Identify with Love and you are safe.
In A Course In Miracles Workbook lesson #261 – God is my refuge and security, W.pg 426, we are gently guided to see God aka LOVE as our security blanket in all situations. Yes, you can even suck your thumb if needed!
My youngest son used to drag his security blanket, an old white one that I continually had to make smaller because of the ragged condition, until it finally became the size of a small towel. He would hold the blanket under his arm with his thumb as his comfort. Sometimes he would have “White-ie”, our white cat tucked under his other arm.
So like him we can use God as our security blanket or whatever we imagine God to be, placing Him in a safe spot to carry around during the day.
If you read in the Workbook pg. 425, What Is the Body? Jesus tells us in the last paragraph:
“You will identify with what you think will make you safe Whatever it may be, you will believe that it is one with you. Your safety lies in truth, and not in lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self.”
As you go throughout your day, driving, waiting in line, working, walking or exercising, project LOVE out at the world and everyone and everything. Just look and with your powerful mind…..beam LOVE! Love is our Security Blanket in all situations.
Beam LOE it at yourself in the morning mirror: at your depression, addictions, loneliness, worries or any problems with yourself or anyone you are holding a grudge or grievance. Give it up and Give it to Love!
Here is the link to Lesson 261:
Just click on it and then click on “hear” and close your eyes and listen:
You are LOVED!!
Good Politics: The Service of Peace
As a student of A Course In Miracles, I respect all messages of peace. I want to share with you a hopeful message! I recently watched a video called “Pope Francis, A Man of his Word.” If you need some inspiration I highly recommend it. The 52nd World Day of Peace was January 1, 2019. Pope Francis’s message was:
“Good politics is at the service of peace.”
He made several points but the first was “Peace be to this house.” What he was saying was “peace for our family, our house, our communities, our country, our continent and importantly our common home our world.”
Here is the link to his message to paste in your browser:
Here is a summary of what he said that was so inspiring for all people of Faith regardless of their religion of spiritual beliefs and especially as our politics take the stage for the next year and we watch the debates and delve into the upcoming election we might keep his thoughtful recommendations in mind.
He expanded on several pertinent points by suggesting that “charity and human virtues along with service of human rights and peace be the basis of politics. He suggested those running for office should recall the “Beatitudes of the Politician” which were proposed by Vietnamese Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Vãn Thuận, who died in 2002.
Here they are:
Blessed be the politician with a lofty sense and deep understanding of his role.
Blessed be the politician who personally exemplifies credibility.
Blessed be the politician who works for the common good and not his or her own interest.
Blessed be the politician who remains consistent.
Blessed be the politician who works for unity.
Blessed be the politician who works to accomplish radical change.
Blessed be the politician who is capable of listening.
Blessed be the politician who is without fear.
He suggests that every election and re-election, and every stage of public life, is an opportunity to return to the original points of reference that inspire justice and law. One thing is certain, “good politics is at the service of peace. It respects and promotes fundamental human rights, which are at the same time mutual obligations, enabling a bond of trust and gratitude to be forged between present and future generations.”
Watching it was like a breath of fresh “political air.” If we look for and vote for those who from all appearances, seem to hold these values we would have leaders that we, the world and future generations deserve.
He also brought up political vices: dishonesty, self-service, corruption, exploitation and denial of rights and plundering of natural resources for the sake of quick profit to name a few. Good politics inspires and promotes participation of the young and trust in others and fosters confidence that we can all work together for the common good. Politics at the service of peace finds expression in the recognition of the gifts and abilities when everyone contributes his or her gifts to help build trust especially in our times marked by mistrust and rooted in fear of strangers. The world has a need for security rather than nationalism and division.
Regarding past wars and the strategy of fear, he says to threaten others is to lower them to the status of objects and deny their dignity. Escalation and uncontrolled proliferation of arms is contrary to morality and politics that blame evil on migrants and deprive the poor of hope is unacceptable. There is a need to reaffirm that peace is based on respect for each person, whatever his or her background.
