Inspiration for Healing Through Changing Your Mind --The articles in this newsletter are written by people from around the world who are taking their perceived problems to the Holy Spirit, and sharing their miracles stories of how their thoughts are being healed.

Request Free Printed Program & Product Catalogs

For more information, call
1-800-323-PATH (US & Canada) or 920/894-2339. Or click here to email your questions.

Recommend This Site to a Friend --Click here to send an email to your friends with a link to this page.

Pathways Free Electronic "Magazine" --Sign up to receive periodic emails with thoughts to ponder, inspirational articles and the latest news.

Share Your Miracle Story --Learn how you can share your miracle story here and in our printed newsletter. More info.

Subscribe to Miracles News --Click here to have the printed version of this newsletter mailed to you quarterly (US$15). When you enroll in a Pathways of Light Self-Study Course, Credential Correspondence Course or an A Course in Miracles Study Program, you receive a free, one-year subscription to Miracles News.

Pathways of Light®
13111 Lax Chapel Rd.
Kiel, WI 53042-3954
920/894-2339 Fax: 920/894-2122

Pathways of Light and the logo design are registered trademarks of Pathways of Light, Inc. a nonprofit organization.

All stories are © copyright 2002, Pathways of Light and/or the author. They are offered for your personal use. They may not reproduced, published or distributed for profit, in print or electronically, without written permission of the copyright holder(s).

What Is This For? -- by Rev. Robert Stoelting

When I was in college, I learned how to sail. It was a great experience for me. I loved the relaxed, peaceful feeling of gliding quietly through the water. The wind did most of the work and there was no engine noise. I often used sailing as a way to relax and unwind when my mind seemed overwhelmed by my studies.

For a long time I had a goal of owning my own sailboat. I wanted to be able to experience again that relaxed, peaceful feeling whenever I wished. I loved to watch sailing. I went to boat shows and looked for my 'dream boat.'

It never worked out for me to own a sailboat. As I pursued my spiritual awakening, my interest in sailboats faded. Now I remember that I once had that dream, but it no longer has any meaning to me. I realize that what I was looking for in that 'dream boat' was not the form. What I really wanted was to recapture the feeling of peace that I associated with my sailing experience. I now know that the peace I was looking for is within me and I can access it any time I want. I don't have to go find some large body of water and a sailboat to be able to experience peace. It is always available to me without limit.

When I go shopping, I find that my purchases are much more meaningful when I ask myself, "What is this for?" And I buy less! When I ask that question first, and pursue the answer to its root, I often find that its purpose is specialness. Recently I thought about buying a beautiful Christmas door decoration with bells. When I asked myself, "What is this for?" a series of thoughts passed through my mind.

It would be pretty on the door. Visitors would see how nice it looked. It would be a more pleasant sound than our loud doorbell. Never mind that if I'm upstairs in my office, I probably wouldn't be able to hear that 'pleasant sound,' and because we live in a wooded, country setting, few people use the doorbell anyway.

There was nothing in the design of the decoration that emphasized a message of remembering Christ and seeing Him in my brother, which is what Christmas has come to mean for me. I concluded that the door decoration did not have a meaningful purpose for me. As I looked deeper into "What is this for?" I recognized that it was not for anything of true meaning. It did nothing to help me reach my real and only goal of remembering God. I didn't buy the decoration.

The following is a process that has helped me and may be helpful to you:

Think of something that you are wanting to get or have or something you are wanting to do. Write it down. Reread what you have written, and ask yourself, "What is it for? What value does it have for me? What purpose does it serve?" Write down your answers to these questions as honestly as you can.

Then ask yourself, "What is it really for? Does it serve the purpose of the ego or the Holy Spirit?" Quiet your mind and ask the Holy Spirit whether what you want is for the purpose of reinforcing the dream of separation or for undoing the dream -- awakening to Love. Let the Holy Spirit decide for you what is best for you in this situation.

Rev. Robert Stoelting is co-founder of Pathways of Light living in Kiel, Wisconsin.
Email: office@pathwaysoflight.org

Joining God's Eternal Party -- by Rev. Mary Stoelting

God is always having a party -- and everyone is always invited. Join the joy and happiness at God's party. What if we had a party in your honor and you didn't come? What if you thought there were more important things to do? What if you came and then left after five minutes? God is always throwing a party for you, giving you All that Is. God loves His one Son and wants you to receive His gifts. Join the party.

