October 25, 2014 - Love One Another

Mongolia Group Adventure

ACIM Workbook Lesson #298

“I love You, Father, and I love Your Son.”

Friendships ebb and flow, change over the years, and mature into majestic alliances. I've formed friendships which felt they could never be breached. Looking back at my dearest friends through the years, most of us have grown apart, finding that we no longer share the same viewpoints or interests. This growth is a good thing, which I have usually welcomed. The few treasured relationships which have endured are so sweet. Loving God extends into loving Its expression, in the form of other humans. I am grateful for the burgeoning understanding which allows me to love without fear, to extend a hand when needed, and never fear the consequences. Namaste!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful. Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom.”

Science & Health Page 249:3-7

October 24, 2014 - The Only Gift

"October Sunrise"
photo by Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #297

“Forgiveness is the only gift I give.”

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a neighbor being taken to the hospital and the accusatory words her daughter pointed toward me. I had not made an effort to see this dear woman, probably because my feelings were hurt and I didn't want to be involved in another dramatic scenario. But I finally put that behind me and went to see her in the hospital yesterday. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw her daughter's car and almost kept on driving, but then intuition told me that was the time to see them, so I listened. Our visit was the epitome of forgiveness, in my opinion. It was as if nothing had happened. My neighbor and I were happy to see each other, and her daughter was friendly and as nice as could be. I felt very happy to have taken the step which allowed us to see above past hurts and let our true feelings guide our words and actions. What better gift could we give the world!!

 Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection.”

No and Yes, p. 39:17-18

October 22, 2014 = In Love With Love

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #295

“The Holy Spirit looks through me today.

”For years I was in love with love. I loved being in love and flitted from one love affair to another. When I began a serious study of divine metaphysics, the love I had always chased seemed small in comparison to the Allness of the Love which is God. As I discovered that I am the expression of this Love, I spent quite some time separating these feelings and cordoning off the love which I had humanly craved. After a conversation with a friend today, I've realized the increased separation I'm creating with my definitions and restrictions on love. In thinking about it, the love I feel for my children is Love. What else could it be? There is only one Love, as we are told in today's ACIM workbook lesson: "Fear appears in many different forms, but love is one." So my silly giving up of love in favor of Love is simply another one of the many forms of fear. I thank my friend who asked me pointed questions and brought this realization. I invite divine Love to look through me today. I ask that I recognize what that means!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars,-- he will look out from them upon the universe; and the florist will find his flower before its seed.”

Science & Health Page 124:26-28

October 21, 2014 - A Neutral Body

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #294

“My body is a wholly neutral thing.”

Part of today's ACIM lesson speaks to allowing ourselves to leave the body without illness predicating the event. I'm glad we're getting past the thought that something must be "wrong" with the body in order for it to be cast off. I've had two friends who died in their 50s with no physical cause. One of these people was traveling, stopped at a hotel, laid down on the bed and was gone. As this was an unattended death, all the legal protocol were followed and it was determined that there was no physical reason at all for her passing. I think this is great! The new realm of thought we're accessing allows many old beliefs to be abandoned -- finally! How many material laws have imprisoned us with unlocked doors? This body as a wholly neutral thing is an empty vessel waiting to be filled up with thought. Let's make sure that thought is independent of erroneous learning and dogma. Everything is important; nothing is important -- neutrality

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The elements and functions of the physical body and of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition for organic and functional health in the human body may no longer be found indispensable to health. Moral conditions will be found always harmonious and health-giving."

Science & Health Page 124:32-6

October 20, 2014 - One Love

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #293

"All fear is past and only love is here."

Do you know married couples who seem to stay together for fear of being alone? How about single people who want more than anything to have a partner with whom to share life? Of course, it's nice to have someone to talk to and enjoy. A dear friend tells me she just wants a man to run around with, but she wants someone smart and kind, and she doesn't know any men who fit that bill. I had to laugh! I have so many wonderful men friends and they are wildly intelligent and thoughtful. I think that by leaving past expectations where they began and lived (in the past!), I've allowed myself to see that divine Love is the cosmic soup, if you will, which runs through us all. That Oneness is the completeness I used to seek in others. The fear of aloneness cannot possibly exist where the comfort of Love is felt. By this allowing with no expectations, I have everything I need!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Wilderness: Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence."

Science & Health Page 597:16-19

October 19, 2014 - Happy Outcomes

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #292

“A happy outcome to all things is sure.”

The sky is falling!! I'm often reminded of the proverbial Chicken Little and his worries about everything. Many people I know remind me of him, with their certainty that something awful is going to happen. A dear woman came to me asking for advice. She told me that she was afraid to go outside her home, and so she would drink alcohol before she went out to have the courage to leave. She had been drinking heavily when she came to talk to me. She related many concerns she had about life in general and a few things in specific. I mentioned Wayne Dyer's words about worry: If you can do something about a situation, you will; if you can't, why worry?? She was very excited by this because she has heard him on television and she really wants to think this way, too. I told her she can, that all it takes is practice and applying the ideas to daily life. Replacing  practiced, circular thought with realized spiritual Truth may seem difficult, but a happy outcome is sure!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in life-practice, and God's will must be universally done.”

Science & Health Page 203:3-5

October 18, 2014 - Peaceful Stillness

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #291

“This is a day of stillness and of peace.”

What is the real world? This is the question we are exploring for the next few days. While we think we are seeing the real world, with all its pain and sorrow and fear and horror, we are not. The unreal world, which is reported on the news and purported to be reality by those who scoff at anything unseen to human eyes, is not the reality of spiritual creation. I'm often drawn to the first chapter of the Bible for affirmation of Truth, but if we read on into the next chapter, things begin to get muddy. By the time we reach the third chapter, we're deeply lost in the material version of creation -- the illusion which is so difficult to shake. We are no longer a spiritual creation, but made from dirt with all the oddness that goes along with talking serpents and guilt and blame and such. So when life seems riddled with chaos, I will remember our true creation as peaceful stillness in the Mind of God.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Certain moods of mind find an indefinable pleasure in stillness, soft, silent as the storm's sudden hush; for nature's stillness is voiced with a hum of harmony, the gentle murmur of early morn, the evening's closing vespers, and lyre of bird and brooklet." 

Christian Science versus Pantheism Page 3:8-13