Day 304

Today's Lesson:

Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.

I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.

You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Today's lesson is a great reminder that when I look at the world through my eyes, I will only see what is reflected from my own mind. But when I consciously look at the world through the eyes of Christ, I will see everything differently. When I change the way I look at things, the things I look at really will change. The key is awareness.

As I forgive myself and others, using the course's definition of forgiveness (see Day 297 for more information and a definition of this "new" forgiveness), I really will bring salvation to the world.

I also love that today's lesson says "perception is a mirror, not a fact." Whenever I see something that I don't particularly like - I'm especially working on being non-judgmental - it is comforting to know that what I see is simply my perception and can be switched to the Truth. I think we all know the Truth when we experience it. There is kind of a sigh of recognition, or a deja vu kind of feeling, I think, when we remember those things we already knew at some point. That is what I refer to as Truth - or seeing the world through the eyes of Christ. It is so wonderful to know that we can do all things Christ has done and even more. There are no limits when we connect with that consciousness.

At our course gathering last night, we talked about being in the now and how that is all we ever really have anyway. We spend so much time (which is also just an illusion) planning and worrying and preparing for the future, but all that does is waste the time we have now in the present moment. Yesterday's text said "Future loss is not your fear. But present joining is your dread. Who can feel desolation except now? A future cause as yet has no effects. And therefore must it be that if you fear, there is a present cause. And it is this that needs correction, not a future state (Chapter 26, VIII, 4, 3-8)."

When I got home last night I watched an Oprah episode from the past week that I had recorded. It was all about lessons we can learn from people who have a terminal illness (in this case cancer) and have gotten an entirely different perspective on time. If you haven't seen it yet, here is the entire video of Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" which he gave to students and faculty at Carnegie-Mellon University on September 18. For Randy, it really may be his last lecture, although the intention for this lecture series at Carnegie-Mellon is, for most other lecturers, a theoretical lecture if it were to be their last. Since he has advanced pancreatic cancer, it may well be true for him. This is a great example of living in the now.



If this is not an example of choosing the miracle, I don't think I'll ever find it. If you don't know what you want in your life, how will anyone - including the Universe or God - know what you want? Let Randy Pausch teach us all to make the changes in our lives now.

Day 303

Today's Lesson:

The holy Christ is born in me today.

Watch with me, angels, watch with me today. Let all God's holy Thoughts surround me, and be still with me while Heaven's Son is born. Let earthly sounds be quiet, and the sights to which I am accustomed disappear. Let Christ be welcomed where He is at home. And let Him hear the sounds He understands, and see but sights that show His Father's Love. Let Him no longer be a stranger here, for He is born again in me today.

Your Son is welcome, Father. He has come to save me from the evil self I made. He is the Self that You have given me. He is but what I really am in truth. He is the Son You love above all things. He is my Self as You created me. It is not Christ that can be crucified. Safe in Your Arms let me receive Your Son.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I notice more and more each day how fortunate I am to have found this course, and how grateful I am that I get to spend each day with this information. Since my career is built upon studying things like this course, I get a chance to reinforce my own learning as I teach. I spent the morning yesterday with a client teaching a new course on achieving goals. It is so amazing how much of what I'm learning here I'm able to share with corporate clients. I see so much more clearly now how every step along my career path was necessary to get me right where I am today. Every study I've undertaken, every certification and career stop was perfect. Because the holy Christ is born in me today, I am confident that every step I find myself taking now is one more step on the path to the Father. If Christ is in me, then I will hear as He hears, and see as He sees - I just need to be awake enough to realize it.

And that's what this course does for me - it reminds me of what's already there. That's a miracle!

Day 302

Today's Lesson:

Where darkness was I look upon the light.

Father, our eyes are opening at last. Your holy world awaits us, as our sight is finally restored and we can see. We thought we suffered. Be we had forgot the Son whom You created. Now we see that darkness is our own imagining, and light is there for us to look upon. Christ's vision changes darkness into light, for fear must disappear when love has come. Let me forgive Your holy world today, that I may look upon its holiness and understand it but reflects my own.

Our Love awaits us as we go to Him, and walks beside us showing us the way. He fails in nothing. He the End we seek, and He the Means by which we go to Him.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I've been thinking recently that when we go to flip the switches in our homes, we don't turn on the dark switch - we always turn on the light switch. We bring the light to rid the darkness - we don't bring the dark to the light.

Today's lesson reminds us that there is always light where we think it is dark. There is really no darkness except in our own imaginations. This statement requires faith, because we have gotten so good at believing what our physical eyes see. I love imagining using the words "What if." What if there is more to see than what I've been conditioned to see? What if there is another way to see things? That question immediately opens countless possibilities that I cannot imagine when I believe what I see.

When I shift my vision to the holiness that is in the world, I will reflect my own holiness as well. As Wayne Dyer tells us, when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. The beautiful thing is that they aren't really changing - they've been in the light all along - we're just waking up to notice them!

Day 301

9. What is the Second Coming?

Christ's Second Coming, which is sure as God, is merely the correction of mistakes, and the return of sanity. It is a part of the condition that restores the never lost, and re-establishes what is forever and forever true. It is the invitation to God's Word to take illusion's place; the willingness to let forgiveness rest upon all thing without exception and without reserve.

It is the all-inclusive nature of Christ's Second Coming that permits it to embrace the world and hold you safe within its gentle advent, which encompasses all living things with you. There is no end to the release the Second Coming brings, as God's creation must be limitless. Forgiveness lights the Second Coming's way, because it shines on everything as one. And thus is oneness recognized at last.

The Second Coming ends the lessons that the Holy Spirit teaches, making way for the Last Judgment, in which learning ends in one last summary that will extend beyond itself, and reaches up to God. The Second Coming is the time in which all minds are given to the hands of Christ, to be returned to spirit in the name of true creation and the Will of God.

The Second Coming is the one event in time which time itself can not affect. For every one who ever came to die, or yet will come or who is present now, is equally released from what he made. In this equality is Christ restored as one Identity, in which the Sons of God acknowledge that they all are one. And God the Father smiles upon His Son, His one creation and His only joy.

Pray that the Second Coming will be soon, but do not rest with that. It needs your eyes and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice. And most of all it needs your willingness. Let us rejoice that we can do God's Will, and join together in its holy light. Behold, the Son of God is one in us, and we can reach our Father's Love through Him.

Today's Lesson:

And God Himself shall wipe away all tears.

Father, unless I judge I cannot weep. Nor can I suffer pain, or feel I am abandoned or unneeded in the world. This is my home because I judge it not, and therefore is it only what You will. Let me today behold it uncondemned, through happy eyes forgiveness has released from all distortion. Let me see Your world instead of mine. And all the tears I shed will be forgotten, for their source is gone. Father, I will not judge Your world today.

God's world is happy. Those who look on it can only add their joy to it, and bless it as a cause of further joy in them. We wept because we did not understand. But we have learned the world we saw was false, and we will look upon God's world today.

Miracles I'm noticing:

God's world is happy. If I judge anyone or anything, I bring unhappiness to that world. If I see the world through my own eyes, that is what I will see. But by simply declaring that I see that world not, but see God's world, that brings a new vision to the forefront.

What would happen if everyone who reads this, and who studies today's lesson in A Course in Miracles, collectively decides not to judge God's world today? What would that do for that world? I'm confident that that is what will shift the consciousness for everyone. And it takes 21 days to establish a new habit, from what I understand. So if every day we declare that we will not judge - we will use as our mantra something like "It It As It Is," we can shift the consciousness of the planet! That's pretty exciting.

