The Sweetness of Friendship

Old Friends 

“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things, does the heart find its morning and is refreshed.”
Khalil Gibran

“Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful. Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 248:3-11

“How safe the world will look to me when I can see it! It will not look anything like what I imagine I see now. Everyone and everything I see will lean toward me to bless me. I will recognize in everyone my dearest Friend. What could there be to fear in a world that I have forgiven, and that has forgiven me?”
A Course in Miracles W-60.3:2-6

The Face of Divine Love

Acknowledging that everything and everyone we look upon is the face of divine Love takes our perception to another level! With this sight, we do not need to see race, nationalities, nor gender; there are no political parties for which to wave flags, and no enemies to fight against, nor allies to side with. I see beautiful things happening in our world. Long-held beliefs are being released in favor of an open-hearted acceptance of everyone as they are, not as we want them to be. Change can seem difficult, but our new perceptions of Life are a conscious choice by which we break free of habits and old thought patterns which have held us in bondage for far too long. Let’s celebrate our new-found sight today!

“Recognizing that what I see reflects what I think I am, I realize that vision is my greatest need. The world I see attests to the fearful nature of the self-image I have made. If I would remember who I am, it is essential that I let this image of myself go. As it is replaced by truth, vision will surely be given me. And with this vision, I will look upon the world and on myself with charity and love.” 

A Course in Miracles W-56.2:2-6

Eyes: Spiritual discernment, — not material but mental. Jesus said, thinking of the outward vision, ‘Having eyes, see ye not?’” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures Page 586:5-8

Am I Attacking Myself?

Photo courtesy of Aaron Springston

The realization that all attack comes from within is an eye-opener! When we worry about lack of money, or possible illness, or what our neighbors might think, these are thoughts which seem to attack our invulnerability.  Actually our invulnerability as an expression of divine Principle cannot be attacked, but we certainly can think of ourselves as weak victims of life's circumstances. Through a conscious choice to reject the unreality of material existence and claim our heritage as powerful spiritual beings, unafraid to stand up and declare our Oneness with divine Love and all Its creation, we are able to transcend the fears we have thought to be inevitable. I love the new world which is being revealed through this understanding!

“This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 96:12-20

“The possibility of freedom has been grasped and welcomed, and the means by which it can be gained can now be understood. The world becomes a place of hope, because its only purpose is to be a place where hope of happiness can be fulfilled. And no one stands outside this hope, because the world has been united in belief the purpose of the world is one which all must share, if hope be more than just a dream.” 

A Course in Miracles -T-30.V.2:5-8

I Do Not Know …

Eureka Springs, Arkansas

January 2024

If you heard someone express a desire to give up strong opinions, because they keep the field of infinite possibilities from becoming reality — well, you might wonder about their cognitive capacity! Knowing how society expects us to set goals, to defend strongly what we think is right, and to define the purpose of everything around us, it is difficult to step outside those parameters and say we “do not know what anything is for”. But that is the beginning of understanding our purpose. Engrained in our thoughts we have many goal-oriented purposes for our lives. These personal-interest ideals are established through a Pavlovian education which begins early in life and is reinforced constantly as we live. In order to learn the truth of our being, it is necessary to give up these things and see how their usefulness depends on the meaning we have given them. Only then can we allow divine Mind to guide and divine Love to govern.

“You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of ego goals. These goals have nothing to do with your own best interests, because the ego is not you. This false identification makes you incapable of understanding what anything is for. As a result, you are bound to misuse it. When you believe this, you will try to withdraw the goals you have assigned to the world, instead of attempting to reinforce them.”
A Course in Miracles - W-25.2:1-5

“Reason, rightly directed, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the experiences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Science of man’s eternal harmony breaks their illusion with the unbroken reality of scientific being.
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 494:19-24

Perceived Best Interests

Perspective Deceptions 

By Robert J. Tiess

From certain standpoints, piers appeared to let us walk

across the ocean, straight ahead into the sun,

but then we'd move, disprove those views, and see

how angles lie, while truth means journeying.

So we roamed far, on foot, by thought,

past varied panoramas, peaks,

surveying slopes and scenes,

horizons, plateaus, space,

aware what's where

or never there.”

Poem by Robert J. Tiess

“In no situation that arises do you realize the outcome that would make you happy. Therefore, you have no guide to appropriate action, and no way of judging the result. What you do is determined by your perception of the situation, and that perception is wrong. It is inevitable, then, that you will not serve your own best interests. Yet they are your only goal in any situation which is correctly perceived. Otherwise, you will not recognize what they are.” 

A Course in Miracles W-24.1:1-6

“If men would bring to bear upon the study of the Science of Mind half the faith they bestow upon the so-called pains and pleasures of material sense, they would not go on from bad to worse, until disciplined by the prison and the scaffold; but the whole human family would be redeemed through the merits of Christ, — through the perception and acceptance of Truth.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 202:5-13

Escaping Attack Thoughts

“No Looking Back”

Creation from Sandy Wythawai Starbird

It can be difficult to free ourselves from the prison of attack thoughts. It seems normal and natural to think and talk about things which we neither agree with nor like. It can occupy the majority of our thoughts, and we often think it might facilitate a change if we talk about it enough. This fertilization of attack thoughts can be found everywhere from coffee shops to churches, and it doesn't do a single thing to change the world. We are told in today’s A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #23 that the only way out of fear is by giving up attack thoughts. If this world we see is an effect, the only way to change the hallucination is to alter the cause: our thought. Some may ridicule this idea. For those who do, I only ask this: Have any material manipulations ever, in all of history, affected a change? Did our civil war free the slaves? It was a beginning, of course, but many people stayed in bondage long past when laws were enacted. It takes a change of thought to bring freedom. Let's free ourselves today -- and forever!

"Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is a more difficult task. The despotic tendencies, inherent in mortal mind and always germinating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out through the action of the divine Mind."
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 225:22-28

“I can escape from this world by giving up attack thoughts. Herein lies salvation, and nowhere else. Without attack thoughts I could not see a world of attack. As forgiveness allows love to return to my awareness, I will see a world of peace and safety and joy. And it is this I choose to see, in place of what I look on now.”
A Course in Miracles W-55.3:1-5

Saved From the Perception of the World

A Place For Birds to Hide

Ceramic Sculpture by Ken Starbird

While working as a free-lance  court reporter for more than three decades, I often witnessed people's desire for this thing we call vengeance. I've also seen that when they get whatever form of retribution they seek, they feel no better about the situation. Why is vengeance thought of as a good thing in our society? It seems to me it should be one of Dante's deadly sins and something we would want to negate or, at the very least, hide under the table. But, no, we want to put it on the front page and proudly tell others of the vengeance we seek. As A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #21  tells us: "Today's idea accurately describes the way anyone who holds attack thoughts in his mind must see the world. Having projected his anger onto the world, he sees vengeance about to strike at him. His own attack is thus perceived as self defense." Let’s remember that our safety lies in our defenselessness -- and our happiness, too!

"Truth destroys error, and Love destroys hate. Being destroyed, sin needs no other form of forgiveness." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 339:2-4

“What I see is a form of vengeance. The world I see is hardly the representation of loving thoughts. It is a picture of attack on everything by everything. It is anything but a reflection of the Love of God and the Love of His Son. It is my own attack thoughts that give rise to this picture. My loving thoughts will save me from this perception of the world, and give me the peace God intended me to have.”

A Course in Miracles W-55.2:1-6