What, Me Worry?

"Blue Moon Set Over the Ozarks"
photo by Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #215

Central theme: "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me." Review: #195 "Love is the way I walk in gratitude."

Today's review tells us to release the future: What does that mean? We've learned that we must release the past in order to live in the present. "Those who live in the past are condemned to live there alone." (Einstein's Dreams, by Alan Lightman) But what of releasing the future? Does that mean we can't make plans and have dreams of what we'd like to do? No, of course not. It simply means that we mustn't allow those "what-if" situations to control us. If we take the future to the level of constant worry, affecting our every moment in the present, then it's time to release it! I feel there is nothing wrong with thinking about the past or the future, unless it begins to be our focus. No fear of the future nor regret in the past places me in the now. Woo-hoo!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant our feet on firmer ground.”

Science & Health Page 224:4-7

Letting Go - August 2, 2015

photo from Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #214

Central theme: "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me." Review: #194 "I place the future in the Hands of God."

Some of us are uncomfortable with relinquishing control and may recoil at the idea of placing the future in God's hands. But I see no loss of individuality in this process. On the contrary, there is more freedom from allowing divine Mind to be in charge than there is with making decisions dictated by material belief and habit. I know a woman who is involved in the messy settlement of her mom's estate. When she gets letters from the attorneys, she puts them in her bible and says she's giving it to God. This is not what we're talking about today! The willingness to radically rely on God opens the way for ideas and spiritual sense to lead us in ways we may not have considered before. Things may then "come up" from the depths of our emotional stores, allowing them to be acknowledged and released. That's what I call "giving it to God"! The past is gone. With every letting go of well-rehearsed past events, or the quiet release of guilt or pain, peace becomes reality for me. It doesn't matter if anyone was right or wrong, it doesn't make any difference what motives were involved, part of me has been emptied to be filled with the only reality: Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us.”

Science & Health Page 201:13-15

Listening and Learning

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #213

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #193 “All things are lessons God would have me learn.”

I think most of us would agree that listening isn't always an easy task. Today I saw an example of a type of listening which is difficult to put into practice. My neighbor has a cat named Wyatt. This pretty feline goes outside regularly and returns when Jane whistles for him, but this afternoon he didn't return when she called. When it was starting to get dark and he still hadn't come home, she told her other cat, Doc, to "go find Wyatt", and then she listened to what Doc had to say. He went to a house up the street where no one lives, a house that is for sale. Doc went to the back door and stood there, looking from it to his person, who then called the realtor who has the house listed for sale. It turns out she had shown the property to a prospective buyer, and she drove back to our street to open the door. Sure enough, there was Wyatt inside the house. What a lovely demonstration of the power we possess when we're willing to listen and learn!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.”

Science & Health Page 298:13-15

Fulfilling Our Function

Tailand Sunset
photo from Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #212

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #192 “I have a function God would have me fill.”

Have you noticed people are making major shifts in their lives? The cool thing I've observed is that these are not painful changes, but beautifully flowing shifts which seem almost effortless in their perfection. I love seeing people coming alive with the excitement of doing things which bring them happiness and deep fulfillment! Whether it's moving to another part of the globe, or starting a new career, or "retiring" and finding that life is just beginning, people are changing their focus in major ways. It's so wonderful that we're feeling free to follow our heart and move into the space of Love which fulfills our function. And how do we know what that is? Listen inwardly and Trust yourSelf!!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as [It] opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear.”

Science & Health Page 506:18-21

No Division

ACIM Workbook Lesson #211

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #191 “I am the holy Son of God Himself.”

We have insisted on separating ourselves from each other by setting up divisions such as nationality, gender, and religion. It seems as though it should be simple to accept our unity as an idea of divine Mind. We all have a song to sing, and we are all part of the grand symphony of Life. To rejoice in being One with everyone, to live from Love rather than fear and its imaginings, is to humbly accept the goodness we inherently are. I pray to turn away from the illusion of human differences, as I wholeheartedly accept my function as the experience of God, seeing that expression mirrored in everyone I meet.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."