Lastly he calls for a great project of peace and reminds us of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted after the Second World War: “Man’s awareness of his rights lead to the recognition of duties; the rights are the expression of personal dignity and their recognition and respect by others.” Peace entails a conversion of the heart and soul; it is both interior and communal; and it has three inseparable aspects:
1. Peace with oneself: Rejecting inflexibility, anger and impatience; by showing “a bit of sweetness towards oneself” in order to offer “a bit of sweetness to others”;
2. Peace with others: Family members, friends, strangers, the poor and the suffering, being unafraid to encounter them and listen to what they have to say;
3. Peace with all creation: Rediscovering the grandeur of God’s gift and our individual and shared responsibility as inhabitants of this world, citizens and builders of the future. When any of our brothers and sisters suffers we are all affected. God sees with his heart. Even the atheist shares the same love. Maybe that’s the only common bond we all have, the bond of God’s love. Other than that we are free, even free not to love Him.
Here is more inspiration:
A Course In Miracles Lesson 194 – I Place the Future in the Hands of God
To everyone I offer quietness
Are you running on Ego-matic?
The other day I was tooling along not watching my thoughts (as A Course In Miracles asks us to do) but one finally got my attention. It didn’t feel good, it was: “Why doesn’t she do something with her hair?” What part of my mind would care about something as insignificant as someone’s messy hair and why?
When our thoughts run unnoticed, they can easily jump to egomatic. This is not a word my computer thesaurus recognizes but I know what it means. It means senseless; usually condemning; mostly ugly; and always a thought of judgmental ego separation. The mind has been programmed from birth into two columns: love and fear. Everything not from love is in the fear column and that amounts to hundreds perhaps thousands of distinctions. The ego has an endless list. The choice is simple: Heaven or hell.
When practicing the mindfulness of the Course we are in the “heaven” column. We are looking through the Self, i.e. the eyes of Christ, of love, with kindness and accepting of what is. If we ae on egomatic, we are in the “hell” of darkness, believing our misshapen thoughts are true.
Thinking someone has messy hair is up to me. No one can make me think anything. When I think a thought of love, what am I giving/receiving? If the thought is condemning what am I giving/receiving? What I give OUT, I also receive IN.
When my thinking is judgmental: I’m the one with the problem; I feel separate and alone; and in believing it is true, I’m also receiving guilt. That’s why I didn’t like the feeling.
We don’t realize what we do to ourselves, our soul when we place a judgment on someone. Instead of giving the thought away, projecting and getting rid of it, we are in effect keeping it, and making it our problem plus getting a dose of guilt. I judge her for being “messy” but I must also be “messy” in order to know what it is. Projecting is a trick my ego plays to get rid of my messiness by seeing it in someone else. It doesn’t work, I still messy.
In A Course In Miracles, Lesson 108. To give and receive are one in truth.
P.2. “True light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all.”
Isn’t that the state of mind you want to live in? When you catch the silly judgments think what this lesson reminds us to do. Simply say:
To give and receive are one in truth. I will receive what I am giving now.”
Do I want to receive the judgment I am dishing out? The lesson goes on in paragraph 8.
Then close your eyes and for five minutes think of what you would hold out to everyone, to have it yours. Say:
To everyone I offer quietness;
To everyone I offer peace of mind;
To everyone I offer gentleness
Wait. How do you feel? What you offered will come back to you in the amount that you offered it. That is giving and receiving. Instead of offering judgment or “messiness” to my friend I now offer acceptance and that is what returns to me.
Was I in heaven or hell judging my friend’s hair? I realized I didn’t “feel good” and that feeling of being in “hell” helped me see the egomatic thought process.
We have been trained well throughout our formative years and adult lives. But now I can awaken to the fact that my thoughts have consequences on me. We are told that stress causes illnesses. Where does stress come from but our thoughts? This lesson gave me the chance to change my mind and offer quietness to everyone. And when I did, I received quietness.
Go to http://www.acim.org – Workbook Lesson 108 – click to have it read aloud to you!
