Be Glad Today!

June Owen at Drumming in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

“Be glad today! Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today." This is sage advice from today's Course in Miracles workbook lesson. During a visit with a good friend, he mentioned that a mutual friend really dislikes doing laundry. He told me that she has all sorts of rules for the way it must be done, and he opined that perhaps this was a cause for her dislike of a necessary chore. When I saw the “be glad” quote from today's lesson, I also thought about his asking me what I did for fun, and his surprised reaction when I told him that everything I do is fun — including laundry! Thinking about this conversation reminds me of Wayne Dyer's words: “If you drop a pen and don't enjoy picking it up, drop it again!!” Let us all remember as we go through the day, whether our tasks be mundane or one of those moments which feels like a gift — be glad today; be glad!!

“I can be free of suffering today. Father, I thank You for today, and for the freedom I am certain it will bring. This day is holy, for today Your Son will be redeemed. His suffering is done. For he will hear Your Voice directing him to find Christ’s vision through forgiveness, and be free forever from all suffering. Thanks for today, my Father. I was born into this world but to achieve this day, and what it holds in joy and freedom for Your holy Son and for the world he made, which is released along with him today.

“Be glad today! Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today. Our Father has redeemed His Son this day. Not one of us but will be saved today. Not one who will remain in fear, and none the Father will not gather to Himself, awake in Heaven in the Heart of Love.”

A Course in Miracles W-340.1:1–2:6

“Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is spiritual." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:25-30

Misconceptions

Photo attributed to many sources

It's difficult to realize that we're requesting pain. No one wants to admit they're doing this. I have a friend who is always wondering why she has problems. She repeatedly tells me how her thinking is pure, yet the problems persist. I've been there and know what she's going through. It's easy to fall into defensive thinking, constantly wondering what's going to befall us next. It's difficult to convince ourselves to look for One thing, and understand that through a singleness of purpose, solutions appear. Without the realization of our Oneness with divine Mind, we seek and cannot find. When we stop looking and allow ourselves to see Truth, perfection unfolds and shows itself in every facet of our lives. If I truly let go and let God, there is no reason to worry about results. One thing have I desired …

“I will receive whatever I request. No one desires pain. But he can think that pain is pleasure. No one would avoid his happiness. But he can think that joy is painful, threatening and dangerous. Everyone will receive what he requests. But he can be confused indeed about the things he wants; the state he would attain. What can he then request that he would want when he receives it? He has asked for what will frighten him, and bring him suffering. Let us resolve today to ask for what we really want, and only this, that we may spend this day in fearlessness, without confusing pain with joy, or fear with love.

“Father, this is Your day. It is a day in which I would do nothing by myself, but hear Your Voice in everything I do; requesting only what You offer me, accepting only Thoughts You share with me.”

A Course in Miracles W-339.1:1–2:2

"Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of material sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood."

 Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 297:20-24

What Am I Thinking?

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick

Studies show that we have more than 6,000 thoughts every day. As I heard Wayne Dyer tell us in one of his outstanding talks, the problem is that the thousands of thoughts we have today are the same ones we had yesterday! Waking up from the circular thinking in which we are trapped requires an honesty we’re not accustomed to practicing. Habitual thought is not an easy habit to break, but the desire to do so is the first step. Just like changing any behavior, you have to want to change or you never will. How can we begin to think differently? We can’t simply stop thinking, but we can exchange our trivial musings for substantial ideas. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” As I go through this day, I’ll often ask myself: What would Eleanor think? 

“My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 299:1-11

“I am affected only by my thoughts. It needs but this to let salvation come to all the world. For in this single thought is everyone released at last from fear. Now has he learned that no one frightens him, and nothing can endanger him. He has no enemies, and he is safe from all external things. His thoughts can frighten him, but since these thoughts belong to him alone, he has the power to change them and exchange each fear thought for a happy thought of love. He crucified himself. Yet God has planned that His beloved Son will be redeemed.

“Your plan is sure, my Father,—only Yours. All other plans will fail. And I will have thoughts that will frighten me, until I learn that You have given me the only Thought that leads me to salvation. Mine alone will fail, and lead me nowhere. But the Thought You gave me promises to lead me home, because it holds Your promise to Your Son.”

A Course in Miracles W-338.1:1–2:5

The Saving Grace of Unity

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

In the last decade-plus of writing this daily blog, there have been many entries in which I've mentioned that every thought we have is important. In tandem with this idea, I've said that the last thing we think before sleep and the first thought upon waking are the most important of all. While I still wholeheartedly believe this to be true, I find it increasingly difficult to keep my mind from sinking to depths I haven't witnessed in myself since my heavy drinking days of long ago. Today's Course in Miracles workbook topic assures us that sinlessness protects from harm. Since we've defined sin as being anything which separates us from the Love which is God, I feel certain that my lifeline will come by way of accepting our unity with divine Mind and the infinity of Love. I'm going to ask for guidance by way of this ever-presence, listening open-heartedly and trustingly, knowing fear is truly “false evidence appearing real”. 

