Forgive Yourself

Have you ever been accused of something you did not do? An unjust charge carries with it a terrible feeling. This same feeling follows many of us around because we have been told that we are born sinners — and that there is nothing to be done about the life sentence. We have come to believe it is our function on this earth to try ever so hard in order to overcome this innate badness. Isn't it a wonderful thing to experience teachings which show us that this is not true? The understanding of our essence as the pure expression of God — and the realization that anything unlike this expression is a material illusion, one which is brought to us courtesy of tainted human beliefs — frees us to be happy. Gone is all the guilt we may have carried around, thinking we were condemned by a power from which we couldn't escape. There has been no condemnation by any power, only illusionary powers to which we have given credence. Breaking free from these beliefs, we are free to be happy, healthy, whole -- and we bloom!

“Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God’s absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 282:28:3

“Nothing the body’s eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins. In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.”
—A Course in Miracles W-64.2:1-4

Misnamed Groups for Banning Books

Moms for Liberty, The Moral Majority, Citizens United: Many names seem to be copacetic with our personal beliefs. For example, Moms for Liberty is an organization which have taken it upon themselves to remove books from school libraries. They have many ideas about why certain books should be removed, mainly having to do with gender and race. Years ago, Judy Blume was the author who addressed issues which some parents thought should be unmentionable. Now it’s gender identity which has certain people all het up. In a day and age when the internet and mass media outlets expose our children to any- and every-thing, it seems ridiculous to try to stop children from reading books which will tell the facts about things they are hearing about on a daily basis. Not only are sex and gender issues fearful to specific groups, they are also concerned that the truth of our country’s history will make kids embarrassed about our government’s actions. Well hello!! When we know truth and it is shameful, we will try to do better in the future, so future generations do not need to be ashamed. Stuff happens, but we can rectify the past by our actions today. And that changes the future. It’s fear or love, people. Fear or Love.

“You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them. All uncertainty comes from the belief that you are under the coercion of judgment. You do not need judgment to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. In the presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process that enables recognition to replace perception.”
—A Course in Miracles T-3.VI.3:1-6

“The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man. Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both upon the body and through it.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 206:4-9

Freed From Illusions By Truth

 Polly in Wonderland: Polina Kostanda

Truth has always been very important to me. Having this great love of truth, it came as quite a surprise to find out that the life I'd lived for 37 years, my name, birthdate, and parents, were not the ones given at birth. At two months of age, my parents took me from a niece who was 17 and had given birth with no one to help her. Her boyfriend had skipped over the border into Mexico. Her family ignored her, in an effort to convince her to give away her baby. After two months of being on her own, she relented and gave me to her aunt -- which is what her family had wanted all along. These wonderful people (who were the only parents I had ever known) then moved across the country and made a new beginning for us all. They did this in part to save this baby from the flood of criticism and judgment which accompanied a child born out of wedlock in the 1950s. Perhaps it was their living of this huge lie which caused them to instill truthfulness so solidly within me. For whatever reason, I am thankful to have it. Because of this love of truth, I've always wanted to know it -- in every way. But in the past three decades, it's taken the form of spiritual Truth, which shows me my function and is my happiness. And it has set me free!

“And so again we make the only choice that ever can be made; we choose between illusions and the truth, or pain and joy, or hell and Heaven. Let our gratitude unto our Teacher fill our hearts, as we are free to choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict, and the light of Heaven for the darkness of the world.”
—A Course in Miracles W-190.11:1-2

"Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it."
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 57:18-21

My Only Function

Autumn Skye Art

As a restless young person, I resisted the only thing which was required in order to experience peace, thinking that living in Spirit would be predictable and boring. Decades past that time, daily life is exciting and new! Without the willingness to be open to the field of all possibilities, by-rote behaviors would be repeated, while following along with learned beliefs. That is the definition of boring! By being willing to listen inwardly, one can never be sure of what will be said or done, but we can be confident that guidance will never lead us astray. On the occasions I forget to listen, but instead hold forth with long-held strong opinions, things don't usually work out in the same harmonious ways as they do when I'm willing to yield. That is a strong reminder to remember that I, of my own self, know nothing.

