High Moments

Persistence will carry the day (and the goal) when thoughts of indecision and low self-esteem threaten to block leaving the gate.

–

If the process of making up my mind is unduly protracted and conflicted, I have come to realize that the option I’m considering is wrong for me.

–

Very high moments create a kind of super-sentient emotional tone from which we can see and understand far more than possible in the routine of daily normal living.  It is a bit of an artificial state of mind, but is nonetheless a better time to suggest new pathways than moments of depression. 

Smooth Pathway

My writing is informed by my employment in a library.  At my job, I enjoy social interactions; they teach so much about how people respond in all sorts of ways. Not surprisingly, that’s also the greatest personal benefit I got from the study and teaching of literature, my first career.

–

All second-guessing and other vacillations aside, sometimes just not wanting to do something is sufficient reason not to do it. 

And even if it flies in the face of one’s habitual pattern of decision-making.  Maybe that pattern has always been flawed, even though that pattern served in another time and place. 

This is a new day:  “. . .rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalms 118:24 – KJV)

–

Sometimes timing is everything.  I was once extremely ambivalent about taking a given job, but the moments in which I needed to act always seemed to arrive when I was in a positive attitude.  I did take the job; it did have drawbacks; but that early contradictory work life made possible the smooth pathway on which I walk today.

For Writers

I think I’m finally clear on “no promotions” at my job.  For years I’ve been pushed about by the impetus to succeed in my profession, and there has lately been some spillover in my writing.  It’s what Joseph Campbell calls a “concretized symbol” that will “push you around.” 

But this morning I had a lovely synchronicity in that I read my journal entry for February 14, 1992, and found total agreement with a passage from Campbell that I read last night.  Campbell warns the artist (and specifically a writer) not to let his work (the art) get contaminated by his job (his employment). 

For people with such impetus, he affirms, “. . .to keep up with your responsibilities and your fitness and still nurture your creative aspect, you must put a hermetically sealed retort, so that there is no intrusion, around a certain number of hours each day—however many you can honestly afford—and that time must be inviolate.” 

Life Decisions

Is this what has been going on for me as I resist library administration? 

Not that anybody has asked.  I say ahead of time that I’m not interested so that I won’t be tempted with an offer I can’t refuse (an offer that “can’t” be refused normally appears, at least for me, to be ego-inspired). 

I have to be certain that the ego is not the motivator here. 

Perhaps I am destined to be in indecision about this for a while.  Maybe I should stay in non-resolution until I learn what my soul is trying to tell me.  Yet non-resolution over a long period of time, I have learned, usually counsels “no.”

Life Decisions

Sometimes I think library science as a career just fell in my lap. In this work I’m able to plan ahead and therefore have few deadline pressures. Yet my first ambition—journalism—would have been filled with those very deadlines which I dread most. 

What benign destiny altered my life plan for the better?  I can claim no credit for this, because I gave up on the idea of journalism and opted for library science for all the wrong reasons.

–

Many of our life decisions—as we “remember” them—may be based on myth.  The “reasons why” that I’ve told myself may have had no basis in fact.  We construct a fiction in retrospect that sounds more rational than the decision was at the time.  Or am I just more of a mythmaker than the average person?

–

Individuals sometimes “fight all the way” decisions that are providential.  This learned from reading anecdotal accounts of heavenly guidance. 

Dreaming

The “worst” doesn’t happen.  Even when it seems to, it isn’t as bad as worry has anticipated, and I come out of it better off.  As much like Pollyanna as it sounds, this dynamic is probably an axiom of life and not my own lucky charm.

–

When I was a child, I used to look out my bedroom window at night, dreaming about the future with much anticipation.  It wasn’t until I returned to Florence and the neighboring hill town of Fiesole, with its panorama of Florence, for the second time in 25 years that I knew why. 

Gazing out at panoramas has a great calming effect on me; I have at such times no worries about the future and no problems of any kind.  I have not had great roles to play in this lifetime, but I have lived through a private drama that has led me ever more closely to God. 

And this was what the better Self in me wanted all along.

Vicissitudes

A 25-year-old losing a first job can’t know yet that all of life is a constant ebb and flow.  And all the ebbs yet to come can be seen as blessings in disguise as well.  Great inner growth is usually the by-product.  Possessing the knowledge that vicissitudes are natural is one advantage age always has over youth.

–

There is no sure way to know when one is actually in a fortunate period of life.  Once I was very unhappy for nine months in a job that I disliked.  In retrospect I believe this was actually a period of real internal growth, having repercussions that have reverberated down all the 20 years since.  I had felt almost compelled to get a job.  On some level, did I choose the unhappiness of that job as a necessary byproduct to a speedier learning process?

–

It really is fruitless to look back unless it teaches a way to take a better route in the future.

Vision

Did I take on too big a challenge in this lifetime?  Is that why I shade toward the serious?  Or is it just my ignominious narcissism coming into play?

–

I once saw a vision of my bad karma.  It was a woman with flashing eyes who gave me a knowing look and seemed to scream at me (though silently) that “her” intent was to “get mine” (i.e., get what “should” be coming to me in this life). 

Looking back, I remember that when I was a little girl, I didn’t want to be greedy (e.g., getting even “my share” of Easter eggs) nor to get “too much” for myself (I rarely told what I wanted for Christmas).  This suggests an attempt even as a child to deal with the “getting mine” that I recognized in the vision.  Fifteen years of denial in adult life followed that vision, and then the “ghost” seemed largely expiated.  There was never any question that I would selfishly seek my own “just desserts” instead of following what I perceived to be God’s will for me.  The set of my will was very strong because the love (however remote) that kept me on track was genuine.  And that has made all the difference.

Remembering

On looking back in regret: “Watched a program on television about the sixties.  I don’t think I was very reflective politically and socially in that time of my life, and I certainly know that I lacked courage.  Will I look back and regret my blindness today?”

And later on, “I was so unreflective in the sixties.  I wonder if I will look back on my life one day and feel that I went through all of it in a daze?”

–

My college suitemate during my freshman year was a senior with wide-ranging interests in the arts and culture, but who majored in economics, passed the CPA, and went on to get a Ph.D. in her field.  I once asked Joanne about this seeming “split” in her interest, and she responded that she wanted to keep her avocation and vocation separate; she wanted something “like economics” to pay the bills. 

I realize in retrospect how much to heart I took this comment. 

Even in college I longed for and deliberately planned for a profession.  The fact that what I eventually became (a librarian) is different from my college dreams (first, journalist; then, English college professor)is not particularly important. What is important is that all of these vocations are a little tangential to my “real” interests, which are a cluster of spirituality, metaphysics, and psychology. Something within me feared “getting lost” in these less-tangible areas.  In my work life I touch the here-and-now, the practical problems of interaction in and contribution to the secular world.

My head may be in the clouds, but my feet are on the ground.  Of course, it is the clouds that show me how to live.

Loving Thing

A decision made upon facing possible illness:  “I’ve been my own worst enemy in fearing health conditions in the past, and it’s time to put faith into action and not aggravate the situation with meaningless fears.”

–

Recognizing that a behavior is irrational is the first step toward changing it.

–

On understanding the way the mind works:  “I’m realizing that my superego (as Freud would say) is very strong, even severe.  Maybe if I were more forgiving, my thoughts of what I ‘should’ do would be less punishing. The choice to do the loving thing is not at all coercive.”

Choosing Illness

Choosing a pathway without suffering may take longer, and so is it any wonder that we in our impatient world sometimes opt for the shortcut, however difficult that may be?

–

“I think I choose sickness when I’m ready for a break from the world.”  A day after writing this, I came down with a virus that gave me a fever and mild aches for a week. 

–

My pipe dream that I could be happy just reading all day quickly evaporated, and in its place came a great need for people, which sent me to the phone.  When I wrote those words,did I know I was getting sick, just below the surface in my unconscious mind, or was I doubly psychic (intuiting sickness and giving my reason for it)? 

It is also true that I was at a turning point in my work, ready to take a new direction after finishing the tasks of the past months. 

Was God trying to get my attention? 

It is only in retrospect that the answers to questions like these ever come.

Tempests

I wonder if I’ve sometimes created a tempest in a teapot out of boredom. If I get upset about something, then I have the upset to deal with rather than the boredom. 

–

Do I seek fear to avoid boredom?

–

For the anxiety-prone part of me: “Sometimes I simply have to disengage my mind from worry.  That seems the healthiest way to live, and I have not always been able to do that.”

–

There is a truth about mental illness that sometimes only the mentally ill, and those who counsel troubled people, see.  At the heart of a split from “reality” may be a glimpse of true reality. And perhaps there is a partially formed mystic crying to get out. 

Who knows but that a psychotic sufferer has opted to jump ahead by one of the most wrenching means?  Who knows what contributions recovery—and their next life—will bring?

Dreams

Too much talk can kill a dream rather than increase the likelihood of its coming true.  Often the words are a weak substitute for truly living an experience.  Paradoxically, excessive verbalization can be a smokescreen set up to hide one’s inner being, which we believe (inaccurately) would be worthy only of rejection if viewed without its mask.

–

My family doctor asked, “What are you doing for fun?” “Everybody,” he continued, “needs something to look forward to.” There is more common-sense emotional advice in those brief words than there might be in most hours of psychoanalysis.

Relinquishing Ego

Ego is such a powerful motivator that when it is let go, one must find a substitute worth living for.  Mine is a genuine desire to make a meaningful contribution to the world.  But that is not the whole of it.  One still must fill countless hours with the minor chores of daily living.  One cannot always be doing “important” things.  And if these chores fill so many hours, can anyone say what “important” really is? 

–

A candid personality attracts because its owner seems to have dropped—at least for our eyesight—the mask that we normally wear.

Centering

Journal writing is an invaluable tool for the centering of one’s life and work.  Once I went for 19 months with only two entries. 

It is instructive that the last entry before starting this dry period was entitled “New Centering.”  I had reached a plateau and was willing quietly to rest there for a while. 

–

Creative assessment of real desires can help bring them about. But too much introspection can become retreating, and this fuels neurosis.

–

On making good decisions: “I’m feeling reassured that I will know the right decision to make if I pay attention to my nocturnal dreams, keep a positive and happy outlook, and listen to my heart (i.e., the Holy Spirit dwelling within).  Psychic inclinations help, but I must check them out and not go overboard.”

–

When a song goes through my head, I pause to remember the lyrics.

It is a fruitful path to the Unconscious.  Like a dream, the lyrics frequently take me a step deeper in my psyche. 

Live Each Moment

We are sometimes told, “Live each day as though it were your last.”  But this is not helpful advice if one has the wrong attitude toward work—an attitude that everything should have been done yesterday maybe, if not before. 

–

Some of the best advice in this vein I ever received was from an older and wiser family friend who reminded me, as I embarked on a new job that entailed establishing a middle school library, “Remember that you don’t have to do it all on the first day.”

–

A recurring theme in my journal is the need to enjoy all the moments of my life.  If you are doing something (or failing to) that makes you crabby, you are yourself ruining the very essence of living.  If life is not lived in daily moments, it is not “lived” at all.

Trying to Live Well

Understanding the way the mind works is to understand the reality that we make for ourselves.

–

Library science is my profession, but learning how to live well is the mission.  And I don’t mean monetarily well.  We can’t truly help others until we find the still point within that makes it all make sense.

–

At what point does a strong sense of Self become egotism rather than protection against Hamlet’s “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”?  Self-confidence with humility is a boon enjoyed by so few of us—-but what a joy when it visits even in fleeting moments.

–

A failure to view life positively is not benign. It creates momentum, and if one doesn’t watch it, negativity will snowball to become a veritable avalanche.

Images in a Reflecting Pool – Introduction

     The dreams the Holy Spirit gives are indeed happy.  I am

still learning, but I know more now.  In 1981, I was dreaming the

dreams of this world, caught in fantasies of an unreal past, and

vulnerable in the extreme.  After fifteen years and many hours of

studying A Course in Miracles, I have experienced more and more

hours and days of peace.  Oh, it is not 100 percent yet.  But

Jesus says, “In this world you need not have tribulation because

I have overcome the world.  That is why you should be of good

cheer.” (T-20.III.10:3-4)

     When I let my mind drop into fantasies, I forget how to

live.  Yet the Course promises that the way will be smooth.  “Time

is kind, and if you use it on behalf of reality, it will keep

gentle pace with you in your transition.” (T-4.I.13:10-11)  It is

not a hard path of learning, this better way structured to bring

us to Awakening.  Every year gets better, every decade a giant

step beyond the previous.  More and more I leave fear behind as I

try to see the face of Christ in my brothers and sisters.

     What lessons am I learning?  Attack is not the way to go.

(T-16.VI.8:2)  Anxiety is borne of the ego.

(T-30.VI.1:2)  And my worth is not measured by what I do.

(T-4.IV.4:1)  Of course, there are many other lessons, some

repeated frequently as I make my way still on this

side of the bridge.  As many before me have said, God is not

finished with me yet.

     This book details the issues and problems arising from my

life story and then dealt with in the manner of A Course in

Miracles.  In looking back, I find that three relationships–

Self-to-self, self-to-others, and self-to-God–have informed the

whole.  These images tell me that it is Love that

undergirds life and all my relationships of whatever nature.