Remember: You are the Light of the World and God IS the LOVE within!
If you would like to order a greeting card with the above photo you can do so at:
http://www.fineartamerica.com and put in my name: Sally McKirgan
God is Your Hard Drive
Workbook Lesson 44. God is the light in which I see
The Course in Miracles Workbook has 365 lessons. These lessons are our pathway to peace. Knowledge is not the goal of the Course. Peace Is.
In Lesson 44. Jesus tells us that we cannot see in darkness but we also cannot make light. God is the light in which I see because God is in my Mind.
We can and do make darkness with our thoughts and misperceptions. The world is a place of darkness and it distracts us constantly with the chaos of war, weather, sickness, death and disaster. Jesus tells us we think we see in the darkness of the world.
But light reflects life and is therefore an aspect of creation. Creation and darkness cannot coexist. It is like trying to mix water and oil.
Light and Life do go together being aspects of creation.
“In order to see, you must recognize that light is within, not without.”
Workbook Lesson 43: God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him
Perception is not an attribute of God. His is the realm of knowledge. When we link to our Hard Drive, our computer chip aka God and Light, our perceptions will become so changed and purified that it will lead to knowledge.
The light INSIDE of you is TRUE. Light is understanding, it is vision – not the perceptions our stray thoughts and judgments that wander in and out of our awareness.
The equipment for seeing (God and Light) is INSIDE of your MIND.
“An essential part of this equipment is the light that makes seeing possible. It is with you always, making vision possible in every circumstance.”
You cannot be withOUT God. You cannot be separate from God. He is your equipment. He is the computer chip the Processor, Ram, Memory and Hard Drive in your MIND. You share HIS MIND. The Mystery that is God, is within your mind, Eternal, can never die, you can never die, death is impossible because your Spirit and Mind is part of and shared with God.
With God as the Hard Drive, the Light within, your Spirit is one with Him.
Paragraph 7. Let go of every kind of interference and intrusion by quietly sinking past them. Your mind cannot be stopped in this unless you choose to stop it. It is merely taking its natural course. Try to observe your passing thoughts without involvement and slip quietly by them.
You are letting the LIGHT guide you, God is your Source, You cannot see apart from him.
Go to http://www.acim.org Listen to these lessons and you will realize that God is your Hard Drive, the eternal computer chip.
Rest in Love, Rest in Truth
You are loved! Most of us do not allow ourselves to feel it. Why? Don’t we believe we are lovable? You ARE loved, warts, gifts and all! Give yourself the gift of feeling it. Really feel it. Go to a silent place within, close your eyes and feel yourself being held, as if you were a small child again. Feel yourself being rocked gently and a soft hand stroking your cheek and telling you that you are loved. Feel the care and sweetness in your heart. That is how God loves you. Your spirit is love and as bright, as soft and innocent like this blossom.
I invite you to go to the A Course In Miracles website and listen to Lesson 109, I rest in God, being read to you as you close your eyes.
Here is the link to past in your browser: https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-109/
The Course offers 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. We being at lesson number 1 and read a lesson per day and on the 109th day of the year we learn we can and DO rest in Love, in God and can be at Peace. We just need to accept it. At the end of the 365 lessons you will never be lonely again or feel unloved…….when you remember your true identity – God’s Holy Precious Son.
Happy New Year!
Christmas: Giving and Receiving
Years ago our youngest son looked inquiringly at his Dad and said “Why Christmas?” It was a perceptive and honest question from his little three year mind. How would you answer that question? It is a good question to pose to our grown up selves. We rush about planning and making lists and drive ourselves crazy or get on the internet and figure out the best deals. We fret over what to give to whom and will they like it, that’s the big question. And then we imagine them opening it up and watching carefully for the expression that comes in that twinkling moment.
Maybe that “instant” is our gift! That shining twinkling moment when we made someone happy, made them smile and gasp with surprise. Then we hear their laughter, hopefully not a groan, and words of thanks or maybe a smooch!
