March 12, 2012 - Music Opens the Way

ACIM Lesson #71:

“Only God’s plan for salvation will work.”

Paul McCartney in Utah Summer 2010
photo by Aaron Springston

[Marsha's thoughts]

The above statement, taken without prior knowledge of what it means in these writings, absolutely smacks of everything from predestination to some fundamental religious teachings with all the punishment and consequence taught therein. Mrs. Eddy's definition of salvation  is, "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all." When looked at in this way, salvation is an ongoing event, realized when we part the veil of belief in separation from God. I recently attended a concert of area musicians who performed adeptly and from the heart. Music is of great benefit in assisting us to get out of our own way, to allow thought to progress past limited repetition of beliefs and habitual practices of rituals. Music is an aid which opens our thought to things we may have forgotten or never have known. I love to sit with an all-encompassing symphony orchestra, opening my mind to only the music, until at some point I feel there is nothing else in the world. I recall Wayne Dyer talking about muscle testing using different items. An organic banana allowed full strength in his son, where holding a CD of raucous music left him much weakened. Each of us enjoys different kinds of music, and there are many levels of this enjoyment. Something we would like with friends at a party won't be the same as the quiet strains of Bach which take us deeper within ourselves prior to meditation or writing. Find the music which opens you to hearing the messages Life, Truth, and Love are offering you. Surround yourself with this river of salvation and see where it takes you.

Mary Baker Eddy quotes:

“‘Now,’ cried the apostle, ‘is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,’ – meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is the time for so-called material pains and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in [the] Science [of the Christ]. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists and governs the universe harmoniously.”

Science & Health  Page 39:18-27

March 11, 2012 - Who will save us?

ACIM Lesson #70:

“My salvation comes from me.”

                                                                                                                    [Marsha's thoughts]

Happy Belize Man and his Happy Dogs
photo by Ramona Hambrick

Perhaps it's always been that we expect someone else to right the wrongs we see all around us. We point fingers and expect guilty parties to fix what wrongs we perceive to have been done. It's easy to expect someone else to do things, and then be disgruntled when "they" don't respond in the way we expect and hope. And so when we see someone step up and do whatever they can to alleviate pain, to bring the light of salvation to a situation, it's an occasion to rejoice! Today has been a day of such happiness for me. A group of women have been meeting monthly for eight years under the guise of a book club. We really just get together because of our fondness for each other, and the book leads us in discussions which are poignant, heartfelt, and personally meaningful in individual ways which are not always immediately discerned. Today we were witness to an astounding series of events which are being facilitated by one of our group who is a veterinarian. Five years ago, she vacationed in Belize, a beautiful tropical paradise. While there, she realized that many, perhaps most, dogs were left to fend for themselves, particularly when it came to reproduction -- or the stopping of it! She was led to return and spend a week spaying and neutering, and performing any other tasks which their limited budget and care facilities would allow. In the past five years, other veterinarians have joined the cause and there have been donations enabling the building of a facility from which these volunteers can do their work. What started out as one woman doing what she could has snowballed into many people sharing in an awareness (a salvation, if you will), of how to improve conditions for animals and humans alike. This wonderful woman has followed her heart, and through this action she has inspired others to do what they can, and more in return are doing the same. I see this as the perfect demonstration of living Love. Her love for and kinship with all things living is an inspiration to so many. The realization of this inner knowing and her fearless efforts to improve conditions for these animals and the ones who love them, this is the salvation we all hold within ourselves. And it blossoms when we set it free through our action.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our affections are placed and what we acknowledge and obey as God. If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show what we are winning.” 

Science & Health Page 239:16-22

March 10, 2012 - Let your Light Shine

ACIM Workbook Lesson #69

“My grievances hide the light of the world in me.”

Mongolian Night
photo by Aaron Springston

[Marsha's thoughts]

The last words of today's lesson are: "Be sure to tell yourself: If I hold this grievance the light of the world will be hidden from me, if you are tempted to hold anything against anyone today." Confusion is the word I keep hearing when I meditate on these lines. Most assuredly I don't want to hold anything against anyone -- particularly myself! When I think about grievances I may be holding onto, I get confused about my function in all of this. Actually, I can't even articulate what I may be aggrieved about! Anytime I delve into thought to see if I'm holding onto anything, tightly refusing to let it go because it's comfortable and the light holds unknown wonders, I simply get confused and don't know where I was going with the thought. Yippee! This I take as a sign of spiritual progress and material allowance. I don't need to deconstruct grievances by understanding them. I only need to acknowledge that they're there in order to see their unreality and to know that they have no real purpose in my life.  It makes me so happy to not need to examine every little reason about why things are as they are. By acknowledging what is, it becomes unimportant what isn't! Without grievances to cloud my transparency, what wonderful Truth will flow into, out of, and through my being! In this flow, I will never be put to confusion.

Mary Baker Eddy Quote:

“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.” Science & Health Page 295:14-24

March 9, 2012 - No Grievances

ACIM workbook lesson #68:

“Love holds no grievances.”

