August 7, 2013 - Life and Love are Eternal

"Marsha & Jim at Metafizzies 2007"

ACIM Workbook Lesson #219

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #199 “I am not a body. I am free.”

Be with those who help your being. I've always loved that thought, haven't you? More and more, I find myself reveling in the company of friends, and being even more content in solitude. This seeming-conundrun feels similar to the realization that I'm not a body. It's both exhilarating and calming. I'm excited that I needn't be a victim of the false beliefs of material life. I'm content in knowing there is so much to realize in this unfolding Life.  Having just spent an evening with a well-loved friend who is moving away from our town, I feel full of Love and peace. I am enriched beyond words for the gifts this friend has given me over the years. His wisdom and inspiration have been such an integral part of me. I cherish our times spent in conversation and laughter. Now I know why I felt I knew him the first moment I saw him. Life and Love are eternal.  

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The real man is spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect so-called “children of men” are counterfeits from the beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality. This mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man and seek the true model." Science & Health Page 408:11-22

August 6, 2013 - Demonstration

From John Rankine's photo series entitled
"A Community at Peace"

ACIM Workbook Lesson #218

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #198 “Only my condemnation injures me.”

Today I want to share this writing by Mary Baker Eddy entitled "Demonstration". 

"I have learned a great secret.

I have learned how to demonstrate, I have learned how to make Science a thing of life, not of words.

I am going to tell you what the secret is, and it is wonderful.

It is this: Not to see or hear or repeat any kind of imperfection.

It is seeing and hearing and repeating good only, at all times and under all circumstances, and in spite of everything that appears to the contrary.

I make this resolve every morning, when I first open my eyes, and I renew it every hour of the day.

I see perfection in myself in my friends, in my so-called enemy, in my affairs and in world affairs.

I take my radical stand for the perfection of God and everything and for everything and everybody He has created. I look upon the world with God's eyes and see it just as He sees it, and I refuse to see it in any other way.

I stop a dozen times a day, and renew the resolve, and make sure that I am not repeating error or giving way to criticism. I watch my thoughts about people, the lame, the old, the unloved to sense that I pass in the street, stray animals, I except nothing. I have taken my radical stand for perfection and I will not, absolutely will not, relax this perfect standard.

The result has been simply marvelous. Try it and you will find that you forget your glasses; they will become unnecessary.

You will be seeing with God's eyes, His perfect sight, and you will behold a perfect universe, the outward condition of your inward thinking. To change the picture you must change the sight that produced the picture." 

By Mary Baker Eddy

August 5, 2013 - Gratitude, No Strings Attached

"Montana Trees"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #217

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #197 “It can be but my gratitude I earn.

Gratitude is usually thought of as an outward action to be given, not received. But we have learned that what we give IS what we receive, and this is so with gratitude, also. Salvation often implies a thing to be sought after and earned through attrition of some sort. The salvation we speak of today is a realization that we are Love (God), that the thanks we give is a perpetual realization of this Being that we are, and by this knowing we live in Love and unending gratitude of All that Is.  This understanding brings us to the Truth of Being. The understanding of Truth is salvation, for which I am very grateful.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“One kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others. Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how to work out one's ‘own salvation, with fear and trembling.’ ‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!’ expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, ‘Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!’ demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.”

Science & Health Page 23:23-31

August 4, 2013 - Why crucify anyone?

photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #216

Central Theme: “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” Review: #196 “It can be but myself I crucify.”

When I think back on my marriages, I wonder if things would have been different if I had put as much effort into knowing God as I did into the accoutrements of the union. Expectations abounded in every direction: what we would be doing in a few years, how many kids we would or wouldn't have, how we would grow together until we were some sort of perfect single being. All sorts of odd things go through your mind when you're young and you believe in the mid-1900s television version of marriage. And so I crucified myself time and again (and again!) with false expectations and blame. Would things be different today with the Knowledge I am beginning to understand? I like to think so ~~~~

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Furthermore, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he declared that in the resurrection there should be no more marrying nor giving in marriage, but man would be as the angels. Then shall Soul rejoice in its own, in which passion has no part. Then white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wisdom and feminine love, spiritual understanding and perpetual peace."

Science & Health Page 64:17-25

August 3, 2013 - Loving Gratitude

"Bryce Canyon"
photo by Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #215

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

Today we focus on releasing the future. Although the future is an illusion of time and space, we tend to live in it a lot of the time. Fantasies of the way things could be, expectations projected onto loved ones, wondering what tomorrow will bring, all these thoughts can be haunting. One of the lessons I'e learned about planning and predicting the future was brought about by my art gallery, Eureka Thyme. At its inception, I imagined an herbal gift shop, hence its name. But it quickly took on a life if its own, and I chose to follow by listening for inner knowing rather than sticking with what I had dreamed. The business focus has shifted from locally-made herbal gifts to locally-created art and fine craft. This happened by having no parameters for what I would sell there, other than it must be made with Love. And this flowing idea now blesses more than a hundred people who sell everything from handmade wooden toys to fine art! It takes practice to see the difference between pushing for what I want and being led by the Spirit that I Am. Axioms such as "Let go and let God" may seem mundane, even ridiculous to some, but for me it's the only way. If I'd insisted on having what I wanted -- which was, I suppose, to be Martha Stewart of the Ozarks -- well. let's not go there! All I know is that it's wonderful just as it is, for which I'm most grateful.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

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

Science & Health Page 298:13-14

August 2, 2013 - Listening to Intuition

"Monolith in Mongolia"
photo by 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."

Recently I was in a local thrift shop and overheard a woman telling of how she had "just known" she should bring her camera with her to work that day. She told her friend that she had repeatedly thought to pick up her camera and have it with her, but she had rationalized that there was no reason for that. So she left the camera behind. I did not have the chance to eavesdrop on why she had ended up needing it, but she had. She also told how she often had thoughts which proved to be valid, but she couldn't make herself believe them. Aren't you glad we're learning that these intuitions are what we receive when we clear the way for spiritual thought to be heard? And we know there is nothing to fear in this. Woo-hoo!!

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

August 1, 2013 - Changing Thought

"Light Show in St. Louis"
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.”

Today we review a lesson which tells us numerous times to "Forgive, and you will see this differently." See what differently? Everything! Seeing through the eyes of unified goodness, God, changes our outlook from one of sense perception and learned belief. No longer will we put meaning on things just because that's the way we've always done it. Giving up how I feel about death, for instance, allows celebration of Life to replace sadness for my loss. It may be a bittersweet celebration at first, but as I learn the reality of our Oneness, I can let myself stop missing someone's presence, because we are never apart. Whether we're not together because we've grown apart, or maybe someone is moving across the globe, or if they have passed on from their material body, we are never separated by more than the thought which caused the rift in our connection. And I learn peace.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us where it found us. The furnace separates the gold from the dross that the precious metal may be graven with the image of God." 

Science & Health Page 66:30-1