Carry That Weight

photo credit: Aaron Springston

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.”

I remember hearing a story in which we are asked how much a glass of water weighs. Then we are told it doesn't matter what its weight is, it matters how long we hold it. If we hold it a minute, it's light. If we hold it an hour, our arm and/or hand may become uncomfortable with the weight. If we hold it all day, our arm will feel paralyzed. This scenario is a metaphor for holding onto worries and fears. If we keep them with us, we become convinced they are impossible to overcome, and we are paralyzed from the carrying of this weight. All we have to do is put the glass down to be released from our burden! Then we are free to feel the joy which is innately ours as a child of Love.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“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.” Science & Health Page 265:23-30

Love is the liberator

photo credit: Aaron Springston

A Course in Miracles 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! Despite these strides, 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 which 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

What Am I Carrying?

photo credit: 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."

I often refer to Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth. In it, he relates a story of two monks walking down the road. They see a young woman, dressed in white, attempting to cross the muddy roadway. One of the monks picks her up and carries her to the other side and they go on their way. A few hours later, the other monks says, You shouldn’t have carried that woman across the road; we don’t do that. The carrier responds: I put her down hours ago, but it looks like you’re still carrying her! Through the years, I’ve found myself carrying words and actions of others like a yoke around my neck, taking events out and reliving them at the slightest provocation. I’m ready to put these things down and stop blaming someone else for the burden I’m carrying. I have a choice! 

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

What Blesses One Blesses All

photo credit: Aaron Springston

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 everything. 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

The Perfect Concept

photo credit: Kailey Jones

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.”

Would you feel uneasy, perhaps arrogant, if you said the salvation of the world depends on you? I know I would have in the past, but that was before I realized that the opposite is true. The realization that we are united with God and all that Is is a humbling experience. It's easy to get this concept backwards, believing that if we recognize our oneness with divine Mind we are displaying braggadocio. I have found boastful behavior comes about from thinking that my material, personal beliefs are more valid than the experience I share with this gentle presence we call God. The surrender necessary to allow myself to want nothing other than to know God is a yielding of my self-important intellectual sureness. The gratitude I feel from the realization of our unity is priceless.

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 with Key to the Scriptures  Page 454:21-23

Special Relationship?

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.”

I find myself slipping back into old ways of destructive behavior. The special relationship, as defined by A Course in Miracles, is an ego-based interaction characterized by expectations of having our needs met — i.e., someone making us happy, or any number of things we have come to expect an outside influence to bring to us. Meeting someone in the holy instant is only possible if we do not bring experiences of the past into the moment. A clean, clear, untarnished meeting is the beginning of giving a relationship to divine Love for definition and purpose. Ego tells us we are lacking and we need someone to partner with in order to complete us. It’s perhaps ironic that we carry these same ideas into our relationship with what we call God. We expect results if we’re going to give ourselves to this gentle, all-encompassing presence, and we’re often upset if our expectations are not met. In an attempt to see us all as the experience of divine Love, I am attempting to clear my self of emotional encumbrances and self-serving behaviors. I feel more peaceful just thinking about it!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

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

Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures Page 506:11-12

Communication

photo credit: Richard Quick

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.”

Animal communication has always been fascinating to me, as animals respond to the images they pick up from thought. If you call your dog, but see him running away, then he's most likely going to run away. At some point, your dog will become accustomed to the name you have given a particular action, responding to it and becoming a part of the scenario we have created. But in their natural state, and ours, we all respond to the thoughts around us. When I had an art gallery, I would often tell my employees that all of their thoughts were going into the atmosphere of the business. If you are smiling and friendly on the outside, but teaming with turmoil on the inside, there is an uncomfortable feeling surrounding you. True communication is clearly shown by a flock of birds, turning together in the sky as an expression of Mind. Try practicing with your dog while walking, thinking which way you want to turn before you tug on the leash. Expand that practice with the wildlife eating your flowerbeds, or tell ants to leave your house, in the way that J. Allen Boone does in "Kinship With All Life". Let's experiment with different forms of communication. What an adventure!!

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 with Key to the Scriptures Page 288:31–1