Principia College Soccer 2006

[Marsha's thoughts]

How many of you can remember something said in grade school which hurt your feelings or humiliated you? With me, these things are becoming dimmer as they are less rehearsed. In years past, there were certain instances which played regularly in my mind at the slightest provocation. Although these remembrances are mostly gone now, what of the day-by-day events which seem to beg me to take offense? They jump up and down asking to be remembered and retold, wanting to hold us to the past through emotion. To hold a grievance, you must live in the past. I remember a line from a little book by Alan Lightman called Einstein's Dreams. He says that those who live in the past are condemned to live there alone.  And how could it be otherwise? Habitually recounting what used to be, or wishing for what never was, or wanting what could have been, are thought processes which are symptoms of holding grievances. Today's lesson commentary tells us that forgetting that I am Love, that everyone is Love, that everything is Love, is holding a grievance. I've witnessed this forgetfulness in someone very dear to me. It has caused what could be thought of as a persecution complex. She lives in great fear and dread, with constant feelings of guilt and all the defenses this causes her to enact, blaming everyone and everything for her unhappiness and discord. It seems to me that anyone would want to replace this with the knowledge of Love as their reality, letting all the rest fade away as mistaken belief. But apparently you have to want to see. So today I will hold thought to a return to Love, a figurative return, as I remember that I never left, and neither has anyone else. This Love replaces all grievances in my thought, and by this process I am safely and peacefully at One with God and all.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares.”

Science & Health Page 574:27-30

March 8, 2012 - What is Love?

Workbook Lesson #67:

“Love created me like itself.”

Portrait by
Melanie Myhre Photography

[Marsha's thoughts]

What is love? As a personal value, love changes and shifts. Friendships end over disagreements, marriages fall apart, societies struggle with how to remain cohesive while accepting those who think differently. As an attribute of God, Love is unchanging. Actually, this Love is more than just an attribute, or a part, of God. It is God. Mary Baker Eddy gives us seven synonyms for God which intertwine and flow through everything we experience. These are: Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, Soul, Mind, Principle. This Love which is God is the divine Principle of being. This sustaining Principle is never changed by human whims. On the contrary! This Love changes our material expectations and perceived shortcomings, when we can allow it to. There is currently a situation in my life where two people I care for do not get along with each other. It's interesting to see what they perceive in each other, then bounce it off of my own personal perception. And while these observations could change my view of each of them, I am striving to see them both in their true identity as spiritual expressions of Love. They both share in the wisdom of the ages, because they reflect divine Mind. We are all the joyful manifestations of Soul, and this is shown by sharing it freely with all. Seeing others as the expression of Father-Mother Love helps them to see themselves this way. Seeing ourselves as complete allows shifts to occur in the way we treat others and ourselves. All problems, large and small, are symptoms of a basic misconception that we are fallen humans separated from God's Love. The acceptance that we are Love, wholly and purely, starts a domino-effect process which inevitably includes everyone in this shift of thought, from the unreal belief in what we are to the pure understanding of Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“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.”

Science & Health Page 280:4-8

March 7, 2012 - Happiness is my Function

ACIM workbook lesson #66:

“My happiness and my function are one.”

African Sky and Heather
photo by Aaron Springston

[Marsha's thoughts]

Fulfilling my function is happiness. How do I know what this function is? By listening for Truth. Truth, in all its forms, has always been very important to me. I've often felt I was too truthful, and could cite a few instances of this! Having this great love of and need for truth, it came as quite a surprise to find out that the life I'd lived for 37 years, the name I'd used, the birthdate I'd celebrated, the people I'd called my mom and dad, were a lie. When I was two months old, my mom took me in from her 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, as they wanted her to give me up and she didn't want to. 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). The sweet people I had always known as parents then changed everything they had lived for 20 years and moved across the country where they weren't well known. They did this in order to save this baby from the flood of criticism and judgment which accompanied a child born out of wedlock in the decade of the 50s. Perhaps it was their living of this huge lie which caused them to instill truthfullness so solidly in 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 two decades, it's taken the form of spiritual Truth, which shows me my function, which is my happiness.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it."

Science & Health Page 57:18-21

March 6, 2012 - One Thing

ACIM workbook lesson #65:

“My only function is the one God gave me.”

African Sunrise
photo by Aaron Springston

[Marsha's thoughts]

For years I resisted admitting that only one thing was required of me in order to know the peace I so wanted. I thought to give myself to this one thing would cause me to be some sort of religious zealot. It seemed that to live only in Spirit would somehow make me into something predictable and boring. At that time, material existence appeared exciting, while spiritual living implied a certain aloneness with God which couldn't possibly be very much fun.  As the years have passed and I've become more aware of what living in Spirit means, the understanding of myself as a reflection of God has taken form in many ways. On the surface, it could seem that nothing has changed. I still work, play, sleep, interact with others. But everything is different. There is no angst nor worry about whether I'm doing the right thing and what future effects this will cause. By listening to my inner Self and following that guidance, I don't need to make lists of pros and cons and weigh the value of these in making decisions. And this following doesn't mean that I mindlessly go through life as an automaton doing what God tells me. It means that infinite possibilities are opened to me, that thought is expanded in ways that transcend the material beliefs of the past, that contentment and peace are waiting for me to find them. While holding first in thought and practice our own desires and learned beliefs about what we should be doing in daily life, it's easy to pretend that we know what we're doing. And if this doesn't bring us the happiness and peace we thought it would, we tend to self-analyze and attempt to revise our ways. By choosing to listen inwardly, life becomes more simple and fulfilling. And that's because I'm listening for my only true function.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"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."

Science & Health Page 265:10-15