"This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."
—Mary Baker Eddy- Science & Health Page 265:10-15

“The full acceptance of salvation as your only function necessarily entails two phases; the recognition of salvation as your function, and the relinquishment of all the other goals you have invented for yourself. This is the only way in which you can take your rightful place among the saviors of the world. This is the only way in which you can say and mean, ‘My only function is the one God gave me.’ This is the only way in which you can find peace of mind.”
—A Course in Miracles W-65.1:4–2:3

We Are Love

Sunrise - 1933

Maxfield Parrish 

What is love? As a personal value, love changes and shifts. Friendships end over disagreements, marriages fall apart, societies struggle to remain cohesive while accepting those who think differently. A Course in Miracles tells us that only perfect Love exists. This realization can change our material expectations of what constitutes love. When we see people in their true identity as spiritual expressions of Love, we understand that they share in the wisdom of the ages, because they are reflections of divine Mind. Plus, seeing others as the expression of Love, they can see themselves this way, too! When we recognize ourselves as complete, a shift occurs in the way we treat others. All problems, large and small, are symptoms of a basic misconception that we are fallen humans, separated from Love. The acceptance that we are Love, wholly and purely, starts a domino-effect which inevitably includes everyone in this shift of thought. Through this acceptance, our views shift from unreal beliefs of what we are, to the pure understanding of ourselves as One with All.

“From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind. Mind [Love] creates and multiplies them, and the product must be mental.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 280:4-8

“Meditation is the art of divine appreciation of the outer forms, because meditation gives us an understanding of the divine Love which produced the form. Meditation develops the insight which carries us from the outer form to its creative principle and then, with this new insight, the world is revealed as it really is.”
—Joel Goldsmith

“Love created me like itself. Today’s idea is a complete and accurate statement of what you are. This is why you are the light of the world. This is why God appointed you as the world’s savior. This is why the Son of God looks to you for his salvation. He is saved by what you are. We will make every effort today to reach this truth about you, and to realize fully, if only for a moment, that it is the truth.”
—A Course in Miracles W-67.1:1-6

No Grievance in Love

Photo credit: Don Matt

Some painful memories seem to stay with us. Throughout the years, certain events have re-played regularly in my mind. Although these re-runs are mostly gone now, there are current events which beg me to take offense. They jump up and down asking to be retold, wanting to hold me to them with emotions. To hold a grievance, we must live in the past. I remember a line from a little book by Alan Lightman called "Einstein's Dreams". He tells us that those who live in the past are condemned to live there alone. Habitually recounting what used to be, or wishing for what never was, or wanting what could have been — these thought processes are symptoms of holding grievances. A Course in Miracles tells us how forgetting that we are Love, forgetting that everyone is Love, forgetting that everything is Love, is holding a grievance. So today let’s return to Love -- a figurative return, as we remember that we never left, and neither has anyone else. This Love replaces all grievances in our thoughts, and by this process we are safely and peacefully at one with all.

“The circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 574:27-30

“It is as sure that those who hold grievances will redefine God in their own image, as it is certain that God created them like Himself, and defined them as part of Him. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt, as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget who they are, as it is certain that those who forgive will remember.”
—A Course in Miracles W-68.3:1-3

Sweeping Away Grievances

Finding and clearing out hidden grievances within ourselves is similar to cleaning away cobwebs from dark corners in our home. Perhaps we’re holding onto them simply because we’re afraid the story we’ve created for ourselves might fall apart if we let go any part of it. Maybe we’ve convinced ourself that we like our history, and don’t want to give any of it up — much less all of it! But what brilliance is hiding behind the cover of these grievance clouds? What light have we hidden behind the illusions created for ourselves and the world? I know something wonderful is there, just out of reach. So when an old story comes to mind, I will turn thought instead to contemplation of the wondrous Truth which flows in, out, and through me when I lift the veil created by my grievances. Now that's deep cleaning!


“The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality--much error--in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 295:14-24

“From where you stand, you can see no reason to believe there is a brilliant light hidden by the clouds. The clouds seem to be the only reality. They seem to be all there is to see. Therefore, you do not attempt to go through them and past them, which is the only way in which you would be really convinced of their lack of substance.”
—A Course in Miracles W-69.5:1-4