Certainty of Purpose

Photo credit: Aaron Springston

As the year draws to a close, our busy-ness tends to increase until we are, perhaps, in a tizzy all the time, much like the spinning dreidel which is a staple of many celebrations. I witnessed a friend in such a dither today. As I watched her, I realized she was taking personal responsibility for everything around her. She felt put-upon and over-loaded with duties and chores. She breathlessly rushed about feeling that no one but her would know what to do about any number of things. I closed my eyes and breathed slowly and deeply, hoping it could spread to her, but she wasn’t receptive. She was no more able to accept the peace that was hers, as the expression of Spirit, than she was able to trust that everything would be done with or without her — or not! It’s easy to slip into believing that we’re the only one who knows how to do certain things, thinking that everything will fall apart without us. I have found, time and again, that to stand with divine Love “in peace and certainty of purpose” will allow perfect results to transpire! So take a deep breath and trust the Universe!

‘“Rest in peace’ is a blessing for the living, not the dead, because rest comes from waking, not from sleeping. Sleep is withdrawing; waking is joining. Dreams are illusions of joining, because they reflect the ego’s distorted notions about what joining is. Yet the Holy Spirit, too, has use for sleep, and can use dreams on behalf of waking if you will let Him.”
A Course in Miracles T-8.IX.3:5-8

“When we reach our limits of mental endurance, we conclude that intellectual labor has been carried sufficiently far; but when we realize that immortal Mind is ever active, and that spiritual energies can neither wear out nor can so-called material law trespass upon God-given powers and resources, we are able to rest in Truth, refreshed by the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 387:5-12

Thought Objectified

Photo credit: Mark McGee

Sometimes events seem too much to bear. A friend’s son was violently killed during a vacation to a warm, beautiful part of our world. In reaching out to her, I’ve learned that the embassy is doing an efficient and caring job taking care of what must be done. I’m having a tough time separating myself from her grief, from imagining it as my own. Which brings a question to my mind: if we are One, why don’t all of our thoughts simply bounce around and become stuck to others. I am learning it is because the only reality is that which is from God, good. Anything else is erroneous thinking and illusion masquerading as truth. When I first heard these concepts, my learned beliefs rebelled against their veracity. It sounded heartless. But I know it is the ultimate expression of Love to embrace our world in spiritual reality. What else truly changes a situation other than seeing it differently? Every time my friends’ grief comes to mind, I shall embrace them in divine Love — even as my tears of sympathy fall. These things are not mutually exclusive.

“The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the artist’s thought objectified. The human belief fancies that it delineates thought on matter, but what is matter? Did it exist prior to thought? Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but without material accompaniments. The potter is not in the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter. God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 310:1-10

“Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it more carefully. It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. This is regarded as ‘the way of nature,’ not to be raised to question, but to be accepted as the ‘natural’ law of life. The cyclical, the changing and unsure; the undependable and the unsteady, waxing and waning in a certain way upon a certain path,—all this is taken as the Will of God. And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this.

‘In this perception of the universe as God created it, it would be impossible to think of Him as loving. For who has decreed that all things pass away, ending in dust and disappointment and despair, can but be feared. He holds your little life in his hand but by a thread, ready to break it off without regret or care, perhaps today. Or if he waits, yet is the ending certain. Who loves such a god knows not of love, because he has denied that life is real. Death has become life’s symbol. His world is now a battleground, where contradiction reigns and opposites make endless war. Where there is death is peace impossible.”
A Course in Miracles M-27.1:1–2:8

The Affection and Purpose of the Heart

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

“It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory, but when you succeed, you start to realize that you’re capable of far more than you imagined. You live in this vast body called the Universe, which contains all the solutions and all the problems. Visit your soul; don’t visit your past.” Paulo Coelho, Aleph

Seeing this quote from one of my favorite authors caused me to think about something which has been happening recently: I’ve been regretting things from the past. This is a practice I thought had been forsaken long ago, but I’ve found myself waking up in the morning and remembering things I would like to change. Self-examination is a good thing, and anytime anyone chastises me for an action, I examine my motives and double check to see if my thinking needs correction. But I don’t tend to have regrets and feel sad about past actions. As I write this, a quote comes to mind — perhaps from this same author, and maybe even the same book: “You can’t change the past, but what you do in the present rectifies the past and changes the future.” I’ve quoted this many times to other people, and it’s time to practice what I preach!