And what I know to be true is that my decision to not judge the world will change my world. So that's the declaration for today! What a miracle!

Day 300

Today's Lesson:

Only an instant does this world endure.

This is a thought which can be used to say that death and sorrow are the certain lot of all who come here, for their joys are gone before they are possessed, or even grasped. Yet this is also the idea that lets no false perception keep us in its hold, not represent more than a passing cloud upon a sky eternally serene. And it is this serenity we seek, unclouded, obvious and sure, today.

We seek Your holy world today. For we, Your loving Sons, have lost our way a while. But we have listened to Your Voice, and learned exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity. And we give thanks today the world endures but for an instant. We would go beyond that tiny instant to eternity.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Yesterday on my way back from my last day with my client in central Minnesota, I listened to Gary Renard's talk about his books The Disappearance of the Universe and Your Immortal Reality. He talks a lot about this Course and what he's learned from it. I need to listen to it again, but what I remember is how really simple everything is when we quit making it so difficult. Things become difficult when we struggle to remember what we have learned at some point from a parent, a teacher, a sibling, a class, a boss - instead of just allowing what IS to resonate with us.

Have you ever had an aha! moment or an instant of clarity or a sudden insight? I think that's what happens when we connect with the Truth - or what we Know deep inside us. If we're too caught up in the world we make, we forget that the Truth allows us to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity, which is not what we think it is. It is not only more wonderful than we think it is, it is more wonderful than we can think. Heaven is eternity and this world is just an instant. So where will we choose to focus - on this world of false perception or the world of serenity?

Let that insight be your miracle today!

Day 299

Today's Lesson:

Eternal holiness abides in me.

My holiness is far beyond my own ability to understand or know. Yet God, my Father, Who created it, acknowledges my holiness as His. Our Will, together, understands it. And Our Will, together, knows that it is so.

Father, my holiness is not of me. It is not mine to be destroyed by sin. It is not mine to suffer from attack. Illusions can obscure it, but can not put out its radiance, or dim its light. It stands forever perfect and untouched. In it are all things healed, for they remain as You created them. And I can know my holiness. For Holiness Itself created me, and I can know my Source because it is Your Will that You be known.

Miracles I'm noticing:

It's really amazing to think back over the past year and reflect on where I am today and where I was then. We did that on Tuesday night at our Course gathering. Each of the people in the group has done such remarkable things in their lives that they never could have imagined just 9 months ago. I talked with another of my friends yesterday who, along with his wife, have each left their jobs and are now creating their own business. They are also creating a demo DVD for a television show.

It is so fun to take today's lesson - "Eternal holiness abides in me" - and really reflect on the wonderful things that are available in each of our lives when we get out of the way. It really is beyond my own ability to understand. As we are reading in Think and Grow Rich, there is a huge element of faith involved in allowing our holiness to shine through. As the prayer for today says, my holiness is not mind to be destroyed by sin, to suffer from attack. It just is.

That recognition helps me get my ego out of the way and allow the love to take over. That's a miracle!

Day 298

Today's Lesson:

I love You, Father, and I love Your Son.

My gratitude permits my love to be accepted without fear. And thus am I restored to my reality at last. All that intruded on my holy sight forgiveness takes away. And I draw near the end of senseless journeys, mad careers and artificial values. I accept instead what God establishes as mine, sure that in that alone I will be saved; sure that I go through fear to meet my Love.

Father, I come to You today, because I would not follow any way but Yours. You are beside me. Certain is Your way. And I am grateful for Your holy gifts of certain sanctuary, and escape from everything that would obscure my love for God my Father and His holy Son.

Miracles I'm noticing:

God is Love - I learned that in Sunday School from the time I was old enough to talk. So, if God is Love, and Love and fear are opposites, there is no reason to fear God. Love is not to be feared. There is no order of difficulty in miracles, so any shift in perception from fear to love is a miracle. The awareness that what we have been doing or thinking or being isn't serving us in the most positive way leads straight to a miracle and before we know it we are miracle-minded instead of fear-based.

That's what I'm noticing in my life. I am starting to realize that seeing absolutely everything through the eyes of love and getting rid of judgment and fear and jealousy leaves nothing but love. All roads really do lead to Heaven - it's just a matter of what I choose to learn along the way.

Today's text tells us that nothing is ever lost but time, which in the end is meaningless. Yet since we do believe in it, why would we waste it going nowhere, when it can be used to reach a goal as high as learning can achieve? The way to Heaven is not difficult. Nothing we undertake with certain purpose and high resolve and happy confidence is difficult to do.

I'll remember that for my master mind group today as we get together to study the book Think and Grow Rich. "Nothing we undertake with certain purpose and high resolve and happy confidence is difficult to do." We get so caught up in the "how" that we don't really commit to our goals or our wishes or our dreams. And we are stuck wasting the time we consider so precious when really we could be creating and allowing really big things to happen in our lives.

Noticing the beauty and the ease with which my life flows when I get out of the way is my miracle for today. I'm going to pay attention to the ease today!

Day 297

Today's Lesson:

Forgiveness is the only gift I give.

Forgiveness is the only gift I give, because it is the only gift I want. And everything I give I give myself. This is salvation's simple formula. And I, who would be saved, would make it mine, to be the way I live within a world that needs salvation, and that will be saved as I accept Atonement for myself.

Father, how certain are Your ways; how sure their final outcome, and how faithfully is every step in my salvation set already, and accomplished by Your grace. Thanks be to You for Your eternal gifts, and thanks to You for my Identity.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I listened to a lot of new information yesterday while traveling between my two client destinations. I can't remember which program I was listening to, but it was talking about how in the New Testament, there is no reference to Jesus forgiving anyone. They were talking in particular about Jesus and the prostitute. Now I'm no Biblical scholar, so I can't prove or disprove what I heard, but the way I heard it yesterday was that Jesus had no need to forgive anyone because he never condemned anyone. The only time forgiveness is "needed" is when there is a debt or a transgression to be "repaid." Then forgiveness cancels the debt.

In this lesson, we learn that forgiveness is all I can give because it is all that I want. Since I have condemned and have been condemned by others, I want my debt to be canceled so I don't have to repay it. According to the Glossary of Terms from A Course in Miracles, forgiveness is

"releasing another not from what he did, but ... from your misinterpretation of what he did. This can forgive, for it frees your mind of resentment and releases the other from the accusation of sin and guilt. The rationale behind forgiveness is that sin is not real. It is a wrong perception of attack. Attack has no power to do real harm because what is real (in you and in your 'attacker') cannot be harmed or changed in any way.... Attack, then, has no effects. It is a harmless mistake, a call for love. Thus, what caused you to feel hurt was not the other's attack, but your own misperception of his attack. Forgiveness lets this misperception go. As a result, it heals the other person of guilt, and can even heal his body. It also heals your mind of guilt and fear, for these came from your anger and resentment. It also heals you of your sense of separateness, for it takes away the perception of sinfulness that made you recoil from your brother."

If there were no judgment, no attack, no sin, there would be no need for forgiveness, and we would all be existing in Christ-consciousness. But since we are not there yet, forgiveness is the central theme of this course, and helps us achieve that goal here on earth.

The challenge for us here on earth is to both forgive and forget. Cancel the debt - take it off the books - clear it from our memory.

Today's text talks about choice, and how there is no need for choice if we are talking about oneness. Nothing conflicts with oneness, so what is there to decide? It is only conflict that makes choice possible. The truth is simple; it is one, without an opposite. The truth makes no decisions because there is nothing to decide between. What is everything leaves room for nothing else.