Regardless of the relationship, however tenuous, it is love that

speaks to me in the everyday issues of which I tell you here.

     Images in a Reflecting Pool was written by rereading journal

entries from 1981 (the year I discovered A Course in Miracles) to

1996 (15 years).  If the entry seemed germane to my quest, I have

quoted directly from my journal.  Otherwise, I have penned a

reflection based on some incident recorded there.  I have sought

to follow the way of the Course to the extent that virtually none

of my personal philosophy is not informed by these spectacular

books.

     As you read, reflect on your own developing personal

philosophy.  Don’t take my word for it.  Take nothing unto

yourself unless it finds a gentle place in your heart.

     Jesus walks with us in our quest, as he has promised.

(T-4.I.7:1)

–unpublished writings by author of this blog.

God Is Not Fear, but Love

“When you seem to see some twisted form of the original error rising to frighten you, say only, ‘God is not fear, but Love,’ and it will disappear.  The truth will save you.  It has not left you, to go out into the mad world and so depart from you.  Inward is sanity; insanity is outside you.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-18.I.7)

We have long heard that we need to turn inward, but have we really understood what this means?  It means that we set aside time for God every day, maybe twice a day (as Jesus recommends in ACIM).  And in this we turn inward.

We can affirm the truth, which is Love, and turn aside from those things that frighten us.  Our affirmations will not seem strong enough when we are overwrought, and so we need to quiet ourselves before we can receive the blessing.  When we quiet ourselves, turning inward, we will know—with every fiber of our being—that God’s way is not in any way fearful.  That is the insanity of what we see outside ourselves.  When we turn inward, to God, we find only peace.

Don’t try to assimilate this idea when you are in the throes of anger.  Anger separates us from the truth that is within.  And, likewise, don’t choose to practice affirmations when you are in a panic.  Slow down and breathe.  God will find you when you give Him a moment.

Insanity is without, in the world.  And when we project from within, as long as the ego is in the ascendancy, we project insanity and our perception of the outer world is a thing of madness.

Don’t walk this way.  Turn inward, not only two times a day, but as often as you think of God.  “Pray without ceasing” is not an idle recommendation.  The reverent feeling will flow over your whole world of insanity, remove the insanity then, and you will sense Oneness with God.

Being

“In true knowledge, which comes from knowing your being in the light of eternal truth, you know the divine relationship.  The path proposed in this work is the path of being.”  Choose Only Love bk. 6, 1:III

Our divine relationship is, first and foremost, the best center for our lives. Previously many people proposed “doing” good works, with faith, as the way home to God. Jesus is here focusing on simply being in love with God. It doesn’t mean we will never “do” anything, but it does mean that our commitment is to simply being who we are, children of the divine Creator.

We don’t have to merit God’s good grace. His sun and rain shine and fall upon all equally. All are wanted by Him in a relationship of divine caring. Love in its essence.

Reading Choose Only Love

“Hear me, all!  Those who come to this work will be my beloved saints unknown to the world, but known forever in my love.”  Choose Only Love bk. 6, 1:III

This statement is a loving affirmation of our task in reading Choose Only Love. We would not be drawn to this work unless we had made contact, however limited, with God Himself. We need do only small things, unknown by the world, but valuable within our circle of family, friends, and acquaintances. When love is the motivator, God can take our small work and amplify it. He can do this best when our hearts are open to receive Him.

If Jesus, Mary, and the angels are loving us, we are blessed indeed. What more could we ask, than this, a part in forwarding the transformation that Jesus began 2,000 years ago?

Relinquish the Pain

“Remember, then, that always forgiveness is essential. . . . We speak here not of a blind passivity, but of a relinquishment within one’s own mind, and that is all.  It is a willingness to see the complete neutrality of all events.  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 21, Page 254)

I often think, when confronted with things that seem incomprehensible, that I am just dealing with the madness that A Course in Miracles explains so well. When we see madness, or neutrality, in the painful things of our world, we are in a better position to forgive. We don’t take it personally.

So forgiveness is essential. We need to let go, to relinquish our reactions that are negative when we see madness in our world. We let go, and when we let go, God rescues us from pain.

It is just that simple. And that easy.

Laws of Love

“This cooperation is natural when fear has been rejected.  You have long embraced fear and rejected love.  Now the reverse is true.  This reversal of truth has changed the nature of your universe and the laws by which it operates.  The laws of fear were laws of struggle, limits, danger, and competitiveness.  The laws of love are laws of peace, abundance, safety, and cooperation.  Your actions and the results of your actions in a universe of love will naturally be different from your actions and the results of your actions in a universe of fear.  You set the laws of the universe when you chose fear.  The laws of the universe of love are God-given.”  (A Course of Love, C:20.30 – 20.31)

We need love; it is our very nature.  We have lived for a long time in the “tiny, mad idea” (from A Course in Miracles) that gave us a universe of fear.  We were not at home there; we struggled mightily.  We listened to an egoic persona that did not mean us well, that tried to protect us by isolating us from each other in a cacophony of diverse sounds that spelled “fear” to us.  We never felt safe, because we never were safe.  Our “creations” had come back to haunt us.

But now all that can change.  Now we know better.  In a universe of love, we know peace abundance, safety, cooperation.  Our laws of struggle, limits danger, and competitiveness are not outdated.  What a joy to envision what awaits us in this new age!  We are safe because we are no longer “creating” with the ego; we are working within the laws of God, laws which complement our true reality.  We are homebound, safe in a universe where love reigns and where we have turned aside from the ego and its sad and forlorn dictates.

Miracles Become Natural

“You are a unique expression of the selfsame love that exists in all creation.  Thus your expression of love is as unique as your Self.  It is in the cooperation between unique expressions of love that creation continues and miracles become natural occurrences.”  (A Course of Love, C:20.30)

We are meant to live in a miraculous world, surrounded daily by a higher realm that meets our every need with miracles attuned to supply and demand.  We are unique individuals, each of us, but when we live in cooperation with each other, this uniqueness suggests that being different is not so much a fact as is our sameness.  We are all equally special, or, seen in the reverse, none of us are special at all.  We are simply entities of the creative endeavor of a limitless God Who knows no bounds to His loving of us, His creatures, of us, His Sons and Daughters.

We were born of His love, and when we extend the love that is at the core of our being, we soon live a life that is miraculous in the extreme.  We no longer take nature for granted.  We no longer take the dawn of a new day for granted.  We no longer take our health as a given.  We know that the love that sustains us also provides for us. 

And we know that that love comes from God Himself.

What Do I Want to Come of This? What Is It for?