Science & Health Page 340:23-29

Choices - July 29, 2015

"Ugly Bunny Garden Peppers"
photo by Judy Kavan

ACIM Workbook Lesson #210

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #190 “I choose the joy of God instead of pain.”

We have so many choices these days! From the time we wake up and decide which tea to drink, there are a myriad of choices every minute of the day. It seems as though the choice of joy or pain would be an easy one, wouldn’t you think? But making wholesome choices aren’t always easy. Today I was at the farmers' market and had a conversation with a few people who said that good food was a luxury and that they couldn't afford it regularly. I was prompted to think of the choices they had. If a person quits smoking, that frees up money for organic, fresh food. It was tempting to ask how much they spend on alcoholic beverages. There are all sorts of expensive luxuries, such as Starbucks coffee, which could be exchanged for a farm-fresh salad. Perhaps if they did a little research on how to easily prepare food, they would be prompted to do so. There's a book called "This Organic Life" where the author explains in detail how almost anyone with a small backyard can grow enough vegetables to feed themselves and their family. The main point of my rant today is that we most always have a choice. As we are told in ACIM: Don't like your choice? Choose again!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality!”

Science & Health Page 480:31-2

Love is the Liberator

ACIM Workbook Lesson #209

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #189 “I feel the Love of God within me now.”

During my lifetime, I've seen oppression of various types evaporating. I admit that there are more walls waiting to fall  — but just look how far we've come! The strides I, personally, have made in releasing preconceived notions about people who seem different from me are huge! A man told me that he was afraid to come to Eureka Springs. Of course, I asked him why. He said if we were having one of our "diversity" weekends he didn't want to be here. He assured me he had nothing against  gay people, but he didn't want it “rubbed in his face”. This is a learned behavior of prejudice on his part and has nothing to do with the way he felt when he came out of the womb into this life. As we release what we have come to believe, all those things that we’ve been taught to think, we open the way for divine Love to guide us. Love truly is the liberator!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator.”

Science and Health Page 225:14-22

Shining Peace

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #208

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #188 “The peace of God is shining in me now."

Many things we think will make us safe or cause us to feel better, do not. We can spend all our time doing what we have been taught will make us happy and healthy and wise, and then one day wake up and find out we’re none of those things! I’ve just spent three days in a writing workshop with nine other women. It was an exercise in learning how to tell our story, to write our memoirs, to see ourselves as we truly are rather than as we’ve perceived ourselves for years. What a freeing experience! Each and every one of us had were shining, leaving more peaceably than we began, having left on paper vestiges of the past which had hitched a ride for far too long. I know I feel more free and peaceful simply from having known these fantastic women!  

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The metaphysician, making Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to error and discord, has rendered himself strong…”

Science & Health Page 423:18-21

Boundless Love

photo by Heather Magnan

ACIM Workbook Lesson #207

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #187 “I bless the world because I bless myself.”

What blesses one blesses all! Divine Love does not look fondly on one and turn away from another. Love is boundless and blesses the world as it blesses me — and it blesses me as it blesses the world. Love has never left us. It has nothing to do with form, it is everywhere. I must let go of the meanings I have placed on divine Love and allow it to Be. Acknowledging the reality of our Being, affirming our goodness as the experience of God, knowing that everyone is created as a manifestation of divine Mind, these are some of the ways we bless ourselves and everyone else. Join me in falling in love today -- with Life!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply, — to manifest [Its] power.” Science & Health Page 501:13-18

Freedom Through Storytelling

"Bryce Canyon"
photo from Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #206

Central theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #186 “Salvation of the world depends on me.”

I’m taking a weekend workshop on the art of storytelling. We have a great instructor named Elaine Blanchard, and the group consists of nine beautiful, passionate women, all of us as different as we are the same. Each of us is there to release a story from where it’s been hiding within us. I can tell it will be an emotional weekend, full of tears and laughter, with joy being the front runner coming down the stretch when we’re through. Elaine has gained national attention from going into women’s prisons, gathering stories, writing them into screenplays, performing them, and allowing the prisoners to see their stories on stage. This process frees everyone involved and many of the inmates are determined to let loose the past and go forward into a new life. Sometimes you just need someone to listen in order to see what must be done. Truth does set us free!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept.”