It goes on to say that there is a borderland of thought that stands between this world and Heaven. This is where all thoughts are brought together; where conflicting values meet and all illusions are laid down beside the truth, where they are judged to be untrue. This is where sin is denied and everything that is received instead.

Here is where knowledge and perception are brought together and there is no need for attack. Here there is no conflict because there is no distinction between what is true and what is not true. No sacrifice is possible in the relinquishment of an illusion recognized as such. Where all reality has been withdrawn from what was never true, can it be hard to give it up, and choose what must be true?

Another program I listened to yesterday was Marianne Williamson's show on XM 156. She was interviewing Lama Surya Das, the author of the book Buddha Is As Buddha Does. I learned a lot by listening to this interview. Here is what Amazon says about this book:

"In the process of awakening, the Buddha realized that all of us, deep within, are inherently perfect and whole, with the capacity to overcome suffering and transform ourselves into forces for good. In this book national bestselling author Lama Surya Das, one of the foremost American Buddhist teachers, offers a thorough, tried-and-true map to the richest treasure a human being can find—Buddha's advice for living to your true potential. By following these guidelines, you will enter into a life of greater joy, clarity, peace, and wisdom than you ever thought possible."

I am learning that we really are all one, and we are all in pursuit of higher awareness, whether we are aware of that or not. I ordered this book, so will give a report when I've had a chance to read it.

I'm guessing that allowing instead of controlling, being instead of doing, and accepting instead of judging are going to be part of the teaching and learning of this book. Sounds familiar to students of this course. At the borderland, there are no distinctions - no choices need to be made, and no forgiveness needs to be granted. But until we reach that borderland, we will do what we can and be what are are in pursuit of oneness.

That awareness is my miracle for today!

Day 296

Today's Lesson:

The Holy Spirit speaks through me today.

The Holy Spirit needs my voice today, that all the world may listen to Your Voice, and hear Your Word through me. I am resolved to let You speak through me, for I would use no words but Yours, and have no thoughts which are apart from Yours, for only Yours are true. I would be savior to the world I made. For having damned it I would set it free, that I may find escape, and hear the Word Your holy Voice will speak to me today.

We teach today what we would learn, and that alone. And so our learning goal becomes an unconflicted one, and possible of easy reach and quick accomplishment. How gladly does the Holy Spirit come to rescue us from hell, when we allow His teaching to persuade the world, through us, to seek and find the easy path to God.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I'm excited to train today because I will consciously be open to becoming a conduit for the Holy Spirit. Even though today's training is rather scripted, I am confident that whatever coaching I can provide for the participants will be from the Holy Spirit. It is very exciting for me to be able to deliver corporate training with the mindset of the Holy Spirit. I know there is a way to combine business with this "new" (well, it feels new to me, even though it's not!) spirituality.

I'm truly blessed to be awake and aware!

Day 295

Today's Lesson:

The Holy Spirit looks through me today.

Christ asks that He may use my eyes today, and thus redeem the world. He asks this gift that He may offer peace of mind to me, and take away all terror and all pain. And as they are removed from me, the dreams that seemed to settle on the world are gone. Redemption must be one. As I am saved, the world is saved with me. For all of us must be redeemed together. Fear appears in many different forms, but love is one.

My Father, Christ has asked a gift of me, and one I give that it be given me. Help me to use the eyes of Christ today, and thus allow the Holy Spirit's Love to bless all things which I may look upon, that His forgiving Love may rest on me.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I've had a couple people ask me recently if, when we get all this new thinking figured out, we will stop having bad days and down times. I don't think that's the way it will be. I think the world is all about ebbs and flows, and the only meaning anything has is the meaning we give it. If we judge things to be up and down, good and bad, then that is the meaning those things will have. For me, down times are simply the signal that up times are coming.

As I remember today's lesson, I will see everything as if the Holy Spirit were looking through my eyes today. As I give my vision to Christ, I know that He will remove terror and pain from me and replace them with love. And as He does this for me, He will do it for the world, since we all are one.

That's certainly a miracle - and will make today a piece of cake!

Day 294

Today's Lesson:

My body is a wholly neutral thing.

I am a Son of God. And can I be another thing as well? Did God create the mortal and corruptible? What use has God's beloved Son for what must die? And yet a neutral thing does not see death, for thoughts of fear are not invested there, nor is mockery of love bestowed upon it. Its neutrality protects it while it has a use. And afterwards, without a purpose, it is laid aside. It is not sick nor old nor hurt. It is but functionless, unneeded and cast off. Let me not see it more than this today; of service for a while and fit to serve, to keep its usefulness while it can serve, and then to be replaced for greater good.

My body, Father, cannot be Your Son. And what is not created cannot be sinful nor sinless; neither good nor bad. Let me, then, use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we made.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I struggle just a little bit with what the prayer here says when it says my body is not created. I think the entire process of life and the systems at work in our physical bodies is pretty incredible. It's difficult for me not to see that whole thing as a pretty neat miracle that God created. I understand the point - that it is not about my physical body, but about my spiritual being. But I still think God created us ... we didn't make ourselves, even though it was a physical process that conceived of each of us.

I understand how this is a dream - we make things real in our own minds, when the reality is that the physical body is just a vehicle for learning in this lifetime. If taken literally, today's lesson could imply that the body isn't all that important in this lifetime, so we don't really have to take care of it since it will just be cast off at some point anyway. I don't think that's what is meant here - but maybe that is just my take on what I'm reading, which would be justification for me to be too busy to go to the gym in the mornings! :)

The point I take from the lesson is that the body is neither good nor bad - it just is. And as we learn to accept every "body" as a child of God, there will be no need to judge based on any physical attributes. We are each given some body in this physical existence, because we each have a path to take and a lesson to learn. As Wayne Dyer has said many times, if his purpose in this lifetime is to teach compassion and understanding, what better way for him to be able to do that than to have been born into a family where the alcoholic father abandoned him and his mother and brothers when the three children were under 5 years old? What better way for him to learn compassion than to have been raised in foster care?

Those are the lessons I'm learning. I was fortunate to have been raised in a family which, although not financially prosperous, I didn't lack for anything. I was raised with both parents and both sets of grandparents within 50 miles of my home. I went to a good school, participated in activities, went to a good college, got a good education, got a good job, etc. There are lessons for me in that life, too.

I don't think the point is to find fault with wherever we were born and raised, but to learn the lessons that everything can teach us. There is a bit of dysfunction in every situation unless and until we begin to understand that everything is perfect exactly the way it is because we're on our way to enlightenment and we have lessons to learn.

That awareness is my miracle for today!

Day 293

Today's Lesson:

All fear is past and only love is here.

All fear is past, because its source is gone, and all its thoughts gone with it. Love remains the only present state, whose Source is here forever and forever. Can the world seem bright and clear and safe and welcoming, with all my past mistakes oppressing it, and showing me distorted forms of fear? Yet in the present love is obvious, and its effects apparent. All the world shines in reflection of its holy light, and I perceive a world forgiven at last.

Father, let not Your holy world escape my sight today. Nor let my ears be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear. There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past mistakes. And I would see only this world before my eyes today.

Miracles I'm noticing:

It struck me as I read today's lesson how many times this course has to keep reminding us that the only things we really have to worry about are choosing love over fear and choosing Spirit over ego. It's really no more difficult than that. Yet we do need to be constantly reminded because the ego is so strong. The past is over ... there is no need to keep remembering all the human aspects of what has already happened - we need only remember our connection to Spirit.