“In any situation in which you are uncertain, the first thing to consider, very simply, is ‘What do I want to come of this?  What is it for?’  The clarification of the goal belongs at the beginning, for it is this which will determine the outcome.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.VI.2)

I have long puzzled over this quotation.  It is hard to know how to answer the goal when we are faced with a myriad of possible activities.  But answer the goal, we must, if we are to make progress on the spiritual journey.

We want to make spiritual progress.  Our daily quiet time is designed for that purpose.  But we shouldn’t just think of goals when we are seeking God.  Our goal-driven society will ensure that there are many other times and means to reach an end.  Finding the right goals to pursue is crucial.

We often get side-tracked, especially when the ego is still strong in us.  We pursue goals that don’t satisfy, or they satisfy for only a short while, and then turn to dust.  This is always the way with egocentric goals.  We will feel an unreasoning elation when we reach one of these egotistical giants, but soon we will wonder why the gold has tarnished for us.  Why does this one thing—this goal—that we thought would satisfy all needs suddenly seem not to be enough?

So, we ask, what more can we pursue?  And we look around and identify a new pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  And we go after that.  Only to be doused in the dust again, when the goal is reached, and we find ourselves, once again, unsatisfied.

The ego always leads thus.  So at some point we realize that it is time to get off the treadmill of egoic longing.  There is no satisfying the ego; anything that we do will ultimately prove to be “not enough.”

Only the intangibles are lasting in satisfaction.  And any religious orientation will tell us what this are:  peace, harmony, kindness, forbearance, love, forgiveness.

We don’t have to be following A Course in Miracles to know that these are the values that our spiritual leaders have preached for eons.  We just need to take those values unto ourselves.  And once we do, the peace that we find will convince us that those spiritual leaders have been right all along.

We Were Never Meant to Be Isolated and Alone

“Others represent the accidents waiting to happen, love that is not returned, the withholding of things you deem important.  This fear that you feel in relation to others is as true of those you hold most dear to you as it is of those you would call strangers.  It is the very independence of others that makes your own independence seem so important to you.  Dependency is not consistent with your notions of a healthy self.  What, then is the alternative?

“The alternative is believing in giving and receiving as one.”  (A Course of Love, T2:7.2 – 7.3)

We are in unity with others, but we often don’t encourage this unity because of our fear of these same others—even our most significant others.  We think that being independent of needing other people will serve us best.  We think being close with others will lead to an unhealthy dependency.  But is this in line with A Course of Love?

Absolutely not.  We give and receive in tandem when we follow the dictates of ACOL.  We know that independence is not so very healthy, that the opposite of independence is not dependency, but a heartfelt joining of ourselves to other people.  We give them our love; they return our love.  The giving up of our solitary nature is actually a most joyful undertaking—when we realize that we were never meant to be isolated and alone.  We are meant to share with others, to live in a partnership with others.  Why else would the world have so many people? We are meant to join and to share, giving up our prideful isolation in a choice to give and receive as one with other people sharing our world.  This choice will give us joy.  Can it be so wrong to choose what will make us happy, avoiding the false independent nature that has failed us so many times?

Recovering Ideals

“[Y]our pulse is not the pulse of your heart alone, but of you connection to time, to space, to your esteemed and symbolic places, to ideas made manifest, and to humanity’s own fall from its ideals.”  Memoria

We are living in difficult times, and we see in Memoria (a new book channeled by Mary of Nazareth, received by Mari Perron) that Mary is aware of our difficulties.  Of course.  Her appearances in the world have always championed the downtrodden and forgotten.

I want to focus on our fall from ideals.  We can recover.  Perhaps those who are denigrated the most actually mean well; it is not for us to judge the hearts of our brothers and sisters.  It is not for us to judge at all, for fear and judgment keep us from Awakening.  This from A Course of Love, an earlier work received by Mari.

If we have fallen from our ideals, then we need to recoup.  We need to make a new start.  And we can.  It simply means that we turn to God and ask for His help in perilous times. 

He knows how to right our world, and if we ask with sincerity, wanting to know what to think, say, and do, He will surely tell us.  We are on the cusp of something called The New, and in this new world order, we will surely know peace when we draw it to ourselves.

Freedom from Imprisonment

“Become willing to be one who cultivates the ability to allow all things.  The mind that is free can do this.  The mind that is imprisoned cannot.  For the mind that is imprisoned is so because it insists that what it perceives should become different in itself, but that the perceiver need not change.  And that is the very essence of imprisonment.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 21, Page 253)

Our problems are frequently self-created. But when we seek answers from a counselor, we often think that everybody else has to change–rather than us! This insight from the psychologist and writer, Richard Carlson.

And this is exactly what Jesus is saying here, channeled by Jayem. But we need to “allow,” and this means being willing to have it so. It doesn’t mean we never will work for change in ourselves, other people, or the world, but it does mean that we are accepting in the face of things that don’t seem to want to be different. We don’t become tangled up in trying to effect change, when things often just seem to remain the same, oblivious to our influence.

In an unreal world, we project what we are viewing. It is a mass hallucination, an illusion. A Course in Miracles says famously, “There is no world!,” and though we don’t want to believe it, there it is.

We ought not to worry others with our insistence that they do our bidding. It is enough that we, the perceiver, make changes in ourselves that we see are needed. It always starts with ourselves. The world will change when enough people realize this. The tipping point will have been reached.

Small Things with Great Love

“When it was said that ‘he who is holy in little ways is great,’ we sought not only to give a guide to behavior and discernment, but to convey the truth that it is not necessary to do great things, but small things with great love.”  Choose Only Love bk. 6, 1:III

Anything that we do out of love that is not harmful to another is a blessing, smiled upon by God. Our smallest action, our smallest thought, if motivated by the Love that God encourages in us, is a blessing. We live correctly when we live from love. Anything else is quite inferior.

Sometimes we think we are not making much of an impact. This is when we are still trapped by an egoic pattern that wants us to make a big splash.

But this type of thinking is flawed. There are billions of people in the world now, and if even a small percentage react in their lives from a place of love, we can effect a transformation. We need only to do “small things with great love.”

We Live in New Times Now

“The time has passed when the forces of ego attacked the truth with all their ferocity.  There is no battle to win; it has already been won.  You live in new times now, times of the fullness of being.  Even though the world continues to look quite similar to that of yesteryear, the times now have nothing to do with what was previously.”  Choose Only Love, bk.7, 5:I

This quotation from the final book in the series, Choose Only Love, received by Sebastian Blaksley, will give us hope. Certainly when we look at our conflicted world, we are likely to doubt these optimistic words. But it truly is darkest before the dawn, and we are reaching the dawn shortly. The egoic triumph for our world is no more. Many people, even if not of a religious persuasion, are becoming aware of what works and what doesn’t. And egoic extremes fail miserably.