My husband’s father loved Chocolate Covered Cherries. Every year we gave him a box. Finally one year he opened the gift and said, “Oh No, not Cherries again.” That was the last year we gave him cherries! How many of us have opened presents we definitely did NOT like and managed to feign appreciation showing we “love it” and have “always wanted one?”
Back to Why Christmas? Well it is all about Jesus and his Birth right? Look at how we avoid Jesus and his teachings these days. A few years ago I was reading a book about Jesus. The author had put his beautiful face smack on the cover. A gentleman stopped to inquire what I was reading. I closed the book and showed him the cover. You would have thought I was pointing a machine gun in his face! He was absolutely horrified, shocked! His eyes were big, brows shot up and he looked like someone had hit him with a stun gun. His adverse reaction was palpable. He said “Oh” and hurried away as quickly as he could.
Where does that reaction come from? For over 2,000 years the world has had Jesus to deal with. All faiths have their concepts but where does that “aversion” comes from.
One reason (and I am not a scholar) could be because the Bible claims he is God’s ONLY begotten son. So where does that leave the rest of us and the horrified man? We know of families that have a favorite child whose attributes out shine everyone else; that special child. Could it be collective unconscious jealousy runs through a society feeling resentment and somehow unloved. It can fester over a lifetime and throughout the ages. How many of us, deep down, feel as adored as that baby? The sweet song, ‘Away in the Manager’ always brings tears to my eyes.
If we don’t resent him we may try to out-do him! Climb the highest mountains; make the most money; give the biggest gift; have the biggest house or most expensive car or? We are all looking for love and appreciation. Maybe God (and others) will love us if we do such and such.
And yet we celebrate baby Jesus at Christmas and sing carols to him not knowing that baby is also us, you and me. If we had been students of the spiritual book, A Course In Miracles, at the time our young son asked, we could have told him that baby Jesus was (and still is) loved very much by God and YOU my child, are too! We are all God’s sons, the Christ. God being Eternal Unchanging Love never condemns or rejects anyone. In the First Chapter of the Course Jesus tells us:
“You are a perfect creation, and should experience awe only in the Presence of the Creator of perfection. Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. He is also entitled to love because he is a brother, and to devotion if he is devoted. It is only my devotion that entitles me to yours. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.” ACIM I.II.3.
So….Jesus our elder brother is devoted to us, YOU and ME, everyone! He demonstrates to us our potential. No one is excluded from Love not even a politician. He tells us we are all the same in the ego world because we feel separated from God and our only need is to choose love instead of fear and hatred. And like Jesus we can offer tolerance, love and yes forgiveness too as we free our spirit from the tight grip of judgment and hatred. For 2,000 years his wisdom has endeavored to open our hearts and minds to the clarity of healing light. We come here to learn lessons, to see through the ego and world programming and to exclude no one from our love. All hate is from the ego; all love is God. When we give Love, we receive love.
That is giving and receiving.
Be like God – Love Every ONE!
Visit http://www.acim.org or http://www.facim.org
To find out more about A Course In Miracles
Peace is Release – Release is Peace
The Course says that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a Miracle. Every decision is actually a judgment! Every thought can be one of inclusion or exclusion. The inclusive thought brings inner peace. The exclusive thought brings separation and guilt. It is hard to believe that a judgment can bring guilt but it does. We heap guilt upon our souls with every seemingly insignificant harmless judgmental thought.
But guilt is not harmless. It ego eats at your soul. The ego is addicted to “sugar” – and its sugar is judgmental thoughts, grievances, grudges, jealousy, resentment, worry and the distraction of controversy. The ego seeks to keep you in guilt rather than in the arms of the Holy Spirit and peace. You will never be happy until you look at the ego and examine its hold on your life and how it colors your perceptions.
When you feel the gnawing sense of un-ease in your gut, just retrace your previous thoughts. What has you by the throat? What is it about? Is it a worry a gripe or a grudge against someone, a relative, friend or possibly yourself?