When we are awake to the world of the Creator, we are creative - we see the world of gratitude and blessing and joy and hope, which is always there even when we forget. The sky is never gray - the blue sky is always there under the clouds.

What a miracle!

Day 292

Today's Lesson:

A happy outcome to all things is sure.

God's promises make no exceptions. And He guarantees that only joy can be the final outcome found for everything. yet it is up to us when this is reached; how long we let an alien will appear to be opposing His. And while we think this will is real, we will not find the end He has appointed as the outcome of all problems we perceive, all trials we see, and every situation that we meet. Yet is the ending certain. For God's Will is done in earth and Heaven. We will seek and we will find according to His Will, which guarantees that our will is done.

We thank You, Father, for Your guarantee of only happy outcomes in the end. Help us not interfere, and so delay the happy endings You have promised us for every problem that we can perceive; for every trial we think we still must meet.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I worked today with a client teaching personal accountability training and what I'm noticing for myself is my willingness to be vulnerable and share my specific learnings with audiences. In the past week I've really decided that life is too short to not be really committed to transformation in the organizations I'm privileged to work with. I've become more passionate - at least on the outside - in my presentations because I sense things shifting in me in the past couple of weeks. It's so wonderful to be awake to recognize those shifts!

I've noticed a couple of specific times - listening to XM radio on my way here today and feeling tears come to my eyes when a woman described her life situation as a 29-year-old single mother whose ex-boyfriend tried to break into her house and ended up killing her 14-year-old nephew who was visiting. Instead of dismissing this as just another piece of bad news and wishing those things would just go away, I was really moved by my empathy with her situation.

I'm not sure what that awareness means, but to me it's an indication that I don't have to try so hard to "get it" - I just get to choose to get it wherever I am.

That's what I see in today's lesson. If a happy outcome to all things is sure, there is nothing I need to do to meddle and control. I really can let go and let God and trust that the outcome is secure.

That's my miracle for today!

Day 291

8. What is the Real World?

The real world is a symbol, like the rest of what perception offers. yet it stands for what is opposite to what you made. Your world is seen through eyes of fear, and brings the witnesses of terror to your mind. The real world cannot be perceived except through eyes forgiveness blesses, so they see a world where terror is impossible, and witnesses to fear can not be found.

The real world holds a counterpart for each unhappy thought reflected in your world; a sure correction for the sights of fear and sounds of battle which your world contains. The real world shows a world seen differently, through quiet eyes and with a mind at peace. Nothing but rest is there. There are no cries of pain and sorrow heard, for nothing there remains outside forgiveness. And the sights are gentle. Only happy sights and sounds can reach the mind that has forgiven itself.

What need has such a mind for thoughts of death, attack and murder? What can it perceive surrounding it but safety, love and joy? What is there it would choose to be condemned, and what is there that it would judge against? The world it sees arises from a mind at peace within itself. No danger lurks in anything it sees, for it is kind, and only kindness does it look upon.

The real world is the symbol that the dream of sin and guilt is over, and God's Son no longer sleeps. His waking eyes perceive the sure reflection of his Father's Love; the certain promise that he is redeemed. The real world signifies the end of time, for its perception makes time purposeless.

The Holy Spirit has no need of time when it has served His purpose. Now He waits but that one instant more for God to take His final step, and time has disappeared, taking perception with it as it goes, and leaving but the truth to be itself. That instant is our goal, for it contains the memory of God. And as we look upon a world forgiven, it is He Who calls to us and comes to take us home, reminding us of our Identity which our forgiveness has restored to us.

Today's Lesson:

This is a day of stillness and of peace.

Christ's vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all things forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world. And I accept this vision in its name, both for myself and for the world as well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see surrounding us! And it is given us to recognize it is a holiness in which we share; it is the Holiness of God Himself.

This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer me. And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself. I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I was awakened at around 3:45 this morning for whatever reason, and couldn't get back to sleep. I'm reminded of something Wayne Dyer says in many of his lectures from one of his favorite poets, Rumi - do not go back to sleep. Here is the entire poem:

The breeze at dawn

Has secrets to tell you

Don't go back to sleep

You must ask

For what you really want

Don't go back to sleep

People are going back and forth

Across the doorsill

Where the two worlds touch

The door is round and open

Do not go back to sleep

So I got up and wrote and thought and meditated and came up with some pretty neat ideas for some new classes and new insights and new actions.

And now, as I get around to reading today's lesson, I have a very deep connection with what is written here - so much so that it brings tears to my eyes.

I've been reading Wayne's new book Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life about his year-long study of the Tao. The main message there is to allow instead of control. I wrote this morning about flow and getting into the groove, examining our thoughts and determining the Truth. And today's lesson says "This day my mind is quiet. ... I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain."

Just let go. Let the current - God - carry you. That is certain. We don't have to be pillars of strength and fountains of knowledge. We don't have to be anything - just BE. How much do we really trust? Let today be your experiment.

This is a day of stillness and of peace.

Just ALLOW.

Just BE.

Blessed and grateful.

Day 290

Today's Lesson:

My present happiness is all I see.

Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see. Eyes that begin to open see at last. And I would have Christ's vision come to me this very day. What I perceive without God's Own Correction for the sight I made is frightening and painful to behold. Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the dream I made is real an instant longer. This the day I seek my present happiness, and look on nothing else except the thing I seek.

With this resolve I come to You, and ask Your strength to hold me up today, while I but seek to do Your Will. You cannot fail to hear me, Father. What I ask have you already given me. And I am sure that I will see my happiness today.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Yesterday I was having coffee with an acquaintance who asked if I would be willing to help him work out some things he is struggling with in his professional life. I don't know him very well - have just met him in the past 3 weeks - so it was really interesting that he would want to meet with me.

He said he is struggling with finding his true purpose, and feels that he's sabotaging his own success because he just doesn't feel his work is fulfilling. He's worried about money, even though he knows all about abundance thinking as opposed to scarcity thinking. He says he finds himself thinking about what he doesn't want instead of what he does want and he wanted to know from me how to change his mind about this.

What I found really interesting about this situation was that he was willing to do something about his situation by calling me. I think that's huge. Awareness is the first step to making any changes. It's what caused this course to be written - the awareness for the writers that there must be a better way in their working relationship.

We learn here that the Holy Spirit will enter at the slightest invitation, and that's what I felt yesterday. As I shared my observations and insights with this guy, things were occurring to me that I didn't plan, but that just showed up when I needed them.

One thing I recalled and shared was my experience at my chorus rehearsal on Monday night when our president was giving the announcements. She said that if anyone was wondering why they might be feeling a little down it's because it has been cloudy and gloomy for 12 of the first 15 days of October. When she said that, I occurred to me that that was the first I'd noticed the weather. As I was sharing that story with this guy, I glanced through the window of the coffee shop where we were and noticed the Lowe's sign across the street. It hadn't occurred to me how very blue that sign is. I told him that I probably wouldn't notice the blue of that sign if the sky behind it had been blue that day. Because it was very white, all the colors really popped in all the signs I saw.

It was a matter of perspective.

We also talked about how he may be sabotaging his results in order to be right about them. But with awareness, everything looks different. He might just notice what he notices and observe what that tells him. If happiness is his goal, it will always elude him, because happiness is not a destination, it's part of the journey. It is only the pursuit of happiness that we are guaranteed in our constitution; the achievement is beyond our grasp when we make that the goal. Again, it's a matter of perspective.