God's party is a total joining. At God's party, everyone takes off their masks of individuality--of separation. At God's party, the memory that we are all the same Light returns. There is no space, no distance and no time at God's party. Everyone there receives and gives the eternal gift of Universal Love.

There are no barriers, no endings to God's party. It is always total and all out joy and happiness, with never even a hint of lack or sadness or belief in hurt. Peace pervades and the feeling of complete safety and well-being is always present. God's party never ends, but we may leave to go to ego's party.

At ego's party there are winners and losers. You have to be on constant watch for the latest trend of what is in and what is out. The mask of being a separate individual is a requirement for ego's party. Everyone there at ego's party has agreed to pretend that they are not really the same Self and they are not really one in Spirit.

Everyone that joins ego's party tries to kid themselves into believing that the mask of separate bodies and worldly form is real. Because of the power of their minds, they can think that it's a real party. It even seems very exciting at times, with the rush of constant change or the thrill of getting special attention, if just for a moment, before it fades and changes again. There is always the hope of attracting attention again, of getting and keeping something special, something unique, something no one else has. This search for specialness is mesmerizing, like an addictive drug to those at the ego's party.

Because this specialness party is constantly changing and fluctuating, there is no sense of standing on solid ground. The floor is unstable, like shifting sands. Everyone at the party needs to be on guard and have their barriers up for fear of losing their status or the worldly forms they have accumulated. Because of the belief in lack, everyone is afraid of losing ground. The main emphasis at the ego's party is for the party-goers to try to get and keep as much as they can, because what they have may not be enough to be safe in the future.

At this party, the party-goers also work hard to get as much attention as possible for their 'unique' and 'special' qualities or talents. If lots of attention and specialness are lavished on one individual, others crowd around to get the 'famous one's' autograph. This 'special one's' autograph is cherished and displayed for one's friends and family to see. It's a way of claiming some of the famous one's 'specialness' for themselves.

At the ego's specialness party, there are special races, special skin colors, special body parts, special countries, special families, special locations, special times, special body movements, special foods, etc. All this specialness is very tricky because what is special is constantly changing. The window of specialness is constantly fluctuating.

There is no time to relax at ego's party. There is no time to step aside from this game to become detached from it deeply enough to remember that it is an artificial game--a pretend story. This game may have appeared in the beginning to be exciting, but after a while, it becomes tiring. And the losers in this game become depressed and sick. They become lost in the game of believing in scarcity and lack.

As the belief in lack is reinforced daily through constantly experiencing the effects of this belief, the depression and feelings of hopelessness grow. This idea of going for specialness (being separate from All having All, All being All) finally is seen as a losing proposition. At this time there is often a calling out for help. This calling out for help is heard by those who are not mired in the beliefs of the specialness party. Those who are not in the ego's party want to help, but for the help to be received, there needs to be a willingness to hear those who know their true Identity -- Who they really are.

Those who are not in the specialness party call to those who are lost in it. But most of the time the party is so loud that they cannot be heard. Those not in the party know that the party is just a fake game of artificial values -- fool's gold. They are not attracted to join the specialness party because they can see the pain and sorrow of those in the party who have forgotten Who they are. The ego party-goers have lost the memory of their true Identity in the only real party -- God's universal and eternal party of equality and oneness -- the party where there is eternal Love, peace and joy for all.

Those not in the specialness party know and remember the safety of being joined eternally with all the true abundance of God. All is shared equally in God. There is no specialness, no uniqueness. All that Is is recognized as belonging to All equally. No barriers, no differentiation, all the same Light, all the same Love. All experience the peace and joy and freedom of All having All… All being All… All knowing that there is only One, not many.

God is always having a party -- and everyone is always invited. Now is the time to return to the joy and happiness of God's party.

Rev. Mary Stoelting is co-founder of Pathways of Light living in Kiel, Wisconsin.
Email: office@pathwaysoflight.org

TOP

The Death of a Child -- by Rev. Cheril Goodrich

On October 18, my son Bruce passed from a physical unreality to a spiritual reality. His physical body was 33 years old. To judge the reason for his passing is to miss the purpose. The mind does not need judgment of a physical circumstance because it is detrimental to the body of the mind doing the judging. When we place judgment on anything that happens in the physical realm, we place the purpose of being physical above our spiritual purpose. Purpose of the spiritual kind is what the mind seeks because it was designed to seek for the purpose of Love and only Spirit can answer the call for Love. Instead of asking why, the question is, "What is it for?"