Just LOOK at the unease. Bring all the details into awareness and imagine holding the hand of the Holy Spirit. Say: “Look at this with me. Help me see it differently.” When we share all the details with the Holy Spirit we are taking it out of the ego’s clutches.
Now Wait! You have brought it to awareness. It is no longer festering below in the unconscious ready to percolate to the surface at a moments notice.
This Looking help with the RELEASE. The release is the process of letting go. You have given it to God. Breathe into the letting go to speed it on its way.
The RELEASE comes with looking and by passing the ego. The ego is no longer in charge of the gripe or the grudge or the upset.
Release is Peace! Peace will arrive! The grudge, grievance will lessen and at some point you will laugh at the silliness you put yourself through. We do it to ourselves!
See: A Course in Miracles lesson 78. Let miracles replace all grievances.
” Perhaps it is not quite clear to you that each decision (judgment) that you make is between a grievance and a miracle.”
You are LOVED!!
Visit: http://www.acim.org – click on workbook lessons
Peace and Joy I Offer You
We cannot find peace if we continue to remember and replay hurtful events from the past. Are you happy being stuck on automatic thinking about an old event? Are you replaying blame, pain and guilt? Was it their fault or yours? If it was your fault you feel guilty. If it was theirs, you feel victimized. Neither are happy making!
What part of your mind is doing the replaying? Ask Yourself: Do I want peace and joy rather than guilt or victimhood?
If the answer is YES, then decided to STOP replaying the past!
HOW? It is up to you……yes YOU! You are doing the replaying yourself!
You could choose to look at it another way.
Say: “OK – I’ll look at this another way for the sake of my own peace.”
Begin to think of the people involved (or the situation) and realize that you are denying them peace and joy (that is their right under the equal laws of God) AND you are ALSO denying peace and joy to yourself.
WOW: If you hold a grievance against someone….it is held in your MIND! You are trapped in the grievance with them. Are you happy? You are trapping your light and joy!
Think of the people involved a little while and tell them in your mind:
* “My brother/sister/: peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.”
We don’t think that just because we have denied peace and joy to someone that we are in effect really denying peace to our Self. If you hold hate or a grudge in your mind, you are the one doing the HOLDING, so you are the effect of your own suffering! Do you like how you feel?
Do you think your brother is suffering? We don’t know but we know you are.
Would you rather say to that brother?
My brother/sister/myself: misery and suffering I offer you
That I may have the ego’s misery and suffering as mine.
Which version do you choose? If the word God bothers you, take it out. God won’t care. That mystery which is love, never condemns. It doesn’t know how to. Make a copy of the pledge and paste it around the house. Take yourself on as a student and train yourself to accept that peace and joy is your inheritance and that you are worth it.
* The quote is from A Course In Miracles, Workbook lesson 105 God’s Peace and Joy are Mine. Visit www.acim.org go The Workbook lessons and then click the lesson selector. You can also click “hear” and listen to the entire lesson and close your eyes. Choose peace!
Hint: When you give you also receive!
In the fox holes of life!
In the fox holes of life: ‘I Am There.’
Easter and Passover join hands this year! Passover and Good Friday on March 30 and Easter April 1. Jesus always takes center stage for Easter. For years I had problems with the concept of Jesus until I started studying the spiritual psychological non- dual metaphysical book, ‘A Course In Miracles.’ Maybe since he was proclaimed the CHOOSEN one i.e. the favorite son of God, it made me wonder about the rest of us. Did he (God) care about me or anyone else for that matter? I decided probably not. But Jesus in the Course tells the scribe, Helen Schucman, that yes, he is a Son of God but so are you and I. He is not special. We are equals and all equally loved!
“The miracle is a sign of love among equals. Equals should not be in awe of one another because awe implies inequality. It is therefore an inappropriate reaction to me. An elder brother is entitled to respect for his greater experience, and obedience for his greater wisdom. There is nothing about me that you cannot attain. I have nothing that does not come from God. The difference between us now is that I have nothing else. This leaves me in a state which is only potential in you.” T.1.II.3.4-12.