I'm not sure exactly what else we talked about, but he thanked me and told me he felt a lot better. When I was able to consciously be a conduit for the Holy Spirit, I could see his eyes light up and I knew that's exactly what was happening. That was my first miracle.

The second was at our course gathering last night. Although the group was smaller than usual (there's a lot going on in everyone's lives this time of year), those of us who were there really talked about a lot of great things. This course allows each of us to share our questions and struggles, and try out new ideas with support and love, and without judgment. I really noticed last night how very grateful I am to have this amazing support for helping me move beyond my current reality into the mode of creation, where there is no competition.

Today's lesson reminds us that we will see whatever we are looking for. Happiness is all there is - anything else really isn't there at all. Whatever we ask has already been given us. As we look for happiness, that is what we will see.

Blessed and grateful!

Day 289

Today's Lesson:

The past is over. It can touch me not.

Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight. For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there. How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? This the past was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now. It has no past. For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven it is gone.

Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. Here is the end of guilt. And here am I made ready for Your final step. Shall I demand that you wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?

Miracles I'm noticing:

As I reflect on Dennis' wonderful comment from yesterday's post (thank you Dennis!), I see that focus on the past is really the ego's need to be in control and keep tabs on any progress we could make in our thinking that would edge that ego out. (As I've learned from Wayne Dyer, EGO might be thought of as Edging God Out.)

Today's lesson reminds us that there is no place for guilt in miracle-mindedness. Guilt is entirely focused on the past, and, many times, sets in place justification for fear and non-loving thoughts and actions. If we give up fear and concentrate on love, there really is no need for guilt because that focuses on what is wrong and puts a whole lot of blame on ourselves. If we are mindful and aware, it becomes much easier to focus on love, and eventually that mindset replaces our old habit of past-focus.

I don't really think we focus on the past, being right, and holding onto grudges and guilt on purpose - I just think it's that we aren't aware that there might be a better way. With awareness comes responsibility (the ability to respond rather than to simply react) but that responsibility takes us out of victim thinking and moves us to much higher ground in our thought process and our trust threshold. There really is no place for blame in the world - not for other people or for ourselves.

Coming our of our comfort zones will be, by its very definition, uncomfortable - for a while. It's uncomfortable because it's unfamiliar. But the outcome of pushing through that zone and seeing a whole new world is priceless. Forgiveness is on the other side of the comfort zone - and that forgiveness is different than we might expect.

According to the Glossary of Terms from A Course in Miracles, here is a distinction between the conventional definition of "forgiveness" and what we learn from this course:

Conventional: Giving up your resentment toward another and your right to punish him, even though you keep the perception that he sinned against you and that you are justified in resenting and punishing him. According to the Course, this forgiveness cannot forgive, for it affirms that the other sinned and thus is worthy of condemnation (yours and his own). It also affirms that you are holier than he, because he sinned and you forgave. In Chapter 27 of the Course (Section II, 2:8) we read "Who can say and mean, 'My brother, you have injured me, and yet, because I am the better of the two, I pardon you my hurt.'"

ACIM: Giving up your false perception that another sinned against you and that you are justified in resenting and punishing him. Releasing this perception automatically releases your resentment and desire to punish. Releasing another not from what he did, but from "what he did not do," from your misinterpretation of what he did. This can forgive, for it frees your mind of resentment and releases the other from the accusation of sin and guilt. The rationale behind forgiveness is that sin is not real. It is a wrong perception of attack. Attack has no power to do real harm, because what is real (in you and in your "attacker") cannot be harmed or changed in any way. The ultimate rationale for forgiveness is that "the separation never occurred," that "I am as God created me," that "God's Son is guiltless." Attack, then, has no effects. It is a harmless mistake, a call for love. Thus, what caused you to feel hurt was not the other's attack, but your own misperception f his attack. Forgiveness lets this misperception go. As a result, it heals the other person of guilt, and can even heal his body. It also heals your mind of guilt and fear, for these came from our anger and resentment. It also heals you of your sense of separateness, for it takes away the perception of sinfulness that made you recoil from your brother. Forgiveness is the source of extension and the way to joining. Forgiveness is salvation. It is the central theme of the Course, and (according to the Course) of the Holy Spirit's entire plan for salvation. [Other terms defined in this guide are bolded in this entry.]

So with this awareness, I now am free to choose the thoughts that will lead me to love rather than fear. It makes the choice rather easy, in my mind. Noticing where I choose to hold someone to my past interpretations of him comes back to me as the belief that others are doing that to me. If the past is forgiven, it is gone. There is no need for grudges or long memories. All that is certain is now.

That, for me, is a HUGE miracle!

Day 288

Today's Lesson:

Let me forget my brother's past today.

This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal. I cannot come to You without my brother. And to know my Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me. My brother's is the hand that leads me on the way to You. His sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone. Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to You. My brother is my savior. Let me not attack the savior You have given me. But let me honor him who bears Your name, and so remember that It is my own.

Forgive me, then, today. And you will know you have forgiven me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. He cannot be less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he.

Miracles I'm noticing:

How simple it is to exist in the now if we can get rid of the past. I see there is a new TV show called Samantha Who? and I think the premise is that this girl has a head injury which causes her to have amnesia, so she has to kind of rebuild her life without a past. In some ways that would make things a whole lot easier.

Have you ever had an argument with someone which causes you to want to hold a grudge, and then forgotten why you were arguing in the first place? It seems funny that we would hold on to those grudges.

It is no coincidence that right now as I am typing this, Christina Applegate is on Good Morning America telling about this new show (I swear this is not planned!). She just said that people who suffer from amnesia know what pizza is, for example, but they don't know what it tastes like. It's a matter of opinion. So Samantha has to learn about what her opinions are and discover who she is. Every day we are brand new. Our skin sheds every day. The show is about what you would do if you could start over right now in this moment.

It brings up an interesting question. If we we are today the sum total of the choices we've made and the experiences we've had up to now, everything we have been has created who we are. How much of that experience do we carry around as baggage? How difficult (or how easy) is it to try to recreate ourselves when others in our lives have long memories about things we may have said or things we may have done that we'd like to forget?

All it means is that we have an opportunity to communicate truthfully and address those questions and situations as they come up. If we are committed to new pathways and new ways of seeing and being, we simply (really, it is simple) need to change our minds and stick to our new mind.

Today's lesson is about forgetting our brother's past. This would definitely help everyone who wants to make a new start because often it's we who keep others stuck in their old ways because of our long memories. Let's work together to hold space for others in our lives wherever they are - and support them in their efforts to be and do whatever they want, not what we want.

That's my goal for today - and that's the miracle!

Day 287

Today's Lesson:

You are my goal, my Father. Only You.

Where would I go but Heaven? What could be a substitute for happiness? What gift could I prefer before the peace of God? What treasure would I seek and find and keep that can compare with my Identity? And would I rather live with fear than love?

You are my goal, my Father. What but You could I desire to have? What way but that which leads to You could I desire to walk? And what except the memory of You could signify to me the end of dreams and futile substitutions for the truth? You are my only goal. Your Son would be as You created him. What way but this could I expect to recognize my Self, and be at one with my Identity?

Miracles I'm noticing:

Yesterday's master mind group was amazing, as all of them are. Yesterday we talked about the results we want to create in our community. I have shared my dream of a creative meeting space with the group in previous weeks, but this week one of the members of this master mind told me about a conversation he had had with another member of the group in a previous session, and they are really serious about creating an executive retreat center a few miles from Fargo and want my input about my dream and how we could share that through a cooperative or a time sharing setup. How great is that?!?

