Generational Legacy: Reflections on Service, Self-Care, and Spiritual Growth • Guest Lecture by Reginald Almond

Sunday, May 3rd, 2026

We welcome you to read the lecture transcript below, watch the video, and/or share your thoughts in the comments!

About the Guest Lecturer

Reginald Keith Almond is a United States Army veteran, retired retail manager, certified Reiki Level II practitioner, and spiritual caregiver who brings a lifetime of wisdom, compassion, and service to his work with others. Alongside his wife, Angela, he served for over ten years as a hospice volunteer chaplain, offering comfort and spiritual presence to individuals and families during life’s most sacred transitions. Reginald also served as a deacon and ordained minister at the former New World Community Church, a nondenominational Christ Center that welcomed people of all faiths. He also served as a facilitator for one year during the early formation of the Kidz-n-Grief program, helping young people ages 13–17 process the loss of loved ones through creative and supportive approaches to healing. Known for his calm presence and thoughtful insight, Reginald shares perspectives on resilience, compassion, and the healing power of love and spiritual presence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h1VaGSnaSc

Generational Legacy: Reflections on Service, Self-Care, and Spiritual Growth

A lecture by Reginald Almond

Opening: A Word on Memory

Peace be multiplied unto you. As I was listening to Branden speak (reading my intro), I said, "Is that me??" But I appreciate the opportunity to share with you. I really would just like to talk about you and talk about us in terms of where this chapel has gone and from my perspective and what I have seen. And not so much as trying to share something with you that you don't know because all of you have been around a long time. You have seen a lot of things, you have seen a lot of people come and go. So I just wanted to share with you some words.

Now I am big on when a song, and there is a phrase in a song and it sticks with me and I can't shake it, so I am going to share one or two with you. And also when I read, I used to be a big reader. Really liked to read a lot, had a lot of books, but as my memory starts to fade a little bit and I was making some changes. So I sought out some help with my memory. And it is about Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. And it is by [neuroscientist] Lisa Genova. But one thing happened is I was reading this book about your memory. I forgot to read it. And I ran across it just recently when I was looking for some things that I remember. I said, I forgot about that book. Maybe I will get back to it.

What Is a Generational Legacy?

But the thing I wanted to share with you is, in a general sense, it is called generational legacy. And I said, let me find out and make sure that that is an appropriate title. I heard it from somewhere here online, TV years ago. So I went to my dictionary. Remember those things we used to use, dictionary? And this one was a New World Webster dictionary. 1971, 76, and 1983 edition. So obviously it did not have generational legacy in it. But it did say generation, and it talked a lot of different things. But what I pulled from it was, and it said, bringing into being and production. And I thought that was interesting, but you know we had to go to AI to get a whole different thing. So in AI, I want to share it with you quickly.

"A generational legacy is a thought, perspective, and or belief that is emotionally or culturally passed down from our families. It is the lens through which we see the world that is shaped by our parents, grandparents, key influences, and all can also be influenced by the culture, in the city and events that occur."

It is a shaping of our generational legacy. That is what has happened here over the last 40 years. Doesn't matter if they came for a day, came for a week, came for a month. That is part of what you are doing. I think about my kids when they were growing up and I see the young ones. In the time of the church, Angie and I, our family was a part of, there always going to be something in them that remembers where we were, what we taught them, how to treat people, how to grow, how to be proud of being a Black person.

Okay, I would be proud of a lot of things because for some reason in our human nature, you know, we always seem to find something that we don't like. You are too tall, you are too short, you are gay, you are white, you are Asian, you are from India, you are vegetarian. It is always something instead of looking at those things that we have in common. I will touch bases on that, but that is what I really wanted to share with you.

Take Care of Yourself

Also, as I see all of you working and doing things when I first got here, you know, I am looking, checking out the room, seeing who said what. And some things, like I don't know why this sticks out of my mind. I remember seeing Trish carrying a bag of garbage out. And I am going, you know, and everybody is working, doing what they, you know, everybody knows what they want to do. They are sharing it. They are tripping. There is no aspect of who is supposed to be doing this and who is supposed to be doing that. Everybody is helping.

And I thought that was a really good thing, but what I wanted to really emphasize for all of you who are here is to take care of yourself. Okay, when the gifts that you have, people are going to expect more from you. And that is a tiring process. Those of you who do readings, you are going to do a reading for someone and say, love is coming into your life. And if it is a woman, they want to know, where does he look like? How tall is he? Where is he from? Does he have money? What is his religion? They want more from you than you have to offer. They don't want no specifics.

So all those things that you have to take care of yourself, you have to eat right. You have to be mindful of your nutrition. And as my daughter shared with me, nutrition is more than just what you eat. You have to get out and enjoy yourself. Where is a concert? Where you like reading? Men have a particular difficulty as we get older, we tend to be solitary by ourselves. Women tend to be more social. Maybe that is why women live longer than men. I don't know. So you want to do these things and find those things that you enjoy, exercise some type of activity, family and friends because of what you are doing here, you know, requires a lot of you.

