Differing Reality

Art by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920s

“I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.”

Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

When I saw this quote, paired with this painted scene, my thoughts turned to instances when friends and acquaintances have laughed and expressed disbelief in the face of my unrelenting positivity. But the fact is, when someone is relating a tale of woe, very seldom do I see their situation as sadly as they do. While I’m almost always willing to help those in need, I don’t think of sympathetic agreement as helpful. I’m pretty sure Lewis Carroll would enjoy the principles of A Course in Miracles, and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he and Mary Baker Eddy enjoyed tea and conversation on occasion! Wherever you are, go forth with joy on this fabulous fall day, enjoying your reality in all its difference!

“As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ Like the archpriests of yore, man is free ‘to enter into the holiest,’ — the realm of God.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 480:31-6

“I cannot unite your will with God’s for you, but I can erase all misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my guidance. Only your misperceptions stand in your way. Without them your choice is certain. Sane perception induces sane choosing. I cannot choose for you, but I can help you make your own right choice. ‘Many are called but few are chosen’ should be, ‘All are called but few choose to listen.’ Therefore, they do not choose right. The ‘chosen ones’ are merely those who choose right sooner. Right minds can do this now, and they will find rest unto their souls. God knows you only in peace, and this is your reality.” 

A Course in Miracles T-3.IV.7:7-16

Grace For All

Photo credit: Nils Reid

Accepting the grace which is ours involves giving it at every opportunity. Recently someone asked why it doesn't bother me to work closely with someone who seems hard to get along with -- for many reasons! I answered that I realize how miserable this person must be to act in such a way. So I don't take her actions personally, nor do I claim them as a part of my existence. And what she thinks of me is absolutely none of my business!  Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer includes this correlation to "Give us this day our daily bread": "Give us Grace for today, feed the famished affections." Starving affections are a symptom of not accepting the Truth about ourselves and others as a creation of divine Mind. When someone seems agitated and angry, or defensive and irritable, the Grace which is ours is the antidote. By practicing kindness when faced with hardness of heart, meekness when all around us is aggression, loving those who seem unlovable, and paying it forward in every action, we prepare ourselves to acknowledge the God-given Grace which is our true heritage. I simply say an inward Namaste, recognizing that their divine essence and mine are absolutely the same. I've found that loving my neighbor as myself is cause for loving myself more -- which is a nice bonus!

“There is no grace of Heaven that you cannot offer to your brother, and receive from your most holy Friend. Let him withhold it not, for by receiving it you offer it to him. And he will receive of you what you received of him. Redemption has been given you to give your brother, and thus receive it. Whom you forgive is free, and what you give you share. Forgive the sins your brother thinks he has committed, and all the guilt you think you see in him.” 

A Course in Miracles T-19.IV-D.15:5-10

“Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Being possesses its qualities before they are perceived humanly. Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 247:19-27

Upside Down?

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick

What if everything is upside down from what it seems to be?  We have all these ideas about what is true and what is false, what is good and what is bad, but what if we don't know? What if we are wrong? We have fact-checking sites to help us decide if something is true, we have preachers and politicians to tell us what is right and wrong -- but I think we're all tired of the constant push and pull of facts versus rumors and outright lies. My favorite thing about A Course in Miracles might be the workbook lessons, because they help us give up our beliefs about everything. I know some people think this is a "bad" thing, because they’ve been taught you MUST believe in something or else you're gullible and will fall for anything. What if that's upside-down thinking, too? When we allow ourselves to release what we think we know, we can step back and see what actually is, without putting labels on everything, then backing away from or embracing something without even knowing why. In my interactions with various forms of thought, it's often difficult to put my feelings and beliefs to the side and simply hear what is being said. But I'm working on it! Non-reaction, simply being with the words, is a peaceful, joyous way to live. I think we all want peace, but some of us have forgotten. Let's keep on remembering to look at things as they are, not as we've decided they are. 

“A miracle contains the gift of grace, for it is given and received as one. And thus it illustrates the law of truth the world does not obey, because it fails entirely to understand its ways. A miracle inverts perception which was upside down before, and thus it ends the strange distortions that were manifest. Now is perception open to the truth. Now is forgiveness seen as justified.” 

