Glorious Liberty

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick

We live in a world with many laws to protect us, such as wearing helmets on motorcycles and seat belts in cars. Yet the items we find in our grocery stores are filled with chemicals and other things which can barely be classified as food. We are told to use pesticides on ourselves, our gardens, our pets, even though the rates of autoimmune disease and cancer climb steadily. Yet I truly think there IS a spiritual solution to all the things which seem impossibly horrible. I'm not suggesting we hide under the covers and pretend everything is all right, but rather that we recognize the difference in spiritual truth and material illusion. This reinterpretation is similar to what we do when looking down train tracks when they seem to come together, appearing to end, even though we know perfectly well they continue. The proof before our eyes is terribly convincing and it takes a bit of thought, perhaps study, to understand why it is an illusion. Remember how long it took for “us” to realize we wouldn’t fall off the edge of the world if we got in a ship and sailed towards the horizon? There seems to be much to fear when we look out at the world, but when we look inward, we hear truth in the silence. We are nearing a tipping point and every thought is important. Keep up the good work everyone!

“Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 227:24-28

“I let forgiveness rest upon all things, for thus forgiveness will be given me. I thank You, Father, for Your plan to save me from the hell I made. It is not real. And You have given me the means to prove its unreality to me. The key is in my hand, and I have reached the door beyond which lies the end of dreams. I stand before the gate of Heaven, wondering if I should enter in and be at home. Let me not wait again today. Let me forgive all things, and let creation be as You would have it be and as it is. Let me remember that I am Your Son, and opening the door at last, forget illusions in the blazing light of truth, as memory of You returns to me.

“Brother, forgive me now. I come to you to take you home with me. And as we go, the world goes with us on our way to God.”

A Course in Miracles W-342.1:1–2:3

We Have Been Readied By It

My favorite day of the year is when we hold our book club retreat. The gatherings we have shared over the last two-plus decades have created a bond like no other I have known. Through joyous events and tough losses, we have supported each other emotionally and physically. The love we share is a precious gift. The following poem written by Amanda Gorman for the new year expresses my feelings perfectly. 

New Day’s Lyric

“May this be the day

We come together.

Mourning, we come to mend,

Withered, we come to weather,

Torn, we come to tend,

Battered, we come to better.

Tethered by this year of yearning,

We are learning

That though we weren’t ready for this,

We have been readied by it.

We steadily vow that no matter

How we are weighed down,

We must always pave a way forward.

This hope is our door, our portal.

Even if we never get back to normal,

Someday we can venture beyond it,

To leave the known and take the first steps.

So let us not return to what was normal,

But reach toward what is next.

What was cursed, we will cure.

What was plagued, we will prove pure.

Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,

Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,

Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;

Those moments we missed

Are now these moments we make,

The moments we meet,

And our hearts, once all together beaten,

Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,

For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.

We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,

But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,

In a new day’s lyric,

In our hearts, we hear it:

For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

Be bold, sang Time this year,

Be bold, sang Time,

For when you honor yesterday,

Tomorrow ye will find.

Know what we’ve fought

Need not be forgot nor for none.

It defines us, binds us as one,

Come over, join this day just begun.

For wherever we come together,

We will forever overcome.”

- Amanda Gorman

“We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 248:26-32

“I can attack but my own sinlessness, and it is only that which keeps me safe. Father, Your Son is holy. I am he on whom You smile in love and tenderness so dear and deep and still the universe smiles back on You, and shares Your Holiness. How pure, how safe, how holy, then, are we, abiding in Your Smile, with all Your Love bestowed upon us, living one with You, in brotherhood and Fatherhood complete; in sinlessness so perfect that the Lord of Sinlessness conceives us as His Son, a universe of Thought completing Him.

“Let us not, then, attack our sinlessness, for it contains the Word of God to us. And in its kind reflection we are saved.”

A Course in Miracles W-341.1:1–2:2

Be Glad Today!

June Owen at Drumming in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

“Be glad today! Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today." This is sage advice from today's Course in Miracles workbook lesson. During a visit with a good friend, he mentioned that a mutual friend really dislikes doing laundry. He told me that she has all sorts of rules for the way it must be done, and he opined that perhaps this was a cause for her dislike of a necessary chore. When I saw the “be glad” quote from today's lesson, I also thought about his asking me what I did for fun, and his surprised reaction when I told him that everything I do is fun — including laundry! Thinking about this conversation reminds me of Wayne Dyer's words: “If you drop a pen and don't enjoy picking it up, drop it again!!” Let us all remember as we go through the day, whether our tasks be mundane or one of those moments which feels like a gift — be glad today; be glad!!

“I can be free of suffering today. Father, I thank You for today, and for the freedom I am certain it will bring. This day is holy, for today Your Son will be redeemed. His suffering is done. For he will hear Your Voice directing him to find Christ’s vision through forgiveness, and be free forever from all suffering. Thanks for today, my Father. I was born into this world but to achieve this day, and what it holds in joy and freedom for Your holy Son and for the world he made, which is released along with him today.

“Be glad today! Be glad! There is no room for anything but joy and thanks today. Our Father has redeemed His Son this day. Not one of us but will be saved today. Not one who will remain in fear, and none the Father will not gather to Himself, awake in Heaven in the Heart of Love.”

