One Mighty River

These words are on a brass plaque outside the door to the Pavilion at Sunrise Ranch.

Listed in the Colorado Register of Historic Properties
Sunrise Ranch
Founded 1945

Sunrise Ranch has served as a Center for spiritual growth,
holistic education, and thriving agriculture since 1945.

Founded by Lloyd Arthur Meeker and a small band of pioneers,
Sunrise Ranch has been developed and sustained by generations of
people devoted to bringing spiritual and cultural regeneration to the world.

Designated in 2025 as a state historic landmark in recognition of
its enduring, spiritual, agricultural, and architectural contributions.

This plaque celebrates the fact that Sunrise Ranch has been recognized as an historic property by the State of Colorado. We were an historic property before they recognized us, but it’s nice to be recognized.

The plaque references people who have contributed to the development of this place over decades. That includes people who have lived and worked here for shorter and longer periods of time, in the past and today. This plaque is an honoring of all those people. And it includes people globally who have participated with us and who have contributed financially to the well-being of Sunrise Ranch over many years. Thank you, thank you.

Recently, we’ve been speaking about the mighty River of Spirit. I’d like to reflect with you on how rivers work and the entire pattern of the water cycle.

We think of the mighty Mississippi River that runs down the center of North America. There are other smaller rivers that come into it and all kinds of streams and rivulets that come into them. All together, they form the mighty Mississippi. That’s a symbol of Sunrise Ranch. We are a mighty river.

There are many rivulets and many streams that come into this one mighty river. But a mighty river it is, bringing something unified and powerful into the world.

Think about the water cycle. It all starts in one place. There is one sky, and rain falls from that sky over the earth. Many raindrops create rivulets, streams, and creeks. And yet it started as one thing and it comes together into one thing, one river that flows into one sea. We give different names for different oceans around the world, but they are all connected, ultimately, in one vast ocean. Water evaporates from the vast ocean to begin the water cycle all over again.

Kind of like us. We all came from one place. There is one reality out of which we were born. Unless you came from the Pleiades or some other remote part of the universe. The truth is that there is but one invisible realm out of which we were all born into these individual experiences, and in some way that individuality is never relinquished. But we have an opportunity to come together just as the mighty Mississippi brings together many other rivers. We have the opportunity to remember that we came from one place. We are part of one reality. We have one thing to do together.

We, at Sunrise Ranch, are here to remind the world of that. But first, we must know it deeply for ourselves. There is no point in telling everybody else about it if we don’t know the reality. That’s just mouthing off, and it doesn’t go very far. But if we come to know this deeply in ourselves, we can bring the remembrance of it to other people, one person at a time.

It was brought vividly to my awareness recently that there’s a certain amount of noise in the human experience. There could be static in our own heads and hearts. If we are to be of service to another person, it’s essential that we have the ability to cut through whatever noise there is. Not to deny it’s happening, not to put anyone down for what’s happening. But we have to cut through the noise if we are to reach out and speak to the heart and soul of another person. In essence, saying, Yes, I know all that’s going on, but I’ve got something else for you to consider and receive into your heart.

We have the opportunity to speak for the Mighty River. It is the reality that cuts through the noise.

News flash here this morning: We live in a messy world—messy people and a messy culture. What do we do in the face of the noise created by that mess? There can be a recoil. There can be a turning away from the grief and shock of it all.

There’s all kinds of places people retreat to—perhaps to a beach, or someplace else far from where they are. One place people retreat to is spirituality. Yes, they go looking for a spiritual answer to the craziness that they’ve encountered in the world in which we live. I wouldn’t put anybody down for doing that. It’s a good place to look for an answer. But there is an answer to find in what we call spirituality. We can say it is “within.” We go searching for something and the idea of a search is to find what we are looking for. The ultimate goal of a spiritual search is to find the Mighty River within oneself. It is not just to escape from the world in which we live. It is to find the Mighty River, to know that and to let it into one’s own experience so that there is an answer to bring into this world in which we live. Then there is something coming through us that cuts through the noise.

I’ve been noticing that for spiritual people there can be a tendency—perhaps as a reaction to the shock of what a person has encountered in the world—to retreat into spirituality, never to return. It may be that a person never comes to understand that the wonder they touch in spirituality—the majesty of it, the glory of it—is not meant simply as a place of retreat. It is the source of life, after all. It is the source of creativity in oneself and in everybody else. It is the answer for the world in which we live. It’s not only a vacation spot.

