March 10, 2015 - Spring Cleaning

photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #69

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

I think of spring cleaning in my home as similar to rooting out hidden grievances which are hiding the light within myself. It's possible I'm holding onto some of these illusions because it's comfortable. The story I've created for myself might just fall apart if I let go any part of it. I may have convinced myself that I like my history and wouldn't want to give up any of it, much less all of it. I'm like a little child holding on to a stuffed animal, feeling like it's my security. Or maybe I'm a little older, holding on to cigarettes because they feel like friends and I'm not sure what I'd do without them. These are stories I've been building for years and years. It seems if I let them go, I may disappear. But what brilliance is hiding behind the cover of these grievance clouds? What light have I hidden behind the illusions I've created for myself and the world? I know something wonderful is there, just out of reach. So when an old story comes to mind, I will turn thought instead to contemplation of the wondrous Truth which flows in, out, and through me when I lift the veil created by my grievances. Now that's spring cleaning!

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, 2015 - Love Let's Go

"Moon Over the Ozarks"
photo by Chris Fischer

ACIM Workbook Lesson #68:

“Love holds no grievances.”

Some painful memories seem to stay with us. Throughout the years, certain events have re-played regularly in my mind. Although these re-runs are mostly gone now, there are current events which seem to beg me to take offense. They jump up and down asking to be retold, wanting to hold me to them with emotions. 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 tells us that those who live in the past are condemned to live there alone. 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, forgetting that everyone is Love, forgetting that everything is Love, is holding a grievance. 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, 2015 - I Am Love

"Overlooking Basin Park"
photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #67

“Love created me like itself.”

Usually it’s easier for me to see that Love created me like Itself than it is for me to see that Love created those bigoted people over there. When those thoughts come bouncing into my brain, I’m reminded of something Marianne Williamson said: “I can’t stand fundamentalist Christians; they’re so judgmental!” And that brings a laugh and breaks the spell I’m casting for myself, wherein I’m the kind, open-hearted person and they’re the hate mongers. There is only one Creator and only one Self. My Self is your Self, whether it seems that way or not. This illusion we’ve set into motion changes moment-by-moment with the script we have written for it. The unchanging Love which is our Creator is Truth. All else is a product of the illusion. And so any time I’m tempted to write a letter of chastisement to our local newspaper concerning activities in our town, I will stop and ask myself, What would Love do? And then I’ll do my best to follow where I’m led.

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 2015 - Truth

"Mongolia"
photo by Aaron Springston

 ACIM Workbook Lesson #66:

“My happiness and my function are one.”

Truth has always been very important to me. Having this great love of 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 not the ones I'd been given at birth. When I was two months old, my parents took me from a 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, in an effort to convince her to give away her baby. 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. These wonderful people (who were the only parents I had ever known) then moved across the country and made a new beginning for us all. They did this in part to save this baby from the flood of criticism and judgment which accompanied a child born out of wedlock in the 1950s. Perhaps it was their living of this huge lie which caused them to instill truthfulness so solidly within 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 and is my happiness. And it has set me free!

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, 2015 - Yielding

photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #65:

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

As a restless young person, I resisted the only thing which was required in order to experience peace. I thought that to live in Spirit would be predictable and boring. Decades past that time, I find that everything is exciting and new! Without the willingness to be open to the field of all possibilities, I would be repeating by-rote behaviors and following learned beliefs. That, I now see, is what would be boring! By being willing to go inward and listen, I'm never sure of what I will say or do, but I'm confident of where that guidance will lead. On the occasions I forget to listen but rather hold forth with long-held, strong opinions, things don't usually work out in the same harmonious ways as they do when I'm willing to yield. That is a strong reminder to remember that I, of my own self, know nothing. 

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

March 5, 2015 - Pure Expression

photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook Lesson #64:

"Let me not forget my function"

Have you ever been accused of something you did not do? An unjust charge carries with it a terrible feeling. This same feeling follows many of us around because we have been told that we were born sinners and there is nothing we can do about it. We have come to believe it is our function on this earth to try ever so hard to overcome this innate badness. Isn't it a wonderful thing to experience teachings which show us that this is not true? The understanding of our essence as the pure expression of God, and the realization that anything unlike this experience is a material illusion brought to us courtesy of tainted human beliefs, frees us to be happy. Gone is all the guilt we may have carried around, thinking we were condemned by a power from which we couldn't escape. There has been no condemnation by any power, only illusionary powers to which we have given credence. Breaking free from these beliefs, we are free to be happy, healthy, whole -- and we bloom! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God’s absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God." 

Science & Health Page 282:28:3 

March 4, 2015 - Peace Through Forgiveness

"A Community at Peace"
photo series by John Rankine

ACIM Workbook Lesson #63

“The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.”

I used to have a bad temper. Starting in childhood, I was easily “irritated” by things. The sound of someone eating a banana noisily would “set my teeth on edge”. A lost item in the house would infuriate me. Teachers who I deemed to know less than I did would bring, at the very least, a roll of the eyes in exasperation. I’m not sure when those feelings fell away from me, but I’m really glad that they have! Being angry at anything, for any reason, is not the way I want to feel. I can only imagine the damage these feelings caused over the years. There were ruined relationships, missed opportunities, multitudes of circumstances which could have been joyful but instead were wasted. Nowadays, it’s pretty darned difficult to burst my bubble of happiness. I’m looking through the illusion of the past and forgiving myself more every day. For that, I am grateful.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,--this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress."

Science & Health Page 324:3-5