“The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, —constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 76:22-26

“My sinlessness protects me from all harm. My sinlessness ensures me perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting love, freedom forever from all thought of loss; complete deliverance from suffering. And only happiness can be my state, for only happiness is given me. What must I do to know all this is mine? I must accept Atonement for myself, and nothing more. God has already done all things that need be done. And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self, my sinlessness, created for me, now already mine, to feel God’s Love protecting me from harm, to understand my Father loves His Son; to know I am the Son my Father loves.

“You Who created me in sinlessness are not mistaken about what I am. I was mistaken when I thought I sinned, but I accept Atonement for myself. Father, my dream is ended now. Amen.”

A Course in Miracles W-337.1:1–2:4

Wiping Away Dreams of Separation

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick 

Our perception is that we are separate human beings who must work hard to see our commonality. While we believe this to be true, we are not experiencing the world as it is — not at all. “Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the truth.” We are able to look at everything without judgment when we release our ego and choose “that mind to be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus”. We tend to think judgment is part of the human experience, and that we have no choice but to look at everything as either right or wrong. As we go through our day, let’s notice how many times we separate ourselves from each other by judgment. We have a choice of looking past bodies and experiencing the Oneness which is our holy self, that Self which has always been there. This simple message is not always easy, but I rejoice in knowing it is possible!

“Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined. Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception’s ending. Knowledge is restored after perception first is changed, and then gives way entirely to what remains forever past its highest reach. For sights and sounds, at best, can serve but to recall the memory that lies beyond them all. Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the truth. Its lilies shine into the mind, and call it to return and look within, to find what it has vainly sought without. For here, and only here, is peace of mind restored, for this the dwelling place of God Himself.

“In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. Then let me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept; Your Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my heart.”

A Course in Miracles W-336.1:1–2:2

“Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:13-16

Seeing Each Other In A Holy Light

Have I been superimposing my feelings onto my fellow humans? For the last decade, I’ve made a special effort to examine my beliefs and opinions about the political atmosphere. Fully realizing that when I point a finger at anyone, three are pointing back at me, I have made up a mythical me which I think of as above untruth and belief. I’ve convinced myself that I can differentiate between truth and lies, which brings a separation between myself and whomever I deem to be a liar. We all have a personal agenda, which can clash with another person with a personal agenda. I cannot change what anyone else thinks; only myself. As the daily lesson tells us: “I never see my brother as he is, for that is far beyond perception. What I see in him is merely what I wish to see, because it stands for what I want to be the truth.”  Today I shall release humanity from my false beliefs, thereby releasing myself. Namaste …

“I choose to see my brother’s sinlessness. Forgiveness is a choice. I never see my brother as he is, for that is far beyond perception. What I see in him is merely what I wish to see, because it stands for what I want to be the truth. It is to this alone that I respond, however much I seem to be impelled by outside happenings. I choose to see what I would look upon, and this I see, and only this. My brother’s sinlessness shows me that I would look upon my own. And I will see it, having chosen to behold my brother in its holy light.

“What could restore Your memory to me, except to see my brother’s sinlessness? His holiness reminds me that he was created one with me, and like myself. In him I find my Self, and in Your Son I find the memory of You as well.”

A Course in Miracles W-335.1:1–2:3

“Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, we begin with Mind, which must be understood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human illusions."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:29-3

The Peace of Forgiveness

Eureka Springs, AR trail

Photo Credit:Richard Quick

Many people are in a state of fear and anger. After receiving a phone call from an old friend, whom I had not seen since the early part of the 21st Century, I stopped to ponder how many people may feel as helpless as she does. This beautiful, smart woman has a PhD and is working in her chosen field. She feels estranged from her family. She is seeing a psychiatrist and has been diagnosed with Asperger’s. He wants her to take antidepressants and other medications. When she finished hurriedly telling me these things (and more), I was silent. She said, What do you think? I laughed and said I thought she shouldn’t listen to what other people thought she should do, but rather to do what was right for her. Because she felt hurt by her family’s words and actions, I reminded her that she needn’t take personally what others say, and not to assume that she knew why they said/did what they did. By this time I was ready to jump up on my soapbox, so I continued. My advice was to enjoy each and every thing, and a good way to begin this practice was by walking in the woods, stopping and noticing flora and fauna, being grateful for every breath, planting things in the ground, swimming — enjoying life! She said she had goosebumps and felt these words were true. As my friend, Jim, often says: We’re here to lend ourselves to each other. Let us not fear to “claim the gifts forgiveness gives”!

“Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives. I will not wait another day to find the treasures that my Father offers me. Illusions are all vain, and dreams are gone even while they are woven out of thoughts that rest on false perceptions. Let me not accept such meager gifts again today. God’s Voice is offering the peace of God to all who hear and choose to follow Him. This is my choice today. And so I go to find the treasures God has given me.

“I seek but the eternal. For Your Son can be content with nothing less than this. What, then, can be his solace but what You are offering to his bewildered mind and frightened heart, to give him certainty and bring him peace? Today I would behold my brother sinless. This Your Will for me, for so will I behold my sinlessness.”

A Course in Miracles W-334.1:1–2:5

“Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sack cloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 574:25-30

The Dream of Conflict

Getty Images

The days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day are traditionally times of parties and gatherings where family and friends enjoy the connections which tie us together. This year, in particular, we have some major disagreements about the way our government should be conducted. This is a perfect time to turn to our Course in Miracles Workbook Lessons for guidance. In addition to advising us to “blast the room with love before you walk in”, Marianne Williamson has given us some important pointers for these trying times. She ends with these: “In A Course in Miracles it says that if we’re judging someone, we’re wrong even if we’re right. We think we’re going to understand someone to see whether or not they’re worthy of our love, but until we love them we will never understand them. Seek to be a vessel of love at the table more than anything else. Speak your truth without withholding respect for the truths of others. Be nice to people; it makes all the difference.” For the past two weeks, I’ve become dependent on unpacking of our daily lesson with Nouk and Coreen. Here is the link, in case anyone needs a boost of good vibes! 

https://youtu.be/9h1CuyrBkuk?si=k7hNA98jAl8IHlqY

“Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here. Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind, if it would be escaped. It must be seen exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it. For only then are its defenses lifted, and the truth can shine upon it as it disappears.

“Father, forgiveness is the light You chose to shine away all conflict and all doubt, and light the way for our return to You. No light but this can end our evil dream. No light but this can save the world. For this alone will never fail in anything, being Your gift to Your beloved Son.”

A Course in Miracles W-333.1:1–2:4

“The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 288:3-7

Thankful For This Day

As a child growing up in Berryville, Arkansas, we didn’t watch very much television. We received one channel, the NBC affiliate out of Springfield, Missouri. When a favorite yearly event would take place, such as The Wizard of Oz or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, it was cause for great excitement in my small world. Unfortunately, my parents insisted I accompany them to the Thanksgiving morning service at a nearby Christian Science Society. As a participant in our local marching band, I was eager to see bands from all over the country in this annual event. But alas, after a few minutes of the televised parade, we would be out the door for a dreaded day with old people. While that’s the way I felt decades ago, now things have turned around. I can’t think of many things I’d rather NOT do than watch the Macy parade, either in person or on television. Now I love the study of divine metaphysics, particularly in the company of old people! I hope each and every one of you are doing exactly what you’d like to do today. Happy giving of thanks, today and every day!

“The ego makes illusions. Truth undoes its evil dreams by shining them away. Truth never makes attack. It merely is. And by its presence is the mind recalled from fantasies, awaking to the real. Forgiveness bids this presence enter in, and take its rightful place within the mind. Without forgiveness is the mind in chains, believing in its own futility. Yet with forgiveness does the light shine through the dream of darkness, offering it hope, and giving it the means to realize the freedom that is its inheritance.

“We would not bind the world again today. Fear holds it prisoner. And yet Your Love has given us the means to set it free. Father, we would release it now. For as we offer freedom, it is given us. And we would not remain as prisoners, while You are holding freedom out to us.”

A Course in Miracles W-332.1:1–2:6

“The human mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. ... It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 128

My Will is Yours

Photo credit: Kailey Jones

When did you last tell a lie? Perhaps it was a “polite” lie, designed to protect someone’s feelings, or maybe a “white lie” to cover an embarrassing situation. But what about a lie told to benefit yourself, without caring who it hurts or what harm it causes? And what of cheating? Maybe you moved your Monopoly piece too many squares during family game night, but how about taking goods and services from people, then refusing to pay for them? I don’t know many, if any, people who do this. Everyone I interact with has a higher sense of integrity and a moral standard which precludes such actions. Actually, most people I know would never consider lying or stealing or cheating, be it a small indiscretion or grand theft. It always comes as a surprise to me when I witness blatant misconduct in public officials, movie stars, ministers — anyone, anywhere. I remind myself constantly that everything is either expressing Love or calling out for love. And so I shall not look the other way, and I will do my best to answer that call. Namaste...

“Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we get clearer views of Principle. Break up cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views of humanity." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 239:5

“There is no conflict, for my will is Yours. How foolish, Father, to believe Your Son could cause himself to suffer! Could he make a plan for his damnation, and be left without a certain way to his release? You love me, Father. You could never leave me desolate, to die within a world of pain and cruelty. How could I think that Love has left Itself? There is no will except the Will of Love. Fear is a dream, and has no will that can conflict with Yours. Conflict is sleep, and peace awakening. Death is illusion; life, eternal truth. There is no opposition to Your Will. There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.

“Forgiveness shows us that God’s Will is One, and that we share it. Let us look upon the holy sights forgiveness shows today, that we may find the peace of God. Amen.”

A Course in Miracles W-331.1:1–2:3

From Depression to Gratitude

One of my favorite Buddhist gurus, Rick Hanson, shared this quote from Leonard Cohen: “I know your burden’s heavy as you wheel it through the night. The guru says it’s empty; that doesn’t make it light.” Wow! The last few days, I’ve felt as though I was wheeling a heavy burden. After sleeping as many hours as possible, only waking to slog through necessary duties, today was a wholly different experience. Everything was a joyous event, from washing my vehicle, filling up with gas, doing laundry, shopping for food, visiting with a friend — for every little thing, I was grateful. The gratitude I felt often was expressed through verbal outbursts, sometimes tears, always a calm joy running through every movement and activity. Yes! Let’s not be afraid of dark feelings of depression; rather, follow your heart and do what you must do. For me, it was excessive sleep and a pulling away from unnecessary activity. Keep on keeping on, until you’re able to rise in gratitude! “The mind that is made willing to accept God’s gifts has been restored to spirit, and extends its freedom and its joy, as is the Will of God united with its own.” ACIM #330 

“I will not hurt myself again today. Let us this day accept forgiveness as our only function. Why should we attack our minds, and give them images of pain? Why should we teach them they are powerless, when God holds out His power and His Love, and bids them take what is already theirs? The mind that is made willing to accept God’s gifts has been restored to spirit, and extends its freedom and its joy, as is the Will of God united with its own. The Self which God created cannot sin, and therefore cannot suffer. Let us choose today that He be our Identity, and thus escape forever from all things the dream of fear appears to offer us.

“Father, Your Son cannot be hurt.  And if we think we suffer, we but fail to know our one Identity we share with You. We would return to It today, to be made free forever from all our mistakes, and to be saved from what we thought we were.”

A Course in Miracles W-330.1:1–2:3

“Error begins by reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality were something which matter can both give and take away.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 539:3-7 

Satisfied Aspirations

Art: Duy Huynh Studio

I spent years searching for love, grasping at brightly colored baubles and bangles, not realizing that I am Love and nothing can be more beautiful and complete than that. Seeing wholeness and unity, where I once saw separation, has brought the contentment which was so elusive. The false contentment found in marijuana and alcohol was an illusionary peace used as a hiding place for a while, but eventually I had to emerge and face what it was which kept me restless. When nothing ever seems to be enough, perhaps it's because we need it All, and that Allness can only be found in one place, a place not present in changing, temporal life. This study which teaches me the meaning of reality also fills me with a calm before unknown, and I am very grateful!

“Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe, — to still the desires, to satisfy the aspirations? Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form, or Mind would lose its infinite character as inexhaustible Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 257:24-29

“I have already chosen what You will. Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.

“Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. We have no will apart from His, and all of us are one because His Will is shared by all of us. Through it we recognize that we are one. Through it we find our way at last to God.”

A Courser in Miracles W-329.1:1–2:4

Upside Down Perceptions

Photo from National Geographic

 Fear

by Khalil Gibran

It is said that before entering the sea 

A river trembles with fear.

She looks back at the path she has traveled,

from the peaks of the mountains,

the long winding road crossing forests and villages.

And in front of her,

she sees an ocean so vast,

that to enter

there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.

But there is no other way.

The river can not go back.

Nobody can go back. 

To go back is impossible in existence.

The river needs to take the risk 

of entering the ocean

because only then will fear disappear

because that’s where the river will know

it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,

but of becoming the ocean.

“Every concept which seems to begin with the brain begins falsely. 

Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 262:28-32

“I choose the second place to gain the first. What seems to be the second place is first, for all things we perceive are upside down until we listen to the Voice for God. It seems that we will gain autonomy but by our striving to be separate, and that our independence from the rest of God’s creation is the way in which salvation is obtained. Yet all we find is sickness, suffering and loss and death. This is not what our Father wills for us, nor is there any second to His Will. To join with His is but to find our own. And since our will is His, it is to Him that we must go to recognize our will.

“There is no will but Yours. And I am glad that nothing I imagine contradicts what You would have me be. It is Your Will that I be wholly safe, eternally at peace. And happily I share that Will which You, my Father, gave as part of me.”

A Course in Miracles W-328.1:1–2:4