To hold on to that experience, we have to open to it, not just touch it, not just visit there. We have to let the River flow deep into our souls. Because you’re not going to break through the noise of somebody else or the culture around you if you cannot break through your own noise. We have to break through our own personal brand of messiness and let something else come through our own heart, soul, and mind. Then the River can move through us to another person.

I don’t know about you, but even though I’ve written three books now, I’m not satisfied with coming off to the world as saying something erudite, clever—even spiritually clever—or spiritually articulate. That’s not my goal. My goal is to say something to the world that cuts through the noise, that penetrates, that is relevant, that changes and transforms.

I’m not interested in a spiritual smugness. I’m interested in the River of Life that is the answer for me and is the answer for the world in which we live.

Recently here, we’ve been speaking about the need for a universal priesthood. I’m not speaking of robes or special hats. Hmmm. Maybe we’d have more people coming to our services if we passed out special hats. No, I’m not talking about that. I’m not talking about a denominational priesthood or a cultural priesthood. I’m speaking about a universal priesthood. The world needs this. Humanity needs this—people who will bring us back to the one Mighty River from which we came.

We are here to remember. And as that song, Love, Serve and Remember, says so beautifully, when we remember, we love and serve. Our love and service is what cuts through the noise of the world in which we live.

What cuts through the noise. Another word for it would be authenticity. It is hard, perhaps impossible, to define. But we know it when we encounter it—an authentic person, not an erudite person, and certainly not a smug person.

Maybe the word authenticity gives some hint about what this is about. I haven’t looked up its origin, but I hear the word author in there. I think of an author of a written work. But here we are talking about the author of the human experience. This is not just speaking about such things in erudite ways. We are talking about allowing the ultimate Author to speak through oneself. When the true Author in ourselves speaks and we know ourselves as that, that is authenticity. It is authentic Love. It is an authentic human being.

Here’s what I’ve found: we have no other substantial reality beyond that or apart from it. There is nothing real about us except that. It can express in all kinds of ways. And all those ways that the Author expresses through a human being—culturally, artistically, in work, in play, whatever it is—all of those expressions become authentic when it’s who we are as the Author of our experience that is speaking, expressing, and being embodied in our life. When someone does that, Ding! You’ve probably had the experience as I have. You meet somebody who is coming from that place, it rings the bell. That’s me. I hear and I feel the Mighty River roar. I hear it in you. I feel it in myself.

There is the joy of plurality, meaning that we are individual and distinct. We have unique personalities. We have a unique presence, we are a unique being, each one of us. There is the joy of knowing ourselves as that. And then there’s the hubbub of vibrational conversation and creativity that we get up to together, and the sense that we’re part of one Mighty River of Beings who know themselves and each other.

That’s what we’ve been devoted to here at Sunrise Ranch. We are here for people who are looking for that, to give them a fresh drink of water when they come.

We make a good attempt at sharing who we are and what we’re about with the world. We create websites, newsletters, e-mails, get onto Google, all those things. Yet what’s really happening is at another level of things. The power of the River is flowing. That’s what matters. For people who are tuned in, they feel that. They’re looking for that in their life. And if you got it, they want it. They want it from you. What it takes from each one of us is the courage to cut through the noise in ourselves and then the courage to cut through the noise with somebody else.

I had a vivid experience of that this week. Those experiences help the real need to become emblazoned across your mind. I was with a person who needed somebody and something to cut through their noise. I’m not saying they are a noisy person. But still, there are times when we need that as a soul. And, thank God, there was something in me that saw the need and knew just what to do, which was to be there in love and essentially say, I’m here with you. I’m here for you. I’m here in love. You’re here in love. And I believe in you. I believe in the power of the River in you. And whatever else is going on, it’s smaller than that River. I believe in who we are together.

And I say that to Sunrise Ranch, and I say that to Emissaries of Divine Light, and I say it to my world every day. I believe in you and I believe in who we are together. I believe in the River that we are. I believe in the River of Life that is the reality of humanity.

Thank you for being with me in saying that to yourself, your neighbor, and the world.

We form a social body. But more importantly, we form a spiritual body, and what’s happening in this spiritual body is powerful. There is lightning and thunder. And because of that, there’s a Mighty River. So wonderful to be a part of that right here and now.