You just never know what will happen if the dream or burning desire or WHY is big enough. I firmly believe that the HOW will take care of itself if we don't let the dreams die, and if we're not attached to the way it happens. If we have expectations for specifics, we might be disappointed, but if we are committed to the dream, watch out!

I notice that as I study this course, my thinking almost automatically shifts to love from fear. It almost seems like there is no other way to think anymore and that's why it's nice to take a step back every now and then and just notice the way things are happening around me. It's amazing to see how God works in me and through me. I'm truly blessed and grateful!

Day 286

Today's Lesson:

The hush of Heaven holds my heart today.

Father, how still today! How quietly do all things fall in place! This is the day that has been chosen as the time in which I come to understand the lesson that there is no need that I do anything. In You is every choice already made. In You has every conflict been resolved. In You is everything I hope to find already given me. Your peace is mine. My heart is quiet, and my mind at rest. You Love is Heaven, and Your Love is mine.

The stillness of today will give us hope that we have found the way, and travelled far along it to a wholly certain goal. Today we will not doubt the end which God Himself has promised us. We trust in Him, and in our Self, Who still is one with Him.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Yesterday I worked with a client to help them with a refresher on some personal accountability training I conducted there this past year. I met with three different groups of employees for 2-hour blocks to answer any questions and help them remember some of the principles of the training.

Two of the groups were very positive, saying they had seen changes in the entire workforce since the training - people had become more aware of a shift in attitude, and a reduction in blame. The third group as a whole said they had not seen much difference in the attitudes and that they were upset with management because of a change in the profit sharing which had happened nearly 5 years before.

This group was bitter and resentful and felt as if they were doing all the work in the company and management was taking all the credit. It was a completely different energy than either of the other two groups had. When I mentioned this to them, telling them that the other two groups had seen quite a big shift in the attitudes, they said they were the only honest group then.

Since I don't know much about the details which would have led to this attitude from this group of workers, I was able to be objective in my coaching; however, there came a point where I told the workers that there would be no point in my trying to teach them anything new with the closed minds I was experiencing from them. I surprised myself with my calmness and my commitment to opening their minds. From a bitter and resentful beginning, we were able to move the energy in the room to a little more receptive end.

The lesson for me was a direct and blatant mirror which showed me how I used to be as an employee at my last job. In fact, I was able to tell this group about myself in that situation, which seemed to open them up to me a little bit. I saw myself in their anger and frustration, and that was what allowed me to ask them whether or not they were ready to let down their guard a little bit and listen to some new information.

I think we made some strides, although I sense this group has a long way to go. I can imagine what it must be like to carry that resentment and anger all the time, never letting yourself be vulnerable and open to letting go because it will look like giving in.

The lesson was for me and I'm grateful for the awareness I have which allowed me to see that. That awareness worked to help me as I attended my nephew's football game last night on the way home from the training. I sat between my sister and brother-in-law and that's a vantage point I don't get very often at sporting events.

My first job out of college was a sports editor at a weekly newspaper, so my experience viewing games or matches was on the field or the court, never in the stands. Since then, I've almost always been on the sidelines of live games as a statistician (I do that for 2 men's and 2 women's college teams in my community).

In the stands I was able to notice how nothing the refs or the coaches or the other players did was good enough for my brother-in-law. They didn't throw the ball enough to my nephew, the refs didn't notice all the plays that interfered with my nephew's team, and the coaches just weren't assertive enough. I noticed that my sister would jump up and cheer and dance and laugh and assert herself in a way that earlier in my life would have made me embarrassed. I noticed how neither of their behaviors affected me as they would have a couple of years ago, and I gave a silent blessing to each of them as I relished in my gratitude for my awareness and for who they are in my life.

For me the entire day was a miracle.

What do you notice in your own life?

Day 285

Today's Lesson:

My holiness shines bright and clear today.

Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness. For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if insanity departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?

Father, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in it, and through forgiveness be restored to sanity. Your Son is still as You created him. My holiness is part of me, and also part of You. And what can alter Holiness Itself?

Miracles I'm noticing:

Even when I'm tired, as I am this morning, and don't really feel like getting up, after having driven from my speech in Minneapolis last night to this hotel room in central Minnesota and getting ready to work with a client all day today, I still have the choice to wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. It is a choice.

What will come to me today as I rejoice in my holiness and welcome whatever will be? That's the miracle today!

Day 284

Today's Lesson:

I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. There is no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more ad more, and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. And I would go beyond these words today, and past all reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them.

Father, what You have given cannot hurt, so grief and pain must be impossible. Let me not fail to trust in You today, accepting but the joyous as Your gifts; accepting but the joyous as the truth.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Yes, this is the truth. I know in my heart of hearts that I really can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. But sometimes it is just easier to play the victim. I can just hear myself now, trying desperately to justify the pain of loss and suffering I sometimes feel. "But you just don't understand," I can hear myself telling whom - myself? My Higher Self? When I feel the need to justify (which, by the way, doesn't happen nearly as often as it used to), it usually shows up as a thought that starts with "yeah, but ..." in my mind. For me, the word "but" is a sure sign that I'm trying to hold on to my need to be right, even though it may produce an unwanted thought like grief or suffering.

What if this lesson really is true, that I really do have the ability to change the way I think about things? What if pain really is impossible? I love how the lesson doesn't expect us to get it right away. That's too counter to what our ego has been convincing us for our entire lifetime. It allows us to try this new thought on, hold on to our doubt and our fear and our reservations, but keep repeating it to ourselves and see how that really feels.

I've just finished the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I've learned so much. Not only is her writing style amazing and entertaining, the lessons I learned about myself and about God and food and love are somehow familiar to me. Things are not supposed to be as complicated as our egos want us to believe they are. Let's all work together and pull the mask off the ego we've become so familiar with all this time. What we will see is the Holy Spirit, waiting patiently for us to wake up and be calm, peaceful, happy, healthy and whole.

There is no order of difficulty in miracles. I'm ready to accept this one by just changing my mind about what's true. Join me and let's see what's there waiting.

Day 283

Today's Lesson:

My true Identity abides in you.

Father, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the Son of God. Yet is creation as it always was, for Your creation is unchangeable. Let me not worship idols. I am he my Father loves. My holiness remains the light of Heaven and the Love of God. Is not what is beloved of You secure? Is not the light of Heaven infinite? Is not Your Son my true Identity, when You created everything that is?

Now are we one in shared Identity, with God our Father as our only Source, and everything created part of us. And so we offer blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, which our forgiveness has made one with us.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Last night's course gathering was amazing, as usual. It ended up being a counseling session for me regarding my relationship with my mother, which apparently I needed to hear. That's the beauty of this course and the wonderful people with whom I share my learning. Whenever one of us has something to work through, the rest of us apparently have need of similar lessons in our own lives, and, miraculously, the lesson we are studying applies perfectly.

Here is what I read after I diverted the study to my issue:

"It cannot be that it is hard to do the task that Christ appointed you to do, since it is He Who does it. And in the doing of it will you learn the body merely seems to be the means to do it. For the Mind is His. And so it must be yours. His Holiness directs the body through the mind at one with Him. And you are manifest unto your holy brother [mother], as he to you."

No accidents there.

We learned from our fellow course participants about many miracles in each of our lives, from a possible trip to Indonesia for one of them to a class in past life regression that two of them will be attending in Sedona to a connection one of them has with a long-lost friend in Hong Kong through a friend in Hawaii. Our connections in Fargo, North Dakota are reaching all over the world!