We are in the “fullness of being.” This is Mary’s way, heralded by A Course of Love and then followed up with Mirari and Memoria–as received by God’s servant, Mari Perron. “Being” as an ideal doesn’t mean we sit back and don’t do anything to improve our world. But our being in this world is primary; we don’t seek to be do-gooders without salvation ourselves.

“There is no battle to win; it has already been won.” This, about the ego, is wonderful news in and of itself. Much of this change has come about from the advent of A Course in Miracles, received by Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford as a team, with Helen taking down notes and Bill typing them up. The book was published in 1975. Much to the good has happened since. And most of us believe that A Course in Miracles was channeled by Jesus himself.

Let’s ask sincerely if we are on the right track, those of us of religious persuasion who seek only good in the world. Let our “being” flow, with actions that emerge from our being One with God.

This is the final step. Being One with God is the ultimate. And the illusory separation from God, fraught with the ego, is healed.

Recapturing What We Lost in the Fall of Man

“In unity, all that you desired was participated in fully by a mind and heart combined in wholeheartedness.  You knew your Self to be the creator, and loved all that you created.  You did not desire and fear something at the same time, and your desires did not change from moment to moment.”  (A Course of Love, C:18.14)

We are now living eons past the time of “first” unity.  This first experience of unity cannot really be recaptured as a sense impression now, but it can be recaptured as we move farther along the pathway back to God.  We lived eons ago in wholeheartedness, knowing ourselves as a creator, a co-creator (if you will), of God Himself.  But because of something that couldn’t really happen, but did (the “tiny mad idea” that A Course in Miracles discusses), we fell from grace into an adolescent rebellion.  We weren’t patient enough to come into the fullness of our Being, our Self.  So we coalesced around a false persona, driven by an ego that we made ourselves, and we fell into deep despair as a result.

We can return to the unity that we have forgotten.  It takes patience and abundant willingness to capture what we have lost, but the recapture is God’s intention for us, and so he is right there helping us every step along the way.

Don’t get depressed that the way seems too long and tortuous.  It may be long, but the way is not tortuous at all.  Not with all the help that we are being given.  Our way back is assured—indeed, has always been assured, from the beginning.  God’s will only takes time in the working out, and time does not really exist, for we live in eternity.

Reaching for the Ideal

“It is not possible for you to be without Love.

“It is not possible for you to be alone.

“It is not possible for you to taste death.

“It is not possible for you to taste genuine loss.

“It is not possible for you to suffer the dream of separation.

“It is not possible for you to be apart from your Creator.

“It is not possible for you to fail.

“It is not possible for you to harm anyone or anything.

“It is not possible for you to be guilty of sin.”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 21, Page 251)

All of these things are impossible. We think they are possible because we are living in illusion. In reality we have never left the bosom of God. Now we reach for the Ideal, though many think that we are still caught in illusory thinking and living. When we reach for the Ideal, we let the Christ-Self emerge, and we experience the reverse; all these things that are said not to be possible we can experience as not possible. God is ever with us, prompting us to our ideal life.

Loving Freely & Without Fear

“You who do not know how to trade your separated state for that of union have still done so when you have loved freely and without fear.  In this state your memory returns to you of who you are, and you are innocent and joyous and one with love itself. . . .Nothing but fear could take the memory of love from you, or replace so quickly the glory that is your nature with the specialness that is not.”  (A Course of Love, C:14.28)

Fear is of the ego, and fear is a game changer in the hope of reaching Christ-consciousness.  We cannot, in fact, reach enlightenment when we still entertain fear.  But, the rub, how to stop the fear that so often threatens to engulf us?

Prayer is one answer, in all likelihood the best answer that we could ever devise.  And it is not our idea, but an intuition and an experience that comes from God.  Our prayers put us in alignment with something greater than we are, and this Someone has the power to right our little world immediately.  We don’t have to suffer anxiety any longer; it just dissipates when we start to pray.

Meditation is similar, of course.  We go into a zone-type of thinking that eases our minds.  We don’t actively think at all; we focus on a sacred word or our breathing.  And the miraculous effect takes over.

Talking with a treasured friend is yet another solution to fear.  Others have known the same fear that we dread, though often we think that we are all alone because they haven’t told us about their anxieties, wanting to appear strong and solid to us.  This is a fallacy, of course, which we will come to see when we converse intimately.  All short of enlightenment are victims of the fear mongrels that rob us of peace of mind.

Think a bit of the practices that have given us peace of mind in the past.  Of course, like all things, this fear, too, shall pass.  But there are a myriad of practices which can speed fear along its way, never to return in quite the same way again.

Trust that guidance will lead us out of the darkness of our anxieties and our fears.  Trust that choosing to be unity one with another will be an almost magical solution to an intractable problem.

Transformation

“We are close now, close to a time in which a new choice can make true living available here and now.  This is the decade in which transformation proceeds, and the time in which the mother’s heart enters to show the way to care of the living, and the end of what does not need to be.“This is the time of Memoria:  The Way of the Marys.”  Memoria: The Way of the Marys

Thus begins the newly published Memoria, from Mary of Nazareth, received by Mari Perron.  We are, Mary says, on the cusp of something extraordinary, a time of transformation.  We have lived through many dire times since Jesus walked the earth, and we are living in dire times now.  But there is hope.  The “celestial speed-up” heralded to Helen and Bill when A Course in Miracles was being received, is now in full force with Mary joining in.  She and Jesus still need our hands and feet to do the work needed in our world. 

We all must pull together to know that the way of Awakening is fast approaching—or already here—for us. Mary presents herself in Mari’s dialogue as a mother, for that is the way the world knows her—Jesus’ mother.  She appeals to the heart, in the way of simply “being” that she extols.  If we listen to our hearts, our hearts as they inform our minds, we will be on the right track.  And in the process, we will care of the living as never before. All achievement pales beside this transformation. 

We think we have made great strides in our world over the centuries, but now our hearts take the lead over our minds.  We don’t let the mental take precedent over the emotional.And in the heart we find our greatest treasure.  Let our hearts rule us today.

Joyous Praise

“What a joy it is to know that through expression we can know being!  How much joy there is in our hearts now that we recognize that the Creator speaks to us through creation.  Each cloud will speak to us of love.  Each gust of wind will sing melodies of love.  Every drop of water will show the purity of love.  The whispers of love will no longer be dim like moonlight, but like melodious songs that the mind and heart hear with gratitude.  As never before, everything we see will tell us of God.  You will recognize that love surrounds you everywhere, that you live, move, and exist in it.”  Choose Only Love, bk.7, 5:III

This quotation, from the last volume in the series–newly published–we see our love for God as a palpable thing. In effect, we are saying hosannas to God, thanking Him for the beauty of our world. Mary, in Mirari, has also commented on what a beautiful world we inhabit. Praising rising to God becomes easy when we live the being that this volume encourages us to inhabit.