Three days before his death, I awoke from a night's sleep with these words in my ears, "Death will be sudden and unexpected."

I wasn't sure whose death it was going to be and even thought perhaps that it might be my own. When I hear this Voice speak, I am sure that the words spoken will come to pass. The Voice is not threatening, just informing.

Once I got the word that Bruce had indeed made the transition, the first thing I had to deal with was the shock. The grief and the sadness were, and at times still are, beyond words. This, however, is not about my grief and sadness. It is about moving beyond something that is incomprehensible in human terms to a place of peace where a difficult situation takes on a new meaning that cannot be grasped from a physical point of view. Dealing with physical death can only be grasped when the mind is placed in a higher awareness, where there is no sadness or grief.

When death occurs, especially to a loved one, we seek to understand the meaning of such an event. A law of mind says that what we understand we appreciate, and what we appreciate we love, and what we love we seek more of. So by trying to relive the event over and over and trying to understand what happened, our mind begins to understand something that it was not created to understand. By forcing our mind to understand grief, our mind learns and accepts this practice. By making practical use of grief, our mind learns how to grieve.

Also, by accepting the death of another, we accept our own death. In essence, we are trying to move our mind into the idea of death, when the mind was not created to die. This brings a condition to the mind that forces it to look at its own demise, and this brings terrible sadness and grief. When the mind is forced to look at the death of another, it must accept its own death also. All minds are joined. We can't perpetrate a belief about another without accepting it for ourselves.

Some would say that this is a state of denial, and they would be correct. This does not mean that I do not know what has happened, it means that I care enough about myself not to lead my mind into the temptation of believing that there is such a thing as death.

This also does not mean that I do not have my moments. I see these moments as falling down a deep well. Then I have to pull myself out and place my mind in a place of safety where there is no death. The only place that this is possible is within the Presence of Love.

There are some things I learned at the funeral home. The first thing I learned is that people are not necessarily sad for you. They are tuning into their own unresolved grief. People stopped who didn't even know him and were just sobbing. Death brings up the feelings of being separate from our Love Source.

When someone passes, everyone wants to know what he or she can do. I don't know how many people offered assistance to call them, regardless of what time it was. Finally, I understood that they were trying to "fix" what had been "taken away." This is the source of "love" that we look to while we are in the body. Our mind believes love comes in the form of other bodies, and that these bodies and their behavior are providing something that in truth can only be found in higher states of awareness.

This is where a main source of confusion lies. The mind is constantly passing from one state of awareness to another without realizing what it is doing. It is confused about its reality. This is why it is essential not to judge and to constantly remind our mind that behavior does not mean anything, including our own.

The more I reminded myself that Bruce was alive, the better I felt. I could climb out of the "well" and not act like a blubbering idiot. I began to look for signs that spoke to me of his love because what the mind seeks, it finds.

He has a daughter who is 5. At the funeral home she was constantly coming up to me and pinching me on the behind. The day of the funeral, just before I awoke totally, I felt a gentle pinch where she had been nailing me. It was a gentle nudge to let me know that he was still around.

The night before the funeral there was a beautiful pink sky. The clouds were light and fluffy. To me, pink is the color of love. In the morning there was a slight rain and then the sun broke through. A beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky. A rainbow, to me, is a promise of life.

The moment of the funeral arrived. There were about 230 people there. I had decided I was going to speak because I couldn't let his passing go without telling others how I felt. The minister spoke, and then called me up to the podium. Following is what I shared.

Is it possible to measure a life by the moments spent in time? When the moment ends, what is left? Words that are left unspoken, deeds that fall short of the expectations we place on ourselves.

At times I cannot bear to look. The pain of the moments when I believe I have lost brings unspeakable sadness. It wells up in my chest and is released through my eyes. But I know it will only last a moment.

Who demands that the piper be paid when it's time to go, and how do we know what the payment is? Perhaps it is not this way at all.

Where is the constant? What is it that always remains the same? Sometimes we forget we are not our behavior. The small victories that we perceive in life are at times paid with the price of pain that is too demanding.

But pain is hiding something that has greater value then the lessons of sadness and grief. It comes to me in flashes, but seems to be buried in the pain of the moment. But then this flash moves me beyond the annals of time and brings the sweetness of peace.
Buried beneath my pain is hope, but beyond hope there is Love. This is what remains the same; this is what never ends.