A Course in Miracles W-pII.13.2:1-5

"Human thought never projected the least portion of true being. Human belief has sought and interpreted in its own way the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have reversed it and repeated it materially, but the human mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive sound." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 126:8-14

Understanding Through Food

I love cooking shows, and there are some very innovative ones these days. I’m watching one called Taste of a Nation, in which Padma Lakshmi travels around the United States, meeting immigrants and visiting with them in their homes and restaurants. The first show was from El Paso, and it spoke frankly about immigration problems which have not been solved, but rather multiplied in these last few years. It was heartening to hear everyone supporting each other, no matter what their particular conservative or liberal leaning was. Hearing about people’s lives and watching them cook is so much fun! I love how they bring new ideas for my kitchen, and a knowledge of their heritage, both in their cooking and personal history. It’s a wonderful way to be an "accidental tourist" and to visit other cultures from the recliner. Ah — life is good. Have a fabulous time today!

"Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the demands of the affections, and should never weigh against the better claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish, therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 57 

“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. The idea of order of needs arose because, having made this fundamental error, you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. As you integrate you become one, and your needs become one accordingly. Unified needs lead to unified action, because this produces a lack of conflict.” 

A Course in Miracles T-1.VI.2:1-5

Always Indivisible

Art by Courtney Lee

Humans are apparently pack animals. We love to divide ourselves into groups and hang around with people who think like we do. We create churches, sororities, sewing circles, and numerous other clubs in which to gather and share our commonality. Perhaps the time has come for us to recognize that many of these tribal separations are keeping us from seeing the greater good in all humanity. Maybe if we can open ourselves in a more selfless manner, embracing each other because of our sameness, rather than in spite of our differences, perhaps we can stop worrying about what others may think of us and pull out all the stops for some honest to goodness truth. I don’t want to wait another moment for something which feels so right!

“Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health  571:18-21

“God’s Son will always be indivisible. As we are held as one in God, so do we learn as one in Him. God’s Teacher is as like to His Creator as is His Son, and through His Teacher does God proclaim His Oneness and His Son’s. Listen in silence, and do not raise your voice against Him. For He teaches the miracle of oneness, and before His lesson division disappears. Teach like Him here, and you will remember that you have always created like your Father. The miracle of creation has never ceased, having the holy stamp of immortality upon it.  This is the Will of God for all creation, and all creation joins in willing this.” 

A Course in Miracles T-14.XI.11:1-8

Involved or Committed?

Photo credit: Jerry Dupy

I play keyboards for two congregations of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in our area. Father Joseph, a young Nigerian priest, began one of his homilies by asking if we knew the difference between being involved and being committed. He then told us if we were having a breakfast of eggs and bacon, the chicken would be involved, but the pig would be committed. While getting a laugh from the congregation, it made his point clear: If you’re not giving 100%, you’re not committed, but merely involved. There may be a number of issues in which we are involved, but it's difficult to be committed to something which is, perhaps, far away from home. Also, it's overwhelming to think of all the issues which need our help. If that is true for you, too, pick something in your town, in your neighborhood, in your backyard, and be committed today! Let's sweep our own front porch — and our neighbors’, too, if they need help. Good works grow exponentially, don't you think? 

“Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 203:13-16

“Preoccupations with problems set up to be incapable of solution are favorite ego devices for impeding learning progress. In all these diversionary tactics, however, the one question that is never asked by those who pursue them is, ‘What for?’ This is the question that you must learn to ask in connection with everything. What is the purpose? Whatever it is, it will direct your efforts automatically. When you make a decision of purpose, then, you have made a decision about your future effort; a decision that will remain in effect unless you change your mind.” 

A Course in Miracles T-4.V.6:6-11

Building Community Through Food

“When we traded nature for concrete, we destroyed our soul.” I heard this in a documentary series called “Broken Bread”. This show highlights people who are working to change the way we think about food. In many parts of our country, the only nearby places to buy food are convenience stores or liquor stores. The question was asked: Why are we normalizing the fact that fresh food is not available nearby? One man in Los Angeles says, “You don’t have to be a critical thinker to figure this out. Plant vegetables!” And so he has done this in vacant lots and areas which would usually be given to grass. He even has banana trees! By doing this and allowing others to pick what they need, they are being empowered to grow food in their own small spaces. This, dear friends, is exactly what the “new world” looks like: seeing ways to bring us closer to the earth and each other and acting on them! Building community through food is a great way to begin. 

"As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to 'where the young child was,' -- even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes. Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 191:8

“Let us come daily to this holy place, and spend a while together. Here we share our final dream. It is a dream in which there is no sorrow, for it holds a hint of all the glory given us by God. The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees are budding now, and birds have come to live within their branches. Earth is being born again in new perspective. Night has gone, and we have come together in the light.” 

A Course in Miracles W-pII.2.4:1-6