In A Course in Miracles, Jesus tells us that our praise of God does not mean that we tell Him how wonderful He is. He has no ego with which to accept such praise. But we ourselves need the discipline of gratitude. It warms our heart. Appreciation, or gratefulness, goes hand in hand with love.

This quotation lifted my spirits very high. When we feel close to God, we naturally want to say “thank You” to Him. And our day goes better as a result, for we are thinking positively, letting go of the many negatives in the world as we are living it today.

Faith

“This is the time for faith.  You let this goal be set for you.  That was an act of faith.  Do not abandon faith, now that the rewards of faith are being introduced.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.V.6)

Jesus does not say a great deal about faith in A Course in Miracles.  He is, in ACIM, giving us concrete ways to reach salvation—and Awakening—and he does not recommend blind faith.  He is carefully explaining the means to us, the means to Awakening.  He indicates at one point that the end may be revealed to us along the way, but to get there (sustained), the means need to come first.  And he says that he is carefully explaining the means to us.

Faith is required, though.  We have to proceed, as we read, to believe that Jesus is guiding us aright.  He knows that we may sometimes believe that he is misleading us, although he is trying to use words that can’t be misconstrued. 

Now, as we proceed through the Text, we need to realize that we must stand firm with this new course of study.  When we don’t abandon the Text, it reveals great wonders to us.

And we need those wonders.

We Exist because of Our Relationship with Love. Love Is the Unity We Seek.

“You exist, quite simply, because of your relationship with love.  Love is the unity you seek.  In having chosen separation over unity, you but chose fear over love.  When you let go of fear and invite unity to return, you but send out an invitation to love and say you are welcome here.”  (A Course of Love, C:11.18) 

Being welcome is an attribute of friendship, and being “friends” with love is something that we all can do.  We need to realize that we are one (unity), and in this realization we are inclined to love more than fear.

Of course, we can’t always banish fear.  We are particularly prone to fear’s ravages early in the morning, when the whole day looms and we are apprehensive about what lies ahead.  At such times we need to make a determined effort to calm ourselves down.  Over time, we have developed some of these techniques:  writing in a journal, meditation, deep breathing, quiet conversation with your significant other (if time permits), petting a beloved animal.  All will make small increments to erode fear.  And, as time passes, fear will become more of a stranger in our lives.

We feel ourselves separate and alone when we face the day with apprehension.  We are leaving our comfy homes for a sometimes terrifying outside that seems to wish us no well.  These are the types of thoughts that replace love with fear.  And it need not be so.  The outside world is as much in need of our love as are our nearest and dearest.  Give a helping hand to those we meet outside our homes.  And then they will seem much less the bearers of bad tidings, or, at the last, uncertain tidings that give us cause for fear.  Love with a whole heart, knowing that we actually are safe when we set our minds to creating a beloved world.

Welcoming the New / Leaving Behind the Old

“The old” is a construction.  What is constructed can be de-constructed, and it is in this time, that those perceived to be powerless will rise and begin to claim ‘unconstructed’ power, the innate power of the feminine that exist in all.”  Mirari

We are in changing times.  Of course the world has always been changing, but there seems to be speedup of change today.  The notes around A Course in Miracles indicate that Jesus has spoken of a “celestial speedup,” because our world is in dire straits and needs saving—right away.  We are right in the midst of this celestial speedup now.  Many channeled writings are coming to the forefront, even as the world descends often into chaos.  The celestial speedup will, when time is ripe, put an end to this chaos.  But the speedup needs all of us.

The power of the feminine emphasizes Mary’s way, which is the way of being.  We make changes simply by listening to our heart.  Indeed, if we don’t listen to our heart, we are likely to act unwisely.  We need discernment, as the Society of Friends (Quakers) has long counseled.

We will leave the “old” behind and head forthwith into The New, first heralded by A Course of Love.  Our New will allow a happiness that has eluded us previously.  Our New, extending to other people by our expressions of love, will transform us.

Let’s begin today.

Holy vs. Special Relationships

“The holy relationship, a major step toward the perception of the real world, is learned.  It is the old, unholy relationship, transformed and seen anew.  The holy relationship is a phenomenal teaching accomplishment.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.V.2)

A holy relationship is a relationship with our brother that was once special.  Special relationships have a lot of pain; holy ones, never pain.  The holy relationship is the means that A Course in Miracles uses to save time for us in heading into salvation in its ultimate, Awakening.  We are not encouraged to spend long periods in contemplation, as some spiritual teaching suggest.  Jesus’s spiritual teaching now, in ACIM, is just to turn from egoic sight of one’s brother.  Let go of wanting to praise his physical appearance, his superficial personality, his income.  These physical attributes are not the real brother; your apprehension of his intangible qualities will open your vision to the holiness that can be yours.  Your brother, in short, will lead you home to God.

Jesus is teaching us in A Course in Miracles, and his encouragement of a holy relationship with our brother is the most important aspect of his explanation of how to reach Awakening.  We learn about the holy relationship in time, not immediately (normally).  Note that the special relationships that have brought us both joy and pain are not to be taken away from us prematurely.  We will gently transform the special.  And in the transformation will come our own release to the real world.  The real world dawns on our puzzled eyes just before Awakening comes.  The time is brief between the real world and Awakening, but we don’t know from ACIM what the “brief” really means.  Time means something more in eternity than we know.

So we do what we can to see the intangible, admirable qualities in our brother.  We know that his attacks are a call for help, a call for love, and we don’t hold his attacks against him.  We know that they are borne of insanity, and that they thrive in the illusion in which we find ourselves.

Only when we move into the real world will we move out of illusion into a perceptual Heaven.  Then our holy relationships will bless us as almost nothing else can.  We will be seeing God in our brother, and we will be seeing God in our Self.

There will be no further need to dwell on the superficialities of our brother’s personality.

“Play” in God’s Kingdom

“There can be no end to the Mind of God.  You will abide forever within it, like one who abides in an infinite forest.  Why not be at play in the Kingdom?”  (“The Way of Transformation,” The Way of Mastery, Chapter 20, Page 249)

Most of us on the spiritual path take many things too seriously. Just this morning at breakfast my husband and I were talking about a college friend who had told us that she did not enjoy college. My husband replied, “I think everything at your college was too serious.”

This exchange can be compared to how we react to God. We want to get it right. We want to do the right thing, always. And it is undeniable that this attitude takes some of the sheer “fun” out of life.