He also says that we do need help and He and the Holy Spirit are here for us.
“I go before you because I am beyond the ego. Reach, therefore, for my hand because you want to transcend the ego. My strength will never be wanting, and if you choose to share it you will do so.” T. 8.V.6 7-9.
Hold out your hand i.e. your mind and he is there. Yes, He is the Christ but so are you and I and everyone, whether we accept it or not.
Another wonderful thing about the Course is that since Jesus’s Mind joined with Helen’s we know he is not dead! He tells us throughout the Course that there is no death. He did not die on the cross! His body did but HE did NOT!
I have come to believe that Jesus is really REAL! Not in the bodily sense but within the fox holes of life where faith holds our hand and trust, the light. God does not need us but we need to know, that HIS love and grace are always here with us – Within.
Recently I learned about the mystical poem ‘I am There’ by James Dillet Freeman. He is sometimes known as “the poet laureate of the moon” because two of his poems are on the moon. ‘I Am There’ was taken by Astronaut, James B. Irwin in 1971 and ‘Prayer for Protection’ by Lunar Commander ‘Buzz’ Aldrin in July 1969. Here are the poems of assurance and a blessed Passover and Easter to all.
I am There
Do you need Me?
I am there.
You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.
You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.
I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.
I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.
Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.
When you need Me, I am there.
Even if you deny Me, I am there.
Even when you feel most alone, I am there.
Even in your fears, I am there.
Even in your pain, I am there.
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.
I am in you, and you are in Me.
Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for only in your mind are the mists of “yours” and “mine.”
Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.
Empty your heart of empty fears.
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.
You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.
And I am in all.
Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.
I am there because I have to be, because I am.
Only in Me does the world have meaning; only out of Me does the world take form; only because of Me does the world go forward.
I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of living cells are founded.
I am the love that is the law’s fulfilling. I am assurance. I am peace. I am oneness. I am the law that you can live by. I am the love that you can cling to. I am your assurance. I am your peace. I am one with you. I am.
Though you fail to find Me, I do not fail you.
Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never wavers, because I know you, because I love you.
Beloved, I am there.
The Prayer of Protection
The light of God surrounds us;
The love of God enfolds us;
The power of God protects us;
The presence of God watches over us;
Wherever we are, God is!
Learn more about the history and mystery of ‘I am There’ by James Dillet Freeman at http://www.unity.com.
January Peace of Mind
OK – So it is mid January! You may have made some resolutions about things you want to happen or do this year. How you doing? The only part of your mind that would care or “seem to mind” is the ego. The ego is the part of your mind that carries the judge’s gavel and seems to run you around like the cartoon road runner.
But what if you set your goal at the beginning of each day so that no matter what happened that day you would have peace?
A Couse In Miracles Lesson 34. I could see peace instead of this.
“Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts and then extend outward. It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises.”
Go to http://www.acim.org – click on lessons and then scroll to lesson 34. You can even close your eyes and have it read aloud to you.
So – each morning, before you get out of bed lie there for a few restful minutes and ask yourself: “What kind of a day do I want? What do I want to have happen today? Run through all the events and circumstances that you think the day will hold.
Then looking at them all say:
“But above all, today I choose peace. No matter what happens I want the peace of God.”
Then it won’t matter if you get the job interview; the check you’ve been expecting; the date or meeting you’ve been waiting for or the diagnosis you’re hoping for. No matter what happens since your goal is PEACE, you will have it regardless of the outcome of any of the circumstances in your life.
On my white board in the kitchen I’ve written: Today I want the Peace of God. You can put it on a note card you carry in your pocket.
In Chapter 17. of the Course, Section VI. Setting the Goal, p.4. (pg. 366)
The value of deciding in advance what you want to happen is simply that you will perceive the situation as means to make it happen.”
If we decide in advance what we want, then we will perceive it and even if we don’t, we will be upset and then remember “Oh, I could see peace instead of this.”
Even if you get what you want, how long will it make you happy?
No matter what happens in our crazy mixed up world, you can have peace!