Science & Health Page 454:21-23

Pink Cows and Silver Pillows

"Andy Warhol Exhibit"

ACIM Workbook Lesson #205

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #185 "I want the peace of God.”

We have the most delightful museum here in northwest Arkansas: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art! Through it, my consciousness has been expanded in ways I never would have dreamed. Today a friend and I went to see the Andy Warhol special exhibit. We knew little about his art other than that he inundated us with Campbell Soup cans and called it art. Today, I learned a bit more about this interesting man. One thing is that he wanted peace and satisfaction in his life and thought he might achieve that through controlling his art, hence the duplication of images. He also had a lively sense of humor, as shown with this room full of pink cows and floating silver pillows. It brings laughter simply to be in their presence! And he had heart, which he showed in his Endangered Species psychedelic prints. Wow, what a day full of calm and exalted thought!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace."

Science & Health Page 506:11-12

Who Am I?

photo from Arthur Lau-Sed

ACIM Workbook Lesson #204

Central theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #184 “The Name of God is my inheritance.”

We, as humans, make up thousands of designations in order to separate ourselves. We may be proud of our heritage, putting plaques on our walls telling that our ancestors came over on the Mayflower. We teach our children “where they came” from and tell them reasons they should be proud of this. We proclaim what state we hail from, what school we attended, which football teams we cheer for — the list goes on and on. Today’s lesson says, “Learning that stops with what the world would teach stops short of meaning.” I want to see past tribes and nations. I don’t want to think of myself as a Razorback or a woman. I don’t want to think of myself at all, but would rather rest in the knowledge that I am an Idea of God, individually expressing that in whatever way is my function! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man's real existence as a child of God comes to light.”

Science and Health Page 288:31–1

What's in a Name?

"Grand Tetons"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #203

Central theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #183 “I call upon God's Name and on my own.”

If you ask a hundred people what they think God is, you will get that many different answers. Whether it’s an old man sitting in the sky and pointing a finger or an ethereal presence, we have created an image in thought from years of propaganda, and that is what we envision today. This is one of the main reasons I prefer to think of It as divine Mind or infinite Love. It’s easier for me to depersonalize this God I have made in my own image, to turn the tables and allow myself to be the expression of Mind, the experience of Love. 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Question. — What is God? Answer. — God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.” .

Science & Health Page 465:8-10

Home IS Where the Heart Is

"Grand Tetons"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson # 202 

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #182 “I will be still an instant and go home.”

Many of us are resistant to change. We like the security of things staying the same, and often rebel against changes even though we innately sense they would be wonderful. And the changes that aren't always so pleasant -- the loss of a loved one, being fired from a job, losing a home to fire or other devastating circumstance -- those things are feared and dreaded and worried about. I'm sure you know people who have faced such seeming loss and appear to be serene and happy, accepting whatever may come. They know what it means to”be still and go home". Once we realize that home is within, that nothing can change in our true home where divine Love is always constant, then we can rest assured that all is well, no matter what the circumstance may be in form. For this I am very grateful!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Erase the figures which express number, silence the tones of music, give to the worms the body called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine Principle lives on,--in the case of man as truly as in the case of numbers and of music,--despite the so-called laws of matter, which define man as mortal." Science & Health Page 81:19-24

Wholly Sinless

ACIM Workbook Lesson #201

"Grand Tetons"
photo by Aaron Springston

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #181 "I trust my brothers, who are one with me."

This past week, it has appeared that things are slipping out of harmony around me — and it’s not my fault! (I say this with laughter:) There have been problems with getting the correct modem for internet service, my car is having issues, there are ego-related matters occurring with a group I  care about very much — I think I’ll stop right there and see how this relates to “trusting my brothers who are one with me.” One sentence which seems to apply to these situations is: “When you attack a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you have perceived in him.” Although I haven’t been casting stones at those involved in the hold-ups and mix-ups, it would be easy to do so, and so I will use today’s lesson to see all of this another way. When my focus goes beyond so-called mistakes, I will see a wholly sinless world.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."