And I remember someone talking about, I think it was Reverend Stanley, that it is all for free. All the things that you share and give is freely. And that is a fantastic thing. So that is a legacy that you are living, you are leaving for other people where your children are people who just come through. I remember someone talking about an oasis. Might have been Reverend Whitley or Reverend Stanley and they talked about how people come and people go. They come get a little drink, a little, you get to understand a lot of tension in the world. And that is a good thing, you know, but I want you to be mindful how you take care of yourself because if you are not taking care of yourself, you can't take care of others.

"If you are not taking care of yourself, you can't take care of others."

Okay, very simple. Nothing profound about that, but it is something I wanted to remind you of.

From Traditional Church to Christ Center

And along the way, in the bio, it mentioned that my wife and I and my family had been in a Christ center. A point I wanted to make was it didn't start that way. It started as more of a traditional Black church, and it grew into the aspect of the understanding of a Christ center. There was a growth involved. And that growth was difficult, okay? But it was really good. I really enjoyed it. It gave us a sense of pride. It was an intellectual aspect and I loved to read. So I read, you know, it was a good thing and things we taught our kids and that always be with us.

But as we went forward, we grew. Now Angela and I, my wife, we were always busy in other places, other locations and other churches and then running across different types of people. And one place was Hillside Truth Center, which is a unity church in Atlanta, and all this happened in Atlanta.

A Story About Angie's Power

So I have got to tell you this story. Angie is going to kid me. I don't think I told anybody else about this. Angie and I had taking a class together. It was called Lessons in Truth at Hillside. And we had finished the class. And so we had church that day. And it was a large church. It was packed. A lot of people were there.

The pastor at that time was a woman, tall Black lady, about 6'4", 6'5", had a great spiritual and physical presence. And so that day they were going to recognize all the couples who had finished the class. You are coming into the church and then it ushers a place in you where you need to go. You know how it is. It happens here. There is crowded, you can't sit with who you came with. So Angela is sitting in one place. I am sitting in front of her. Okay? Couple of rows, maybe four or five rows.

So I am sitting down. So what happens as the church goes in progress? I look to my left and there came in my junior senior prom date. She didn't realize I am sitting here by myself because the row is empty. So she slides over with her arm around me. And this is when I knew Angie had real power. Because I am telling you, after a few minutes, and she was talking, and it is a looking lady, and we were talking, I could feel that heat on my left shoulder. What was that? Was that Superman that had the laser vision? Yeah. Then it was my right shoulder. I said, oh, Lord. As the pastor was speaking, she said, now it is time for us to stand and recognize those couples. So I stand up, and the young lady goes, oh.

She put her arm down and after the pastor spoke, I looked and she was gone. Never saw her again. And I am thinking, I hope Angie didn't hurt her.

Unconditional Love and a Sense of Authenticity

I am going to hear about that one later on. One of the things that really struck me, and there other things that struck me as I came here, one thing was I had this thing about what I call conditional love. People will love you as long as you live right, you treat people right, and you know, you are in service, but you have to belong to this organization. Somehow another those blessings will go beyond you. And I didn't sense that here. I enjoy the fact that it was true sense of love.

You know, everywhere you go, you check it out. I learned that when I was a young young man, I was running a lot of older guys and they said, you know, little brother, you got to check out the room. You got to sit in the back. And that is why today I still sit in the back. And he wants to sit up front. I want to sit in the back because I want to see.

But I think that is really, really important that you take care of yourself and the things that happen. I have learned a lot. I have learned what evidential mediumship and Trish was talking one day and one thing that struck me, I think it was the first lesson she talked about 80%. I hope I am saying this right. You can correct me. 80% of those who involved in that practice are not the real deal. And I am paraphrasing her and that struck me. But that struck me in the sense that this, that was a sense of authenticity that peace people not playing around with this is real. We are serious about what we are doing. Okay.

I remember Sue is not here. I don't see her in the class at the end of the group that we have. And she talked about all of these things, all these different modalities. It still comes through you. It still is going to hinge on what you are, where you are, where your growth is. I thought that was extremely, extremely important.

I remember Carl is not here today. Carl dealt with hypnosis. And I had no idea. Never dealt with hypnosis. We went into something we might have been hit in the back. And I was gone. Okay. You know, it was just like, man, that is cool. So I start on a little bit with journey and I wanted to do it. And I was sharing it with my daughter and my wife and my daughter goes, say, you know, you're into hypnosis now, self-hypnosis? You think that is good? I think that is really a good thing. It cries that that other mind, she says, okay, I think I do it. You know, I want to check into it. I said, really? Because you are so skeptical. If you like it, if you think it is good. It is a good thing. I was asking, Angie, am I a skeptical person? And they both looked at me and said, yeah, you are skeptical, right? So that is good.

So I thought that is something I have learned here that I thought was really, really important. So things as I hear people speak, things stick with me. And I read, when I read those things stick with me. So I just wanted to share that with you because you are developing that foundation. You have been here for so many years and people have come and gone. It is going to be around, if you have been here 40 years, it is going to be here for 40 years. Maybe in another form or what have you, but it is going to be here because you are passing on something that is really going to stick with them, something that is really important.

A Doctor's Definition of Prayer

One of the other things I wanted to share with you, that was a book that I came across many, many, many years ago. Angela was working at the Greater Hospital and she was in the transcription. She was working in the anesthesiology. And I was picking up one day and they had a small library and I borrowed a book about 40 years ago and I still have that book. And there is a book called Pain and Religion by this doctor. And there were some different quotes in it he was very humble. He said, I am not trying to step out of my medical understanding into a theological, but he was making that connection of what is happening with our bodies as we get more involved in what our religious activities were taking us.

And one thing I thought was really, really interesting, he talked about prayer. And this is a definition of prayer. And he said that prayer,

"It could be said, is that discipline capable of expanding the electrical potential of our nervous system in order to bring knowledge of reality through contemplation."

Long story short, prayer is good for you. And I thought that struck me as very important to understand that, you know, things we do.

The Trap of Ego

One of the things that struck me was when I was in Atlanta was as I started studying different types of religions and so forth, very few people really understood where, you know, where that came from, what those understanding was. We don't understand where the God and Christ came from. We don't understand the behind. Buddhism didn't you know didn't happen.

I had a lot of friends and different things and I have to admit in those days I was very combative. Open to debate and the drop because I thought I knew that was an ego thing. Okay, you have to be careful of your egos as you develop your this church to this chapel. You know one is I want some sort of read for me, you know that person. You know, do a better reading. I am better at this. I am better than that. You have to be careful of our egos because that ego is there.

Jesus ran across the same thing. I am going to be paraphrasing in my own language. But when he was facing, I guess, devil, I don't think the devil was a red figure jumping around. That was his ego talking to him, telling him, hey, hang with me and I can give you a lot of stuff. I can give you a Ferrari, a Maserati. You if kiss my butt, you are going to be on top of the world. In Jesus' sight now, that is not the way I am going to go. I am going to go what I believe my father sent me to do. But that was his ego in his human form. He was trying to tell me, you are better than these guys. Look at these guys, they don't know what they are doing. But you have got the gifts. So be careful how the ego can be really, really tricky as you are growing and understanding and become popular.

What Hospice Taught Me

When we got here, we had started in hospice there. And hospice had a sense of reality. It was rubbed to the wheel, rubbed to the road, so to speak. And I had gotten to the point where I really didn't care for aspects of church. I didn't care for the politics. I didn't care for the business. You know, I felt I was, ah, this is, this is, you you know, this is not what I want to do as much anymore. But my wife got me into hospice and I had a different sense of reality. And that meant so much.

And one thing that I want to share with y'all in the hospital is also is the other part of taking care of yourself is you have to be, you have to savor the moments that you have in this life. You are not always going to be, none of us can be sure that we are going to be able to lie on the bed somewhere and be with our loved ones and have with us when we leave this world. And you don't want to be in a situation where, I should have told someone so that I loved them. You know, I forgot I forgive them. I want to apologize for how I treated them. You may not have that opportunity. You know, take the time to do those things now.

"Savor the moments that you have in this life... You don't want to be in a situation where I should have told someone that I loved them."

It is one of the biggest things I learned as we dealt with, I called them our guests. So you want to be able, you know, you want to do that now. So I encourage that as you are growing, savor those moments that you have as best as you know how. You are going to enjoy that. It is super important to me and I think it is to you as well.

Okay, here, this is what I... This is not big. I wrote big letters, so this is not a lot, okay?

The Greatest Commandment: A Reimagined Story

And as we were going forth and normally, I thought, I forgot. I wanted to share. Everyone reads the scripture before you start. I read it at the end. OK? So I want to share the scripture with you. And I am going to do it in a little different manner. As a matter of fact, Branden and I were talking. I said, hey, man, I need to stop because I am sharing with you what I want to talk about. But anyway, we were talking about Yeshua, YHWH, however you wish to call him.

But we were talking about how he dealt with those around him, how he dealt with the Sadducees and Pharisees. And most of us are taught that that relationship was normally combative. They were trying to catch him saying the wrong thing, trying to understand he had this knowledge of the old scriptures and so forth. And in this one particular time, there was a group of Sadducees and they were grilling him. He was doing his thing.

But after they were finished, I thought about that guy who is over in the corner and he is really trying to understand what is going on. He has read all this stuff and he is, you know, let me see if I can get ahold of Jesus while he is by himself. Okay. And he walks up to Jesus and say, Hey, you if you got a man, I used to hear you and blow what you need to know. He says, what is the greatest scripture? What, what do I really need to know that you are talking about?

And he says, check this out.

"Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, thy soul, and with all thy mind."

And the guy goes, really? He says, yes, this is the first and great commandment. And he goes, you want to, you know, okay, wait a minute, hold up. He says, no, listen.

"And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbors as thyself."

And the guy, say, hey. We will discuss this later. But when you come back to me, we are going to, I want you to bring out these seven points. I want you to understand and think about who the Lord is, the nature of what you believe God is, your heart, your soul, and your mind. And then I want you to understand who your neighbor is and who are that self. Just check out those seven things when you get back in the grid talk.

And the guy left me. And I was enlightened and I thought of it that way. It was different how he is sharing the information. He was never yelling and screaming, whereas we traditionally like to do. He did get on the Pharisees and Sadducees, yes he did. But for the common everyday person, he was informative, he was gentle, he tried to help them where they were. So that is the way I saw Jesus and I said, my God, where is Almond going? That is the way I often thought, you know, in terms of reality, in terms of how we think today.

The Heart of the Matter

And that was, and when we got here, there is some things that changed for me, and that is a song. They had a verse in it, it by this group. Remember, you never heard of a group called the Eagles? Okay? All right. Little group. And there was a phrase in one of songs, matter of I was sharing it with Anne. And there is a phrase in this song, and it goes, and I thought about this when I got here, making this transition here, no longer the knowledgeable one. I am new, I am trying to understand, as I am making this, which knew it, but I am trying to learn more. And it says,

"The more I know the less I understand. All the things I thought I knew I am learning again. I have been trying to get down to the heart of the matter because the flesh will get weak and the ashes will scatter."

And that stuck with me. You know, some is how, some is forgiveness. So we are at that point in our lives where we are learning new things. We are trying to understand these different modalities. Yes, that you may have some of the dreams that I have had years before that no one could explain, even the song we sing, by being wise, I had that vision, not the song, but those same words came in. I got here, I am going, man, maybe I should come here more often. And those scenes came to mind and I enjoy those things. So I want to continue to think about what you are doing, think about what you offer. It is extremely valuable.

Seeing Others as Souls

And even at the end when Jesus was speaking to the guy, I had read something somewhere about this aspect of being a neighbor. Let me see if I can find out. Here we go. And this is the doctor again, putting a book called Pain and Religion. And it said,

"I can force myself to love thy neighbor, but as long as I see him or her as he is physically, my love feeling would be bound to the interactions of my personality with his. Such an ego barrier would be destroyed only if I grow able to see myself as a soul and thus able to recognize others as these distinct souls who have identified with my own soul."

And it is in Pain, the biggest Pain in Religion, page 114. Don't know if you can find it, but I have the addition, you know that is still around.

And I thought that was so important as you reach, you hug. And I know sometimes you may feel uncomfortable. I am in reality. This is reality. Have I ever hugged a Black person before? Have I ever hugged this woman before? But as time goes and you get a sense of who they are, vibration. Years ago, it is funny how things turned around. Years ago in late 50s and 60s, good vibration was a big deal. And I that past. All these things are coming back around again and my daughter is going to be mad at me. We found this metaphysical location down the street. As a matter of fact, that is how we found you. And my daughter said, leave it to mom and dad to find the local hippies.

Closing Reflections and Affirmation

Yeah, I am going to have a hard time when I go on this one. But thank you so much. I just wanted to share some things with you that I hope stick in your mind, like that has penetrated my mind, things that all of you have said recently. We were talking about my father's funeral, and Vicenta said something that never struck me. She talked about him because she went to the funeral. It is a man of dignity, principle. I had never thought of them this way. So that don't think that stuck in my mind. So be careful when you are talking about me because I am listening. Okay. And I am trying to put it into something that makes sense to me all the experiences that I have had growing up growing up as a Black man growing up as a father being a father son-in-law, husband, all those things come into play that all those experiences that you have had come into play where you are right now.

And before I finish, I just want to share this affirmation with you. And I know a lot of us are, you know, when you get my age and that is over 20, okay, we often get together and we share our illnesses, you know, my back, my leg. You know, my heart, whatever it may be, it is just, and I used to, when I was young, why do they do that now older? That is why we do it. Okay?

So if you take a moment and share this with me, keep your eyes open, you don't have to do anything special, but repeat after me.

"I am willing to heal. I am willing to heal. I will allow love to flow through me. I will allow love to flow through me. Every cell in my body, every cell in my body is full of health and working together. I bless those I know and love and those I don't know with love."

Peace be multiplied in you. Thank you.