I don’t think this attitude is best, though I have been a part of it, too. God’s Kingdom would have a lightness in our bearing, not to take ourselves too seriously. Indeed, A Course in Miracles says that seriousness is “of the ego.” This little-quoted assertion from ACIM needs more attention.

How did we play as children? Some of that lightheartedness would serve us well now. Keep in mind that most people believe that Jesus is talking in this live channeling from Jayem. He himself stepped aside and knew of nothing that he was saying until he listened to the recording.

The Gospel of Judas, though not part of the canon of the New Testament, has Jesus “laughing” a lot! Can we see Jesus as a lighthearted figure? And he is our role model.

Let us have some fun today. Let us enjoy the day, not fret so much about getting it wrong.

Self United

“The only replacement that can occur that will accomplish what you seek is the replacement of illusion with the truth, the replacement of fear with love, the replacement of your separated self with your real Self, the Self that rests in unity.”  (A Course of Love, C:9.24)

We see that A Course of Love makes parallels of illusion and truth, fear and love, and the separated self with the real Self, saying that a replacement of illusion, fear and the separated self needs to be made—with truth, love and the real Self.  This is salvation, this is the coming to know that we will find in fullness in Christ-consciousness.  Until then, we can see only rare glimpses, some longer than others, but still temporary.

This is the only accomplishment that we seek, and on some level it has already been accomplished, for Jesus says that we are The Accomplished.  But not in any egoic sense, of course.  We have walked the whole pathway, and now we find our way back to retrace our steps.

It doesn’t have to take long in the life of any individual, though the return may take a very long time for everyone on earth.  Make no mistake:  This is what we are about, the eventual return of everyone to full sanity, which means that we are in communion with our Creator and we have walked into the real Self through Awakening.

Our Journey

“If you were to continue your reading, you would find many examples of the very odd, disturbing, and inexplicable signs that reveal The New.  Why?  Because each must discover for themselves, take the journey into the realm beyond what has been known, encountering the unknown in intimacy.”  Mirari

The tone of these words, believed to be from Mary of Nazareth, are comforting and enticing. Who does not want to take a journey into something better, which The New promises?

We also want intimacy with our God, our brothers and sisters, our own soul. Intimacy invites God’s Love, and we are comforted in intimacy as in little else.

We have to take our journey alone, though we do have lots of helpers, seen and unseen. Each of us, at base, is alone with our God. This does not have to be disturbing, because God’s support is always and forever present–even when we are in a dark night of the soul and don’t feel anything from Him.

Ask to take the right steps on our journey, the guided steps. When we walk a straight pathway back to God, we make a decision to follow His guidance.

And then our journey takes us Home quickly, to a Heaven on earth indeed.

Defenses

“It is essential to realize that all defenses do what they would defend.  The underlying basis for their effectiveness is that they offer what they defend.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.IV.7)

But this dynamic causes the exact opposite of what we want!  We get what we defend against; how good is that?  In the illusory world that the ego rules, we are trying to avoid the thing that we are so massively constructing brick walls against.  Here, though, Jesus makes a startling assertion that we might well check out in our daily life (especially if we don’t think Jesus has it right).

Have you ever found yourself trapped by defenses, defenses that had been erected to protect yourself?  Of course.  I once knew someone who was barricaded against attacks from others by a wall so strong and fortified that those of us who knew her well saw through what was happening.  Unfortunately, she herself often attacked others.  So, though she had never studied A Course in Miracles, she believed that she would be attacked.  She projected her belief onto others, and so this was her perception.  And she was attacked by others, try as hard as she might to destroy their lives first!

It was a mess.  This scenario, even in description and not in the living, so easily conveys the ridiculous nature of following the ego.  Attack, defense, defense, attack.  We need to get real.  As Jesus says in this quotation selected for tonight, defenses do what they would defend. 

Vow tonight to avoid being defensive.  It will be hard at first, because we reflexively defend ourselves when we are challenged by another.  And especially when we are attacked by another.  The psychological truth of Jesus’s statements about defense, though, ought to be enough to convince us that we need to make an about-fact promptly.

We will walk an easier pathway when we decide that defenses do not help us at all, and they harm (in the illusion) more than almost anything else.

Happiness

“God established His relationship with you to make you happy, and nothing you do that does not share His purpose can be real.  The purpose God ascribed to anything is its only function.  Because of His reason for creating His relationship with you, the function of relationships became forever ‘to make happy.’  And nothing else.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.IV.1)

Happiness is a good thing.  We sometimes mistake pleasure in the things of this world for genuine happiness, but perhaps as we proceed through A Course in Miracles, we will catch some glimpse of the difference.  Happiness in this world is a reflection of the happiness that we bask in when we attune ourselves to God.  He is ever ready to advance His cause with us, and it is only our own fear that keeps Him from us.  Our Guide, His Communication Link to us, the Holy Spirit, will let us know how to walk the best pathway.  We have only to listen attentively.  The Holy Spirit will get through to us, and in the communication will come a happiness unlike anything that this world has offered us heretofore.

God created us to be happy in Him.  Until we return to Him, that goal is thwarted.  And we would not have it thwarted, for we want to be happy.  We need to realize, moreover, that happiness is not an inferior goal, inferior to our function of forgiveness and salvation.  For forgiveness, salvation, and happiness are One in God’s eyes, and, as such, they ought to be One in our own eyes as well.

It is perhaps foreign to us to place happiness first.  We think that there are more altruistic emotions.  But can we really help another out of our own neediness?  And don’t we come into our own, really, only when we are happy?  Up to now, we have had fleeting instances of happiness—but happiness is meant to be a constant state, and when it has become such, we will know why.

We can make our contribution to the world best when we are contented.  And contentment is a form of happiness.  We don’t need to sign in agony at the pain that we suffer; indeed, we don’t have to turn pain into suffering.  If we keep a steady eye on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He will teach us how to emerge from the pain.

And then our way Home, our way Home quickly, is assured.

United with God Once Again

“In seeing the self as separate you have known fear and have been forced to reconcile fear with love.  Now, in coming back to relationship and union with me you have realized that you are not separate and now have striven against the ‘opposing’ force of separation.  With the acceptance of the Christ in you, you are returned to relationship and need no longer strive against the ‘opposing’ force of separation, for you no longer know it.”  (A Course of Love, D:Day40.8)

As we turn from separation, we turn from fear to love.  We may even strive actively to turn from fear to love.  We have realized that we aren’t separate (as we could never be, for we are part of God), and we have striven to get past these ideas of the ego with every force of our personality.  When we accept the Christ in us, we understand that we have returned to a relationship that has long eluded us, and now we no longer need to strive against separation.  We know intimately that we are joined with the Christ Self; we know intimately that we are “separate” no longer.