When I got home from course last night, I picked up where I'd been reading in the book Eat, Pray, Love and Liz is now in India studying at an Ashram. In this part of the book she had just been led up to a rooftop where she was handed a list of instructions and told to stay here until she was finished (she was struggling to let go of her baggage in her relationship with her ex-husband). Here is what I not coincidentally read there last night:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FREEDOM

1. Life's metaphors are God's instructions.
2. You have just climbed up and above the roof. There is nothing between you and the Infinite. Now, let go.
3. The day is ending. It's time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, let go.
4. Your wish for resolution was a prayer. Your being here is God's response. Let go, and watch the stars come out - on the outside and on the inside.
5. With all your heart, ask for grace, and let go.
6. With all your heart, forgive him [her], FORGIVE YOURSELF, and let him [her] go.
7. Let your intention be freedom from useless suffering. Then, let go.
8. Watch the heat of the day pass into the cool night. Let go.
9. When the karma of a relationship is done, only love remains. It's safe. Let go.
10. When the past has passed from you at last, let go. Then climb down and begin the rest of your life. With great joy.

Later in that chapter I read:

"You might just as well hang it up and kiss God good-bye if you really need to keep blaming somebody else for your own life's limitations. So what I asked of God that night on the Ashram roof was - given the reality that I would probably never speak to my ex-husband again - might there be some level upon which we could communicate? Some level on which we could forgive?"

Through Liz's meditation that night on the roof, she realized that she could finish the business herself, from within herself. That's what my coursemates were trying to tell me last night. I need to forgive myself and move on instead of holding resentments and stories as truths in my own mind regarding my mother.

So I'm on the way toward healing and I promise this is the last time you will have to read about my mother! Those are certainly miracles, and I'm blessed and grateful to have friends and fellow spiritual students right here in my life to help guide me through it. Thank you, Posse!

Day 282

Today's Lesson:

I will not be afraid of love today.

If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the world. This is the decision not to be insane, and to accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. This the determination not to be asleep in dreams of death, while truth remains forever living in the joy of love. And this the choice to recognize the Self Whom God created as the Son He loves, and Who remains my one Identity.

Father, Your Name is Love and so is mine. Such is the truth. And can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of fear is simply a mistake. Let me not be afraid of truth today.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Today's lesson is so simple! Love is the truth and everything else is not true. As it says, this simple truth, believed and realized, would mean salvation for all the world. It is what it is.

I'm giving the closing keynote address today at Senator Byron Dorgan's Great Plains Technology Conference here in Fargo. This will officially be my biggest audience ever (they're expecting between 800 and 1,000 people at the conference in the Fargodome). My job is to give people something inspirational to think about as they leave the conference. As I remember that love is the truth, I have nothing to be afraid of. Everyone there wants me to succeed, and wants to be inspired by what I will say. That is exciting, not scary. I've got 17 minutes to call them to action as they go back home after hearing all about the exciting technology that is available to us in our state and in our world.

I accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. That shift in perception is a miracle in itself - and the opportunity I have to speak to this crowd is no accident - it's a miracle, too!

Day 281

7. What is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth. Since He must bridge the gap between reality and dreams, perception leads to knowledge through the grace that God has given Him, to be His gift to everyone who turns to Him for truth. Across the bridge that He provides are dreams all carried to the truth, to be dispelled before the light of knowledge. There are sights and sounds forever laid aside. And where they were perceived before, forgiveness has made possible perception's tranquil end.

The goal the Holy Spirit's teaching sets is just this end of dreams. For sights and sounds must be translated from the witnesses of fear to those of love. And when this is entirely accomplished, learning has achieved the only goal it has in truth. For learning, as the Holy Spirit guides it to the outcome He perceives for it, becomes the means to go beyond itself, to be replaced by the eternal truth.

If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn away from His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made. The Holy Spirit understands the means you made, by which you would attain what is forever unattainable. And if you offer them to Him, He will employ the means you made for exile to restore your mind to where it truly is at home.

From knowledge, where He has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls to you, to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be restored to sanity and peace of mind. Without forgiveness will your dreams remain to terrify you. And the memory of all your Father's Love will not return to signify the end of dreams has come.

Accept your Father's gift. It is a Call from Love to Love, that It be but Itself. The Holy Spirit is His gift, by which the quietness of Heaven is restored to God's beloved Son. Would you refuse to take the function of completing God, when all He wills is that you be complete?

Today's Lesson:

I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.

Father, Your Son is perfect. When I think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten who I am, and that I am as You created me. Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. The Thoughts I think with You can only bless. The Thoughts I think with You alone are true.

I will not hurt myself today. For I am far beyond all pain. My Father placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me. And I would not attack the Son He loves, for what He loves is also mine to love.

Miracles I'm noticing:

Wow, there is a lot in today's lesson! When we realize that many times we are believing our own thoughts, which are not the Thoughts we share with God, it becomes much easier to see that we are meant to be happy and healthy. I can choose to hurt myself or not depending upon which thoughts I choose to believe. The Holy Spirit is here, placed by God, to help us recognize our own sinlessness, yet so often we choose the ego over God (EGO - Edging God Out).

When I remember today's lesson, life is so much easier. There is nothing to fear and everything to love. And that banishes stress and dis-ease and clears the way for happiness and health. There is nothing to fear when I know I've got the Holy Spirit on my side. This is a gift from God just waiting for us to accept it.

The awareness of this Truth is certainly a miracle in itself. Now we just need to accept it to begin transforming the world!

Day 280

Today's Lesson:

What limits can I lay upon God's Son?

Whom God created limitless is free. I can invent imprisonment for him, but only in illusions, not in truth. No Thought of God has left its Father's Mind. No Thought of God is limited at all. No Thought of God but is forever pure. Can I lay limits on the Son of God, whose Father willed that he be limitless, and like Himself in freedom and in love?

Today let me give honor to Your Son, for thus alone I find the way to You. Father, I lay no limits on the Son You love and You created limitless. The honor that I give to him is Yours, and what is Yours belongs to me as well.

Miracles I'm noticing:

There are certainly times when I forget that every human is God's Son, and by limiting my vision of myself or of anyone else, I am limiting the Creator. There is absolutely no limit to what any of us can accomplish. I notice that when I am in the presence of others who are having higher conversations, I am much more free to be who I am comfortable being.

I spoke yesterday about Perception with a group of medical coders and together we created a space where we could be open to new ways of seeing the world. It was just an hour, but I think we were able to allow everyone to think about things a little differently. I notice that when I am confident and remember that I am a child of God, things flow so much more freely.

There are no limits - on me or on anyone. What does that open up and allow in the universe?!?

Day 279

Today's Lesson:

Creation's freedom promises my own.

The end of dreams is promised me, because God's Son is not abandoned by His Love. Only in dreams is there a time when he appears to be in prison, and awaits a future freedom, if it be at all. Yet in reality his dreams are gone, with truth established in their place. And now is freedom his already. Should I wait in chains which have been severed for release, when God is offering me freedom now?

I will accept Your promises today, and give my faith to them. My Father loves the Son Whom He created as His Own. Would You withhold the gifts You gave to me?

Miracles I'm noticing:

I was just thinking about how much I love studying this course and getting together each Tuesday evening with my group to read and talk about what we're reading. I remember when I was a kid and how much I hated going to church and Sunday School. What is the difference? Why do I love studying now and hated it then? I think there are two reasons.

One is now it's elective. I don't have to do anything but back then I had no choice.

