The Appropriate Non-Response

Once at a party, someone leaned in close to me and said something derogatory about another person. Remembering Olympia Dukakis in Steel Magnolias when she said, “If you don’t have anything nice to say about anybody, come and sit by me”, I wanted to say just the opposite and ask this person to go away! But I also wanted to see her comments through the light of Love and interpret them purely, rather than through my personal judgment of the words. So I just smiled at her. Wondering how to respond to her, I reached out to Holy Spirit, but nothing came to thought. Rather than nervously babbling something meaningless, or condemning her as I am wont to do, I remained silent. This experience helped me understand that a response is not always necessary. Seeing them in the light of Love seemed more appropriate than condemning them. And it felt good, too. 

“The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the windowpane. 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 295:16-24

“In order to see, you must recognize that light is within, not without. You do not see outside yourself, nor is the equipment for seeing outside you. An essential part of this equipment is the light that makes seeing possible. It is with you always, making vision possible in every circumstance.”
—A Course in Miracles W-44.2: