Pathways of Light Miracles News, 7/00 p. 3

Miracles News Summer 2000

The First Lesson • Stop to Smell the Roses • Show Me the Way of Love
Where Do We Place Our Trust? • More Summer 2000 Articles
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The First Lesson -- by Joyce Champion

I have learned that Love cannot be destroyed. I understand that any love ever expressed by two people or the love a community has shared at any point in time can still be felt. The energy of Love will never die.

Understanding the concept of Love as energy has changed my perception and has led me to the greater knowledge that it is the Love of God that actually sustains my life.

I am a relatively new Pathways student. While working on my second course, "Knowing Your True Purpose," I was guided over and over through meditation to just relax and let God's Love in. Like many of you, I'm sure, having reached the point in my life that had led me to A Course in Miracles and then to the Pathways curriculum, I was very ready to make many new changes in my life. However, my lesson was to start from scratch and simply allow the Love of God to flow through me. It seemed a little simplistic and something I always did anyway, didn't I?

As I write this now, I reread in the Introduction to A Course in Miracles, "The Course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance." I started to see that my healing would begin by acknowledging the powerful presence of God's Love within.

In trusting the guidance I received, I began to remove the blocks to the awareness of God's Love. I was given great insight into my body, mind, spirit connection, and I learned that healing takes place on all those levels. I began to uncover the root of my pain with the knowledge that the very breath of life, the actual physical energy that sustains it, is no less than God's love; His gift — the gift of life — to us all. I was then further led to understand, through the energy-body work I am presently engaged in, that my breathing pattern represented a resistance to the flow of life and therefore to the very love, I discovered, I was literally starved for. I had not always allowed the Love of God to flow through me. I was fighting, and denying the Love of God. I know now that allowing the Love of God to flow through me is indeed the very first step I need to take before all else. I found out that my resistance to God's Love is the core reason for my pain in every sense of the word.

Awareness, acceptance, and reception of the Love of God is an experience I can't express in words. The power I have discovered to be mine as a result will guide me throughout my life. It is only in being so blessed that I can now truly begin my journey.

I walk daily on a promontory that overlooks ocean, river and sound, here in Massachusetts. The sky can be viewed for miles as it rolls over marsh, beach and water. It's quite a remarkable spot and never ceases to inspire me. While walking there the other day I thought about the love that the Pathways of Light community expresses and shares. I am grateful to be both a participant and recipient of that holy exchange.

A quote from the Course seems to sum up all that I have tried to say: "But see the Love of God in you, and you will see it everywhere because it is everywhere. See His abundance in everyone, and you will know that you are in Him with them. They are part of you, as you are part of God. You are as lonely without understanding this as God Himself is lonely when His Sons do not know Him. The peace of God is understanding this. There is only one way out of the world's thinking, just as there was only one way into it. Understand totally by understanding totality." (ACIM 7.VII. "The Totality of the Kingdom" 10:4-10) Peace be with you all.

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Stop to Smell the Roses -- by Rev. Christine Anderson

My laundry was in much need of being done. The day was sunny and pleasant so I decided to use the hill along side of the lodge to go down and around to the back door to the laundry room. By doing this I would be out in the fresh air and also getting some much needed exercise. Beyond my own thoughts, I wondered what other good would come of this.

As I ventured to make my first trip down the hill, I noticed that along the roadside was a lovely pink rosebud standing alone amongst the other greenery. I stopped to look at it and noticed that a few of the petals had started to unfurl. I bent over to take a whiff of the rosebud and enjoyed the faint whisper of its fragrance. I stood back and thought about how some areas of my growth seem to be at that ‘bud stage.' Now looking at this rose, I could understand how perfect that is. Spirit is patient, kind and gentle with me and never says, "Hurry up, Christine, you're not growing fast enough." Spirit has no investment in time and would never forcefully ‘open my petals.' Spirit (Love) sees me only as whole, perfect and innocent. This is a reminder for me to be patient with my process and acknowledge with gratitude all of the good in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters.

On my trip up the hill a while later, I stopped to visit with my rose friend. By now we were starting to build a little rapport. It had opened a little bit more. I felt like I was an honored guest, witnessing this gradual opening of my ‘rose buddy.' At this point I reflected on how in this dream, we all seem to be in different stages of growth and that I can appreciate everyone at their perfect place in their own unfoldment. We are the holy guest at one another's gradual opening to the Truth of our Being.

The next meeting proved to be very insightful. The petals had opened even more. I wanted to treat myself again with the wonderful smell, and as I got closer, I noticed a big old black ant inside the petals. My first instinct was to reach in with my fingers and get it out of there. I stepped back to get quiet and I said to myself, "I do not know what anything is for. Maybe it is perfectly OK for that ant to be there!" The thought that I received is that the ant partakes of the rose honey and actually helps the rose to open by walking around in those petals. If I had started rummaging around amidst those delicate petals to remove the ant, I would have disturbed the perfect process happening with their interaction.

As I let go of my judgments and stay in peace in my mind, I will receive insights from Holy Spirit in every situation to tell me that really everything is all right! So now, anytime I start to feel that meddling urge coming up, thinking I know what is best for me or someone else, I will remember the rose and the story it told by just being there along side the road. It was just being a rose, and because I was willing to learn, it played its perfect part in the plan of awakening. I believe that when I have willingness in my mind to grow and learn, Spirit can use anything in form in this dream to bring me a message. In reality I am teaching myself. It seems like there is a ‘me' and Holy Spirit. The Course tells me that I and my Father are One. We all have a perfect place on the bridge that brings us Home.

In the late afternoon, as I stood before the fully opened rose, I realized how much alike we are: trusting... opening... soft... strong... being... These thoughts then came to mind: Like the sun on the rose, Spirit shines It's Light above me like a beacon to show the way. I can never be lost. I open to this Light and its assistance in my perfect growth process. Like the earth that feeds and nurtures the rose, Spirit is at my feet to support me with a firm foundation of the Truth — that Love is All there Is. I walk in Love and Gratitude.

Like all of the helpful elements that surround, support and interact with the rose, Spirit, my best Friend, accompanies me at my side, walks with me and talks with me. I am never alone. Mighty companions in the seen and unseen world extend their Love. They take great delight in the receiving of their gifts.

Spirit's Light is behind me to help me gently release the past. Angel's wings softly brush away any burdens I have perceived that I am willing to let go. Spirit's Light shines a pathway Home so bright, brighter than a thousand suns! When I am willing to open to Christ's Vision, I see that everyone is on that path.

So today, dear friend, stop to smell the roses. Receive the gift of Love that Spirit wants so much to give you. You are loved. You are perfect. You are innocent. You are safe. And you are Home!

Click here if you want to email Christine.

Show Me the Way of Love -- A Prayer -- by Rev. Robert Stoelting

I have walked this world in isolation,
thinking I am alone and separate,
blind to the Love that surrounds me.

In blindness I perceive danger that is not there.
In blindness I search for protection in illusions,
using made-up defenses against a threat that is not real.

And yet, I am not blind.
I have only closed my eyes to the Light.
Help me open my eyes, Father.
Help me see past imagined dangers
to the Light that shines them away.

Help me remember Who I am,
the Identity You gave me.
Help me see that Identity in everyone, everywhere.
Help me be an instrument of remembering,
to remind everyone of the Light in them that is their Identity.

I am willing to be Your Beacon.
Help me open the shutter.
And I will follow Your Light to the way of Love.

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Where Do We Place Our Trust? -- from Pathways of Light Course 114:
The Transforming Power of Trust

We trust in what we believe is real. If we believe that the idea of separation is real, we will trust in the ego and all of its manifestations. If we believe that Love is real, we will trust in the power of Love to heal.

Because Love is oneness, we cannot believe in both the ego, which is the idea of separateness, and in Love at the same time. If we try to hang on to both beliefs, we experience inner conflict. We will vacillate back and forth between love and fear. "For a time then, he is receiving conflicting messages and accepting both. The way out of conflict between two opposing thought systems is clearly to choose one and relinquish the other." (ACIM T-6.V.B.4:6-5:1)

Click here to see a full description of Course 114.

The First Lesson • Stop to Smell the Roses • Show Me the Way of Love
Where Do We Place Our Trust • More Summer 2000 Articles