And the second is the joy and love I feel when reading and studying this course. I didn't feel that in Sunday School or church. Maybe it's the whole label thing - I'm starting to realize that my discomfort comes when labels are involved (Christian, Jew; Republican, Democrat; American, Canadian; etc.). There was certainly a right way and a wrong way to worship God in my upbringing. I remember one of the last times I was in church the pastor said something about the Christian God and that was the deal-breaker for me. How can there be a difference in the one God?!?

Today's lesson reminds me that there is freedom in God's Love. We can be free right now, not at some future time when we will be rewarded for our martyrdom on this earth. The chains are released and God promises us His Love and freedom.

That's a miracle to me!

Day 278

Today's Lesson:

If I am bound, my Father is not free.

If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world in which all things that seem to live appear to die, then is my Father prisoner with me. And this do I believe, when I maintain the laws the world obeys must I obey; the frailties and the sins which I perceive are real, and cannot be escape. If I am bound in any way, I do not know my Father nor my Self. And I am lost to all reality. For truth is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.

Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. I have had many foolish thoughts about myself and my creation, and have brought a dream of fear into my mind. Today, I would not dream. I choose the way to You instead of madness and instead of fear. For truth is safe, and only love is sure.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I met with a friend last night who was here from out of state and we had a wonderful talk and dinner. I love being with this friend because we can both try out new ideas and get to the truth really quickly. Even though he lives many states away, we can always pick up right where we left off. Last night we talked about each of our experiences with religion and how those preconceptions and early conditioning really did help us get to the place each of us finds ourselves today. He's not really sure whether or not he believes in God, but he knows there is something to be believed in. His experience as a child was of a punishing, rule-making God, so he's not sure that's what he'd choose now. But it's so fun to be able to have conversations about God in a safe space.

Today's lesson really validates our conversation from last night. If I am bound - bound by old conditioning or old habits or things that just don't work anymore - then my Father is not free. Truth is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.

Realizing that I can choose my thoughts and I can question whether or not those thoughts are true without fear of hellfire and damnation for having those thoughts is very freeing for me. That actually leads me back to the God I perceive within myself and my brothers. And that is where I want to be.

That's the miracle!

Day 277

Today's Lesson:

Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made.

Your Son is free, my Father. Let me not imagine I have bound him with the laws I made to rule the body. He is not subject to any laws I made by which I try to make the body more secure. He is not changed by what is changeable. He is not slave to any laws of time. He is as You created him, because he knows no law except the law of love.

Let us not worship idols, nor believe in any law idolatry would make to hid the freedom of the Son of God. He is not bound except by his beliefs. Yet what he is, is far beyond his faith in slavery or freedom. He is free because he is his Father's Son. And he cannot be bound unless God's truth can lie, and God can will that He deceive Himself.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I've been talking quite a bit with different groups, especially in my master mind groups studying the book Think and Grow Rich. Yesterday we talked about fear, and what that means to us. We talked about what it is we think we really want, and one person said she really wants security. After we talked more about that, she became aware that she is giving up many opportunities to take risks and reap more rewards because she is so afraid of losing security. The conversation then turned to the real definition of security, and we realized that there really isn't anything that is sure anyway.

When we focus so much on the body, we realize that we are putting our attention on the wrong thing. The "laws" we think make we really believe will keep us safe and will help us do the "right" thing when really the only thing that is secure is the Word of God. We really have all the freedom and security we will ever need when we put our attention on the Truth, which is way beyond what the body can see.

For me, that awareness produced other miracles during the day, including heightened awareness of the responses and reactions from others around me during the meetings and gatherings of which I was a part. When I give up attachment to worldly things and ideals, I am much happier. Maybe that awareness was yesterday's miracle. It's that simple!

Day 276

Today's Lesson:

The Word of God is given me to speak.

What is the Word of God? My Son is pure and holy as Myself. And thus did God become the Father of the Son He loves, for thus was he created. This the Word His Son did not create with Him, because in this His Son was born. Let us accept His Fatherhood, and all is given us. Deny we were created in His Love and we deny our Self, to be unsure of Who we are, of Who our Father is, and for what purpose we have come. And yet, we need but to acknowledge Him Who gave His Word to us in our creation, to remember Him and so recall our Self.

Father, Your Word is mine. And it is this that I would speak to all my brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by You.

Miracles I'm noticing:

This afternoon I will be facilitating a dialogue among a non-profit board in which there are some hard feelings and the future of the organization is unsure. I'm not at all certain what I am going to say or how we are going to proceed with this process. But today's lesson reminds me that the Word of God is given me to speak, so if I remain an open conduit, and have a clear intention to resolve the situation, I am confident that everything will work out exactly as it should.

It is not only in conflict but every single day in every single situation that this is true. At last night's Course gathering we had a very powerful dialogue about specialness and comparison. Specialness always makes comparisons because specialness sees lack in another. Pursuit of specialness is always at the cost of peace. When we can see truth instead of specialness we will not see anyone as special or separate.

I will keep that in mind today as I facilitate this dialogue. If each of us can keep in mind our intention to leave our own specialness outside that place and come together with the intention of being truthful and honest and open, we should be able to allow the outcome to come to us.

Today's text begins with the line: "Forgiveness is the end of specialness." Another great reminder for today's event!

Day 275

Today's Lesson:

God's healing Voice protects all things today.

Let us today attend the Voice for God, which speaks an ancient lesson, no more true today than any other day. Yet has this day been chosen as the time when we will seek and hear and learn and understand. Join me in hearing. For the Voice for God tells us of things we cannot understand alone, nor learn apart. It is in this that all things are protected. And in this the healing of the Voice for God is found.

Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things to You. I need be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice will tell me what to do and where to go; to whom to speak and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what words to give the world. The safety that I bring is given me. Father, Your Voice protects all things through me.

Miracles I'm noticing:

I'm noticing more and more all the time the confidence I have when I speak about subjects I am really passionate about. My business partner and I had a meeting yesterday with the Minnesota State Chamber of Commerce, and during our presentation yesterday I noticed that when I felt I had to follow "a script" (there is no script, but when I put on the "official" hat, I almost made myself feel like there was) I wasn't as authentic. When I allowed myself to just talk about what it is Bock's Office does, it was much more real and I know the passion showed through. My partner was awesome, as he always is, because I could see and sense the authenticity in everything he says and is. I think I got caught up for a moment in the fact that this was "THE CHAMBER" and I think I reverted to "I've got to do this right" mode.

The miracle was how quickly I remembered, and got out of that old me and let the Spirit speak. Today's lesson is so great for reminding me. "For Your Voice will tell me ... what words to give the world." I love that!!

What are you noticing in your words, actions and thoughts?

Day 274

Today’s Lesson:

Today belongs to love. Let me not fear.

Father, today I would let all things be as You created them, and give Your Son the honor due his sinlessness; the love of brother to his brother and his Friend. Through this I am redeemed. Through this as well the truth will enter where illusions were, light will replace all darkness, and Your Son will know he is as You created him.

A special blessing comes to us today, from Him Who is our Father. Give this day to Him, and there will be no fear today, because the day is given unto love.

Miracles I'm noticing:

This lesson really sums up the entire course. If we give all our attention to love, there is no place for fear. And if we really stop and think about it, what is the opposite of love but fear? Another way I've heard Marianne Williamson talk about this distinction is love and a crying out for love. There is no other way to see the distinction, in my mind. And that makes the choice pretty simple ... maybe not always easy, but really, pretty simple.

How different the world appears without the cloud of fear!

What are you noticing?