupin, this legend was also mentioned both in his book(s) and in the television mini-series.

Research on the subject will reveal a few alluring clues.  Mystery upon mystery.  It is enough to stir up anyone's imagination.  For instance, here is something I found tonight on the internet and it is in the author's words not mine:

"According to lore dating back to the 19th century, Golden Gate Park and its surroundings were once the Atlantean city of Tlamco. Whether you believe in Tlamco or not, you can hunt for the location of one of its temples and locate its letterbox. What you are about to read has been esoteric speculation that seems to persist. There are San Franciscans who like to think that they were citizens of Atlantis’ city, Tlamco, in their past lives, and by moving to San Francisco from other places in this lifetime, they are returning “home”.

Some sources say that the civilization of Atlantis was destroyed by an asteroid that struck North America and triggered a series of powerful earthquakes. At that time, upon the site now known as San Francisco, the magnificent city of Tlamco rose to meet the stars (or was swallowed by water and submerged, only to rise once again as Babylon by the Bay).

 Tlamco was constructed around seven sacred sites, each of which had a temple dedicated to planets and other heavenly bodies. It also formed a map of the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades. Ethereal evidence of these temple sites remains to this day, and to find this letterbox, you will have to locate the best preserved Atlantean “power spot”, the Temple of Neptune, located in Golden Gate Park."

Does this not pique the imagination?

There are so many of us that have traveled hundreds and maybe thousands of miles to live in San Francisco.  Most times the decision to move here is caused by nothing more than a simple visit and knowing that one has arrived home.  This was and is true with me.  Did we truly at one time all live and die in Atlantis?

However, there is even a lesser known legend.  This is the legend of the ghost ship that arrives through the Golden Gate whispering out of the fog.  The ship changes with the times.  In the late 1800's it was a majestic clipper emerging from the fog, all lights lit, people crowding the deck in celebration.  The last time it was seen was in the late 1940s and then it was an all white steamer with three funnels...emerging through the fog, all portholes flooded with light, the main decks fully lighted, and each and every deck flooded with people waving and calling to each other in excitement.  It is said, that this ship...whatever it will be this time...is scheduled to arrive again and the time is "soon."

Do you want to learn more about this legendary ship and the souls upon it?  Well, you will have to check back on the eve of Halloween...