Science & Health Page 518:15-19

Peace - July 19, 2015

photo courtesy of Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #200

“There is no peace except the peace of God.”

Peace is a spiritual attribute. While we may perceive peace as changeable, that is only our material perception of it. As our topic today tells us, "There is no peace except the peace of God." Now, this statement may bring to mind a picture of a big Buddha ohm-ing away up in the sky, because that's the way we've come to think of deity -- something outside of us, looking down on us, watching over us, giving us things. But that's not the God we're beginning to know as Life, Truth, Love. This divine Mind, infinite Spirit, eternal Soul is you and me. As I learn to recognize the difference in material belief and spiritual truth, life becomes easier. The peace that is God is mine right now for the acceptance of it. We can't lose it, because it's eternally available no matter what the outward circumstance!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.”

Science and Health Page 390:10-11

Whisking Away Unreality

photo courtesy of Alden Stallings

ACIM Workbook Lesson #199

“I am not a body. I am free.”

We have had the privilege of hosting a group of Buddhist monks in our village. They created a beautiful mandala on the top floor of one of our historic hotels. As I always like to look up definitions of words in order to spur inspiration, I looked up the meaning of mandala and found this interesting psychoanalytic slant for the term: “a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity.” How interesting! The recognition that we are not a body and that we’re free dovetails with many aspects of the mandala, so I will ponder them today, reaffirming what my true Self is and whisking away what it is not!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"I am the image and likeness of God; no mortal mind can confine this image in a mortal body, harm or touch it in any way, Mind has set me free from every error. Divine Love fills every avenue, flows through every channel and removes every obstruction."

[This is an excerpt from an article entitled "Body" by Mary Baker Eddy, filed in the Congressional Library, January 19, 1886, found by Lyda Sandifer Hord]

Turn on the Light!

photo from Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #198

“Only my condemnation injures me.”

It seems impossible to stay away from thoughts of condemnation. While it may be tempting to jump up on our high horse and expound on the rightness and the wrongness of external events, this justification is only from the standpoint of belief. Mortal mind, ego, tells us that we know this is real and we must do something about it. But listening and allowing ourselves to be led is much more productive than going off on a tangent and telling people how they should change their ways and everything will be better. The internet is known as the world-wide web, and that is quite an analogy for the Oneness which we share as spiritual beings. The instant and constant connection we all have with each other through our unity is there for the recognition of it. It's akin to flipping on the light switch in a dark room. If we don't know that's possible, we continue to sit in the dark. But when we sit with quiet expectation that our inner knowing will supply us with all we need, we may just find ourselves walking over to that unknown element and turning on the light! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, — that mortals should so improve material belief by thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality.”

Science and Health Page 545:7-10 

One in Gratitude

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #197

“It can be but my gratitude I earn.”

We tend to project our own feelings onto God, don't you think? I guess it's part of our illusionary training to see Source as anthropomorphic, and so it's easy to put conditions and limitations on forgiveness and gratitude. Seeing myself as a reflection of God is a great first step in developing spiritual sense, but it's easy to think that God is a reflection of me! I may feel that I can never forgive certain things because they're just too bad. But God "is of purer eyes" than to see these things. So there is nothing to forgive when I'm living in Oneness. My beliefs may tell me I'm grateful that things aren't as bad as they could be, but God's creation is only good. And so anything unlike God, good, is unreal. Mortal mind, or ego, would tell me many other stories, but I choose to listen to Truth. My gratitude, your gratitude, God's gratitude -- it's all One and the same, as is the Love which conveys it!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible."

Science & Health Page 180:25-27

Upward and Inward

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #196

“It can be but myself I crucify.”

At this point in the Course in Miracles workbook lessons, we are repeatedly told that we are on the brink of realizing salvation, revelation, heaven. The belief systems we have put into practice throughout the years may begin to talk back to us in protest of our new way of thinking. Fear not! We have the tools to stand fast in our knowledge. We have each other as reminders in support. We have inner knowing to tap into for verification on our path. We can move onward, upward, inward, fearless and secure in Love!

Mary Baker Eddy quotes: “Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.” S&H Page 96:21-24