The separation is another name for what is usually called the “fall of man,” including woman.  If we think about it, we know that we are not living in a world that has been reconciled with God.  His way works; ours does not.  When we seek to turn our minds to a confident belief in ultimates that save, we will be alright.  We won’t be alright as long as we let our egotistical leanings move into the ascendancy.  We know this. 

It is only our lack of understanding of how God works with us that has taken so much time.  He knows no time, for time is simply an illusion—one well understood by our science now.

Turn to our inner knowing.  Turn today.

It will make all the difference.  Attract the good, don’t give any credence to anything that is substandard.

Millions of Enlightened People

“The millions of sisters and brothers who throughout the world are living their human lives being the enlightened ones of God, those who found love, embody all varieties of social, religious, philosophical, moral, and other characteristics.  Almost none are well known, because to be a celebrated saint is simply one option among several.  Few choose that path, nor is it necessary.”  Choose Only Love bk. 6, 1:III

What a glorious statement this is: that there are “millions” of our brothers and sisters in this world who are enlightened! I did not know that enlightenment (also called Awakening and Christ-consciousness) was so widespread. And there is no way that I could know, because most of those so blessed keep a low profile. We do not have very many Mother Teresas.

It is possible that those so blessed with enlightenment do not have a name for it, other than “born again,” or “saved.” Most of us in the West do not have a good grasp of enlightenment. The East is different that way. There is a long tradition of enlightenment in Eastern religions of Buddhism and Hinduism, and many people in Eastern countries know what has happened to them when they are so blessed.

I have a friend who had no clue what was going on with her over 30 years ago when enlightenment dawned. She started on a mission to try to find out. In the meantime, she simply called it “transformation.” She is one of the lucky ones; her transformation has been sustained.

If we want enlightenment, we need to ask for it. The pathways of Jesus’ channeled writings all point to this end. It is in truth the only way that our world can be saved from disaster. It is the only way out there for salvation to take hold worldwide.

Turn to love, dismiss judgment and fears that are not meant to be warnings. If we hold fast to our desires for enlightenment, we will draw it to us. And in so doing we will do our small part in advancing our civilizations by dedication to God’s ways.

Book Promo – Ad to Appear in Miracles Magazine

Being Who You Are: Pondering A Course of Love

For readers of ACOL and  A Course in Miracles  as well as newcomers.     Ten comprehensive, thematic chapters, including human interest stories. 

ALL-STAR RATING: “warm,” “gentle,” “intimate,” “life-affirming,” “amazing,” “fabulous,” “totally introduced me to ACOL.”   

 Print $7.95; E-book $5.99.  261 pg.  On Amazon.                           —                                                          

Celia Hales, author of Being Who You Are, blogs at “Miracles Each Day.”  She published A Course of Love:  An Overview with Take Heart Publications.

The New

“Without trust in one’s own knowing, no matter how oblique or unspeakable, there will not be this advent of The New.

“What you are asked to do is to build anticipation for it, not to explain it.”  Mirari

We don’t know when The New will really get underway. But we will know our part in the New when we turn inward. No other way will answer our questions. No other way will provide the assurance that we are walking toward God in this pathway toward The New.

The New refers to a new world being created by love. We seem far from that now, but God can act swiftly when the time is right. He needs our co-creation, though; he needs our hands and feet. If we don’t act in the world, based on the inner knowing that we feel, there is nobody else to do it. God Himself looks to us to create the good world that we all want.

If all of us long for a new world, we are setting the stage for that new world to emerge. We might see things happening before its full advent that are mightily disturbing to us. We may not speak of these things, for speech tends to create the things being spoken of.

Go within for the knowing that we need. This inner knowledge is true guidance, for God dwells within all of us. We are immanent with Him. And if we will listen, we will always know what to do to make things better.

Love

“I have called this session ‘the unknown saints.’ It might also have been called ‘the enlightened strangers.’  What I want to express is that many kinds of beings have attained enlightenment, that is, higher knowledge or the wisdom of love.  Their common denominator is that they have chosen love as the center and the reason for life.  They have chosen truth as their eternal companion no matter where they are or what they do.  They live consciously for God and in God, even though the totality of the effects of their choice are not completely known while they remain functioning on Earth.”  Choose Only Love bk. 6, 1:II

This quotation seems to refer both to this world (“while they remain functioning on Earth”) and a world beyond (“many kinds of beings”).  Certainly Choose Only Love offers guidance from angels, and these certainly are other kinds of beings.  But the enlightened strangers are ourselves, too–many people who have no outward show to themselves and would not be expecting to be called “saints.”

The bottom line is that we can discover what we need to know from our brothers and sisters on Earth, and we can discover what we need to know from channeled writings.  Moreover, our own communion with our depths will enlighten us in a way that nothing else can.  Be sure to reflect on what rises from the depths.  If harm would come to anyone, it is not a right choice.

Yes, love remains the center tenet of Choose Only Love as well as all other channeled writings of which I know anything.  Don’t let this be a hackneyed statement.  If love were something new to us, we would be enthralled by it even more than we are.  We are too used to the concept of love not to be jaded sometimes.  And this is a great pity.

Love is the cement of the universes.  If it were not for God’s Love, His cosmos would never have stood.  Love is the glue that sets our feet on solid ground.  Our heads may be in the clouds, but our feet are on terra firma.

Forgiveness

Book promo: My book, Being Who You Are: Pondering A Course of Love, now has 14 ratings on Amazon, all 5-star, and many reviews. If you would like to take a look, enter “being who you are and celia hales” in Amazon. Thank you, Celia

“Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you?  In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely.  Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness.  And nothing will you value like unto this, nor hold so dear.  Nothing that you remember that made your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you.”  (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-17.II.1)

Forgiveness is, at first, something that we do for ourselves.  Then it is something that we do for others.  For giving and receiving are one in the tenets of A Course in Miracles.

When we forgive, our whole world will open up to bless us.  Our grievances, on the other hand, hide the light of the world in us.  We cannot see accurately or well in darkness.  We see only in light.  And forgiveness is our function, the means in which we will know happiness and spread salvation, not only for ourselves but also for others.

We will value those whom we have forgiven more than anything else in our world, for is it not our significant others who offer the greatest challenge to us for forgiveness?  We will value them even more when we have totally forgiven, holding nothing back.  The ways of this world would tell us that we need to protect ourselves from future hurt by not forgetting their words or deeds against us.  But A Course in Miracles advises us that this is a defense, and defenses do what they would defend against.

So the only way out, the only way back to the light in us, is to drop grievances.  Just to let them go.

Then we will know a joy that has eluded us until now.  We will know peace.  We will know harmony.  And we will know love.  Really, for the first time.