“We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are. If a friend informs us of a fault, do we listen patiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not rather give thanks that we are ‘not as other men’? During many years the author has been most grateful for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited censure, — in the falsehood which does no one any good.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 8:28-4

“In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. In timelessness you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never change in any way at all. You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. Let it be still and thankfully accept its healing. No more fearful dreams will come, now that you rest in God. Take time today to slip away from dreams and into peace.”
A Course in Miracles W-109.5:1-8

Love‘s Day!

A Day at Meow Wolf - Denver, CO

Exciting days, routine days — what’s the difference? Truly, there is none. Every moment is cause for celebration! One of my favorite Wayne Dyer quotes is, “If you drop a pen and don’t enjoy picking it up, drop it again!” But of course, I think you’ll agree with me that some days feel enchantingly delicious with prospects and fruition. Some moments in our lives feel full of possibilities and we eagerly go forward, ready to grasp all the wonder-filled moments. This day is Love’s and I will happily delight in its possibilities. Let me embrace every action with the same anticipation that I would expect from a day at a fabulous museum! 

“In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend. The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed inhabitant of that body carries it through the air and over the ocean. This shows the possibilities of thought. Opium and hashish eaters mentally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and knowledge are.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 90:16-23

“Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.”
A Course in Miracles T-1.I.3:1-3

If You Can Keep Your Head …

I’ve always liked this poem by Rudyard Kipling.. As I read it today, it strikes me these are great characteristics for a president of the United States!

If - By Rudyard Kipling

“If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

But make allowance for their doubting too;

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, 

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; 

If you can meet with triumph and disaster 

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken 

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, 

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings 

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you 

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on’;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch; 

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; 

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run— 

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, 

And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!”

“Evasion of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down from the pinnacle.” 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 448:10-11

“Today we practice true humility, abandoning the false pretense by which the ego seeks to prove it arrogant. Only the ego can be arrogant. But truth is humble in acknowledging its mightiness, its changelessness and its eternal wholeness, all-encompassing, God’s perfect gift to His beloved Son. We lay aside the arrogance which says that we are sinners, guilty and afraid, ashamed of what we are; and lift our hearts in true humility instead to Him Who has created us immaculate, like to Himself in power and in love.”

A Course in Miracles W-152.9:1-4

Discerning Truth

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

I heard about a teacher who gave a test and instructed the students to use whatever means they had at hand to answer the questions. In other words, they could do an internet search, call a friend — anything! Some people questioned why he would do such a thing, saying that the students wouldn’t learn anything. The teacher had something very profound to say about his reasons. In this day and age, we have all the answers at our fingertips, but there are also many wrong answers waiting for us to find them. His test had to do with teaching students how to do research and arrive at correct answers. I, personally, think this is a fabulous idea! Teaching and learning are not the same as when I was a child, nor should they be. Times have changed drastically and the way we approach education must move along with our circumstances. Judging by the number of people who swear that foolishness is truth, I would love to see more classes being given in how to do research in the 21st century. We also would be well-served to learn how to listen to our intuitive Self, or divine Mind. I love thinking about things in different ways and am grateful to those who bring new ways of thinking to my attention!

“Reality can dawn only on an unclouded mind. It is always there to be accepted, but its acceptance depends on your willingness to have it. To know reality must involve the willingness to judge unreality for what it is. To overlook nothingness is merely to judge it correctly, and because of your ability to evaluate it truly, to let it go. Knowledge cannot dawn on a mind full of illusions, because truth and illusions are irreconcilable. Truth is whole, and cannot be known by part of a mind.”
A Course in Miracles T-10.IV.2:1-6

“When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His, — no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 205:32-3

Coming Together In The Light

Photo Courtesy of Blake Lasater

I see a world built on honesty in every endeavor. All liars will be uncovered and replaced with honorable human beings who value lives more than cash. Schools will teach children to love learning, rather than to spit out rhetoric. Religious institutions will be there to help those in need, finding ways to supply their material needs while feeding their spirit. We will be allowed to know what Spirit is, rather than simply repeating religious beliefs which manipulate and punish. We'll know about the good in ourselves as well as our neighbors and love ourselves more as a result. Then we see the value in making art -- music, painting, creativity of all kinds -- and understanding how those practices allow us to be whole, rather than automatons which spit out facts and figures. I see a world where we can trust ourselves enough to stand up for what benefits all, not just those in our tribe. Let's build back a world where all its resources are kept intact and nurtured, using the things which never run out, realizing the sun shines on us all equally, and is here for our supply. We will know the value of every living creature, realizing that the loss of one leaves a hole in the music of the earth. We will be proud of knowledge, science, learning of any and all sorts. We will see that we can understand God, because we are Its reflection and that source lies within us. I have a dream …

"St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality."
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 573:19

“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