Love breaks the barrier that time places on our mortal lives. It moves beyond time and space to a focus within our own mind and joins us to an idea that transcends something as insignificant as time. Within the protection of love's embrace, we are all united. There is no difference because love looks beyond what is different and focuses on what is the same.

When something like this happens, we all want to know what we can do. We feel the pain that another is experiencing and we want to fix it for them. What we feel that has been ripped away is a source of love. But Love never dies, and only Love is real. So this gift of Love is what we are left with. This is what is constant. This is what is real.

Perhaps this is our lesson. Death does not claim victory over Love. Love still exists. It is alive and well. We do not have to "fix" Love. Love fixes us, but It must be invited in.

When sadness does not claim its victory over me and I am quiet, I can hear Bruce's voice speak to me. I realize death did not claim his love and I am comforted.

As I look out over all of you, I am deeply grateful for all of the blessings and thoughtfulness that your love has given. Words could never express, but my heart knows, and I thank you.

One thing that was very difficult for me to deal with was the idea that he left this plane of existence alone. Just today I was thinking about how a band of angels were there for him. That thought was interrupted with, "No it was not a band of angels, it was an army," and this leaves me with an intense feeling of peace and gratitude.

Rev. Cheril Goodrich is a Pathways of Light minister living in Waterford, Michigan.
Email: bcher2@aol.com
TOP

Letting Go of False Beliefs -- by Rev. Mary Manke

I have been led to look at many of my beliefs lately. If I would let Christ's Vision look on all things for me, I would not judge, but let each one have the miracle of Love. My false beliefs give me a lot of things that I do not want, but have secretly asked for, and so have received. In these beliefs, it seemed as if I had run away from my worldly responsibilities, such as a partner.

Only my false beliefs cause me pain. Only my false beliefs would make me a coward, running away from Love. Only my false beliefs condemn me and demand punishment for "crimes" that never happened.

If I want to justify my wrath against a brother, then I hold tightly to my false beliefs, unwilling to let them go, unwilling to see things differently. I then choose this wanting to be "right." When I am in this mind set, I am choosing to remain blind. This keeps me chained in a dark prison, refusing to accept the Truth that my brother is innocent.

Am I being unduly hard on myself? I must see the hatred that I harbor clearly, or I will not be willing to let it be healed. I must see what I am doing in the name of innocence (the face of innocence) that only "succeeds" in hiding the true sinlessness of others and myself.

In meditation, Jesus once told me, "Your beliefs are not sacred. They are scattered, limited, unholy thoughts about what you are. They were made to keep you from remembering the Truth about your Self."

Is it not simpler to accept that I am wrong in my choice? I mistake an hallucination for reality. Still, my seeing falsely does not change Truth at all. The desire to hide from Love, shows my belief that Love would punish, and even destroy me. Now I must choose to remember that this "me," with its feelings of guilt and terror, is a lie. This belief is not "me" at all.

The beliefs that I made will never bring me happiness. Nothing of this worldly hallucination can give me happiness. True happiness is in Being, and recognizing that I'm forever with my Creator. The false beliefs I made, do not protect me, though I allow them to make up my world.

What I made up from fear will not change -- it cannot bring me anything but more fear. Looking at fear-based beliefs is not fun. It requires great willingness of me. Looking at the "gunk" of my life seems painful to me, but that is when I have forgotten to have Holy Spirit be at my side.

With the presence of my loving Guide, the pain melts away. The "gunk" is seen as mistaken ideas. The balm of forgiveness washes away the unreal thoughts. With the Love that I am and the Love of my Guide, I see beyond the dream masks, the appearance of my drama and tragedy. Seeing with the eyes of Love, I recognize Truth and let the false fall away. What is seen as false can hold no value for me.

This is a daily process. Sometimes I forget that it is a process. All that Jesus asks of me is to keep practicing and not to give up. Keep practicing the observance of which voice I am listening to in any moment. To think that I have to decide what things mean on my own is falling back into the ego system. It is mistaking the false belief as if it were truth. I need only remember that I cannot make decisions on my own. I can continue to ask for and receive the Guidance of my true Self. Whenever I am not happy is when I need to ask again, for I am surely believing the wrong voice.

Rev. Mary Manke is a Pathways of Light minister living in Kiel, Wisconsin.
Email: RevMDM@pathwaysoflight.org

TOP | More Winter 2002 Articles | Miracles News Index