A Course in Miracles W-340.1:1–2:6

“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." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 265:25-30

Misconceptions

Photo attributed to many sources

It's difficult to realize that we're requesting pain. No one wants to admit they're doing this. I have a friend who is always wondering why she has problems. She repeatedly tells me how her thinking is pure, yet the problems persist. I've been there and know what she's going through. It's easy to fall into defensive thinking, constantly wondering what's going to befall us next. It's difficult to convince ourselves to look for One thing, and understand that through a singleness of purpose, solutions appear. Without the realization of our Oneness with divine Mind, we seek and cannot find. When we stop looking and allow ourselves to see Truth, perfection unfolds and shows itself in every facet of our lives. If I truly let go and let God, there is no reason to worry about results. One thing have I desired …

“I will receive whatever I request. No one desires pain. But he can think that pain is pleasure. No one would avoid his happiness. But he can think that joy is painful, threatening and dangerous. Everyone will receive what he requests. But he can be confused indeed about the things he wants; the state he would attain. What can he then request that he would want when he receives it? He has asked for what will frighten him, and bring him suffering. Let us resolve today to ask for what we really want, and only this, that we may spend this day in fearlessness, without confusing pain with joy, or fear with love.

“Father, this is Your day. It is a day in which I would do nothing by myself, but hear Your Voice in everything I do; requesting only what You offer me, accepting only Thoughts You share with me.”

A Course in Miracles W-339.1:1–2:2

"Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of material sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood."

 Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 297:20-24

What Am I Thinking?

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick

Studies show that we have more than 6,000 thoughts every day. As I heard Wayne Dyer tell us in one of his outstanding talks, the problem is that the thousands of thoughts we have today are the same ones we had yesterday! Waking up from the circular thinking in which we are trapped requires an honesty we’re not accustomed to practicing. Habitual thought is not an easy habit to break, but the desire to do so is the first step. Just like changing any behavior, you have to want to change or you never will. How can we begin to think differently? We can’t simply stop thinking, but we can exchange our trivial musings for substantial ideas. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” As I go through this day, I’ll often ask myself: What would Eleanor think? 

“My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 299:1-11

“I am affected only by my thoughts. It needs but this to let salvation come to all the world. For in this single thought is everyone released at last from fear. Now has he learned that no one frightens him, and nothing can endanger him. He has no enemies, and he is safe from all external things. His thoughts can frighten him, but since these thoughts belong to him alone, he has the power to change them and exchange each fear thought for a happy thought of love. He crucified himself. Yet God has planned that His beloved Son will be redeemed.

“Your plan is sure, my Father,—only Yours. All other plans will fail. And I will have thoughts that will frighten me, until I learn that You have given me the only Thought that leads me to salvation. Mine alone will fail, and lead me nowhere. But the Thought You gave me promises to lead me home, because it holds Your promise to Your Son.”

A Course in Miracles W-338.1:1–2:5

The Saving Grace of Unity

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

In the last decade-plus of writing this daily blog, there have been many entries in which I've mentioned that every thought we have is important. In tandem with this idea, I've said that the last thing we think before sleep and the first thought upon waking are the most important of all. While I still wholeheartedly believe this to be true, I find it increasingly difficult to keep my mind from sinking to depths I haven't witnessed in myself since my heavy drinking days of long ago. Today's Course in Miracles workbook topic assures us that sinlessness protects from harm. Since we've defined sin as being anything which separates us from the Love which is God, I feel certain that my lifeline will come by way of accepting our unity with divine Mind and the infinity of Love. I'm going to ask for guidance by way of this ever-presence, listening open-heartedly and trustingly, knowing fear is truly “false evidence appearing real”. 

“The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, —constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 76:22-26

“My sinlessness protects me from all harm. My sinlessness ensures me perfect peace, eternal safety, everlasting love, freedom forever from all thought of loss; complete deliverance from suffering. And only happiness can be my state, for only happiness is given me. What must I do to know all this is mine? I must accept Atonement for myself, and nothing more. God has already done all things that need be done. And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self, my sinlessness, created for me, now already mine, to feel God’s Love protecting me from harm, to understand my Father loves His Son; to know I am the Son my Father loves.

“You Who created me in sinlessness are not mistaken about what I am. I was mistaken when I thought I sinned, but I accept Atonement for myself. Father, my dream is ended now. Amen.”

A Course in Miracles W-337.1:1–2:4

Wiping Away Dreams of Separation

Photo courtesy of Richard Quick 

Our perception is that we are separate human beings who must work hard to see our commonality. While we believe this to be true, we are not experiencing the world as it is — not at all. “Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the truth.” We are able to look at everything without judgment when we release our ego and choose “that mind to be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus”. We tend to think judgment is part of the human experience, and that we have no choice but to look at everything as either right or wrong. As we go through our day, let’s notice how many times we separate ourselves from each other by judgment. We have a choice of looking past bodies and experiencing the Oneness which is our holy self, that Self which has always been there. This simple message is not always easy, but I rejoice in knowing it is possible!

“Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined. Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception’s ending. Knowledge is restored after perception first is changed, and then gives way entirely to what remains forever past its highest reach. For sights and sounds, at best, can serve but to recall the memory that lies beyond them all. Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the truth. Its lilies shine into the mind, and call it to return and look within, to find what it has vainly sought without. For here, and only here, is peace of mind restored, for this the dwelling place of God Himself.

“In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. Then let me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept; Your Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my heart.”

A Course in Miracles W-336.1:1–2:2

“Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 467:13-16