A Course in Miracles and Marianne Williamson

The teachings of A Course in Miracles play a central role in my life. In fact, it’s not in any way an exaggeration to say that I would not be who I am today without the Course. Although I had read small bits of the Course before, my first real introduction to how it could work in my life to transform fear into love, and turmoil and pain into peace and joy, came from Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return to Love.

Last weekend, Oprah had Marianne on her Super Soul Sunday program to talk about A Return to Love and how it helped change her life. You can watch the full episode here. I can’t think of a better way to spend 45 minutes of my life.

Blessings,
Abby

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What would Love do?

I fell asleep on the couch this evening while trying to grind out a few more hours of work. As often happens, sleep did not come again right away, so I searched the Internet for the blogs of my closest friends, those people whose thoughts remind me of who I am and what I believe.  I ended up at the blog of one of my newest friends, a friend whose words move me most deeply these days, regardless of her topic. My only complaint, and one I gladly suffer, is that her posts prompt so many thoughts and deep emotion that I find it hard to move on to work or other things. Instead I find myself wanting to stay and linger with her thoughts, and the thoughts they evoke in me, and to write about them, because I feel such a deep kinship with her.

So, this morning, as I sat in bed and surfed the ‘net, I read her latest post. One statement in particular in that post triggered a cascade of thoughts and feelings, reminding me of what I believe, what I know, about myself and the shared illusion of a world in which we think we live. And so I wrote. This is what I said to her in a comment I posted on her blog:

The primary teaching of A Course in Miracles is that only Love is real. Consequently, we are truly all One Being and we realize our Oneness, bring it into our awareness, when we share our love with another. It also teaches that every action, whether by ourselves or by others, is either an expression of love or a call for love. Thus, regardless of the situation, the only appropriate response to our sisters and brothers is Love, unconditional, unlimited Love.

Many years ago, not long after I began studying the Course, I decided that, to be the person I know myself to be, the person I want to express in this world, I would ask myself, “What would Love do?” or, stated somewhat differently, “What is the most loving thing to do in this situation?” When I ask myself that question, I remind myself I must include myself in answering that question, for any response that is not loving to me, as well as others, is not truly loving. And then I wait. The answer always comes, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but it always come. I make mistakes all the time, mostly by forgetting to ask the question and mostly by not being loving to myself, which I find much more difficult than being loving to others. But each day I learn and the answers come more quickly and more as an expression of who I am and less as the result of conscious thought. These and the other lessons I have learned from the Course have truly transformed my life and led me to be the woman I am today. There are many other spiritual paths that lead to this same place. The Course just happens to be mine.

Why do I share these thoughts here? They were all triggered by this statement from this post: “My search for more validity and ‘realness’ can only come in community, sister- and brotherhood with others . . . “ Love is only real, can only truly be experienced, when it is shared. By being shared, it expands and I come closer to realizing the Truth of who I am, the Truth of who we all are. For that I need community. I need you and all the others loving friends I have found in my life, on the ‘net and off.

Thank you, my friend, for being a loving friend to me and all who come to this place and read your words. They are gifts beyond measure.

Blessings,
Abby

Cross-posted from my ACIM blog.

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Thoughts on Change and Choices – and Much, Much More

Yesterday, my friend Callie wrote about the need for change in her life and came to the conclusion that only the “atomic option,” i.e. exploding the status quo that those around her seek to impose, is likely to work for her. I had a pretty powerful reaction to that idea, and wrote her a long comment, which is pasted below, in response. I know that much of what I wrote is about me, not her, and, in fact, directly relates to our discussions about the delusion of the necessity for sacrifice to get what we need during my Course in Miracles study group yesterday morning. (If you want to see what prompted those discussions, read the section called “The Time of Rebirth” in Chapter 15 of the Text of A Course in Miracles, which appears on p. 324 of the second edition, or, in ACIM speak, you can find it at T:15:X (or Text, Ch. 15, Sec. X).) But I also had a lot of other things going on yesterday, all of which led to one of the most emotional days I’ve had in a long time.

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