A Labor of Love
“We have a song to sing; we have a joy to bring to the world…”
Quotation of Ernest Holmes
What song are you singing in your life? How does that song expand the world you live in and the world we all share? Over ten years ago, a beloved volunteer for the Science of Mind Archives, began expanding the world we all live in and share. Through her love and deep passion for Ernest Holmes, she helped to bring the Science of Mind Archives into a place where we can all share Ernest Holmes words, writings, lectures, and books. And it started for her the same way it started for all of us…..
How many of us when first confronted with the main textbook of our church, The Science of Mind, thought, “Really, I have to read this?” Well, that is the same way Nan Agriesti , a Practitioner from San Diego, felt when she first joined a Science of Mind church and began taking classes on her way to becoming a practitioner. But, then as she continued her journey of love and learning, she embraced passionately Ernest Holmes’ words and teachings. She hungered for more from him, and she began searching the Internet on Amazon, Alibris, and Powell Books trying to find all the books of his that she could discover. She searched far and wide for out-of-print books, so that she could read them all and absorb all that Ernest Holmes shared with the world. Some were in pretty bad shape, so she began scanning them, and sometimes retyping material that was not being read by her early scanner, and putting them on her computer, so she could save them for posterity.
Then at an Asilomar retreat in the early 2000’s, Nan heard of the Science of Mind Archives that Dr. Marilyn Leo had established in Burbank. Nan thought to herself, “That sounds interesting,” so she contacted Dr. Leo and asked if she could volunteer. She didn’t even tell Dr. Leo of the work she was already doing at home of scanning and transcribing all the old books she could find. She started making the long drive through heavy traffic from San Diego to Burbank once a week to help Dr. Leo by sorting and filing the materials that Dr. Leo had collected.
Nan shared her passion for the project with a friend Patti Paris, who is now Reverend Paris. Nan told Patti, “You won’t believe what is up there.” Patti, too, was so impressed with Dr. Leo’s project and began to drive up with Nan to assist in getting the material organized, catalogued, and scanned for the archives.
Nan’s work in scanning the documents became a second full-time job at times. She would come home from her full-time job, eat dinner, and begin scanning and typing until eleven at night for four or five days a week. One of the first documents that Nan scanned and had to retype using her early scanner, which could not read the whole document, was the 1926 Commentary on the Science of Mind textbook; there are only about 100 copies of it out there.
Nan remarked with passion, “Spirit called me to do this work. It is a labor of love. Ernest Holmes’ words are just as relevant for today as when he first wrote them. I wanted to make them available for all to read—forever. It means so much to me.”
So, the Archives you are exploring, searching in, downloading books from right now exists because of the love and dedication of volunteers who felt a calling and a passion….
Ernest Holmes said, “We may use this creative word for whatever purpose we desire….” Here at the Science of Mind Archives we are very grateful for Nan Agriesti!
If you have an interest in volunteering with the Science of Mind Archives please email info@somarchives.org.