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The Woman in the Queue — What a stranger at a supermarket taught me about forgiveness

by Rev. Kirsty Randle, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

Recently, a close friend of mine lost two family members in the same week. I found myself quietly present through both of their deaths — holding space, praying, and offering what little steadiness I could.

Later, my friend told me their passing had felt peaceful, even beautiful and that somehow, something sacred had come through me. I was deeply moved. Humbled. Grateful. I realized Holy Spirit was somehow using me as part of His great plan. 

Still feeling the love, I went to the supermarket, and there was a woman in the queue ahead of me, straight out of casting central. She was taking up the time of the cashier in the most entitled way imaginable, oblivious to the long line forming behind her.

I felt the rage rise fast and full. Not just irritation — contempt. I wanted to shame her. Mentally, of course. With my silence. With my thoughts. With my disgust for her narcissism. 

This is the part of spiritual life no one tells you about. That you can be part of someone’s sacred transition on a Monday and want to murder a stranger on a Tuesday. The Course tells us that everything we perceive is an outward picture of an inward condition, but I wasn’t having that. This woman was outside me, in the queue, and was nothing like me at all! 

And yet — there, in the queue — I also wanted something else. I wanted to see the truth. So I prayed silently:

“Holy Spirit, I am unwilling to withdraw my projections. I am unwilling to see this woman as innocent. I want to punish her in my mind. And I ask You not to take that away, but to help me look at it without judgment.”

That was the real miracle. Not that I suddenly felt waves of love toward her (I didn’t), or that she turned to me with tears in her eyes and apologized for taking so long (she didn’t). The miracle was simply the willingness to see my own mind, without judgment. And boy, there was something to look at there. 

As the Course puts it: “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” (T-16.IV.6:1)

I realized that Holy Spirit was providing me with a lesson. He can use my right mind to channel his peace and love, but I will never be happy until I look at my wrong mind with Him. That woman wasn’t in my way. She was the way. She showed me where I still hide from God. And where I still try to earn my holiness instead of accepting it.

Forgiveness isn’t a spiritual technique. It’s a choice to see differently. And sometimes, it begins not with love — but with the awareness to admit we don’t want to.

Rev. Kirsty Randle, OMC, is a Pathways of Light minister living in Dorset, UK.
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2025, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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God, the Original Senior Citizen

by Sonya Spahn, Spiritual Counselor Training student

I am currently studying Course 301: Christ Vision with Reverend Myron Jones as my facilitator. The question posed was how the practice of paying attention to my thoughts and feelings was helping me be more gentle and loving to myself.

Holy Spirit weighed in on this one with answers to questions I never knew I should be asking.

Following months of some serious ailments that came one after another, I didn’t realize how wrong I’d been about everything!

It is my honor to share, perhaps you’d like to look at aging through Christ Vision as well.

I am amazed at how a practice that I have done so many, many times over the 20 years I’ve been A Course in Miracles student still feels a bit foreign and as if not believing ego thoughts is something new!

I’ve become pretty adept at looking at the “big” thoughts, the grievances and wrongs. It’s the little loop thoughts that I get to see highlighted now.

I am going through some body issues now, first digestive issues that were “off the chart” for weeks, then a knee event that was both painful and shocking which ended in needing a new knee, and now an arm that is in pain and cannot do all the things I’m accustomed to my arm doing.

I have watched as a constant parade of thoughts such as “getting old isn’t for sissies” and “boy, when you get to be 65 years old, your body really falls apart for no good reason” and “old age means pain and suffering” flooded the mind.

Now I’m seeing the pattern.

First and foremost, those body issues came after a long, dark winter where I did little to love the body.

I constantly consumed foods that didn’t nourish the body, had excesses in appetites, long periods of little exercise and even less motivation to move.

I had been filled with shame and guilt and constantly scolded myself for these unloving actions but did absolutely nothing to change them.

A broken body was the effect of all those thoughts.

I prayed for help.

Suddenly, I had to change my diet, so my tummy wasn’t at war. Suddenly, I had to lose some of my excess weight because I needed an operation, and the doctor said I had to be a smaller person to do the surgery.

Suddenly, sitting and reading books on my phone was no longer an option. What else could I do with my time?

Those shame and blame and guilt thoughts had led to attacks on the body. Suddenly, overnight it seemed, I had to change the habits that were leading to pain and suffering.

Yet, instead of looking upon the body as an enemy, a traitorous bringer of pain, it was, instead, time to look at the thoughts.

I had prayed for help.
And help had come.

The Course tells us that all healing is of the mind.

A healed mind doesn’t project thoughts of guilt and shame upon a loving vehicle or communication device. A healed mind extends Love. The body longs to be lovingly exercised, to be moved in fun and creative ways, and to be nourished with nutritious fuels for the body as well as for the soul.

The soul longs to sing!

What I saw when looking with Christ Vision is that old age is a blessing. Those younger years were full of adrenaline, hormones, broken hearts, competition. There was always a rush to get to tomorrow, when all would be well. Do, do, do.

Old age, by comparison, calls me to be, be, be. Be wise. Be still. Be joyous. Be in the flow of creation. Be at peace.

These Thoughts are the Thoughts of God. An eternal All That Is, that existed before I was born and will extend long past when this body has become unanimated with the Sonja personality. God did not fall apart as the illusional years flew by. Creation continues, unabated and unaffected by minutes, hours, days and even centuries.

This is just one of the gentle and loving set of corrections I have heard when I notice thoughts that do not inspire, support and extend my Beloved.

I’m not there all the time, and often I’m floored with how I could so easily go astray, but I know the Divine attracts with an overwhelming magnestism. I forgive the little delays and am grateful for every Holy Instant.

Thank you, Father, for creating the Christ. Thank you for my True Identity. Let that Light continue to shine in Your very grateful creation, one newly born Holy Instant by one Holy Instant. Each Holy Instant is eternal, and eternity is ageless and limitless. Thank you, Holy Senior Citizen of Heaven!

Sonja Spahn is a Spiritual Counselor Training student living in Alexandria, LA
Email:Sspahn007@aol.com or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2025, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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No Enemies

by Rev. Cathy Silva, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

One morning just before the end of last year I sat with my journal and Holy Spirit struggling with what seemed to be an unbridgeable divide happening in our country, and with many families, including my own. As I allowed the words to flow through and be written, what came was a message that I believe has the potential to profoundly heal and help heal. That is if we are willing.

I believe the purpose of the “What if” statements is to prompt us to at least consider another way.

From A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 33: “There is another way of looking at the world. Today’s idea is an attempt to recognize that you can shift your perception of the world in both its outer and inner aspects.” (W-33.1.1) 

The message:

No Enemies

Building a Bridge Across
the Invisible “Divide”

WHAT IF

What if the divide and differences we see as fact are all in our mind?

What if deep in our heart of hearts we all desire the same thing — to love and be loved?

What if we were to loosen the grip we have on “our way” of seeing, thinking and doing?

What if we stopped being afraid to say what we honestly feel?

And what if we were courageous enough to really listen?

What if we could actually lay down our armament and wrap our arms around one another?

What if we could lean into Love instead of standing back from fear?

What if we decided enough is enough, and open up to another way?

What if we let Love guide us rather than allowing hate to motivate us?

What if we could transcend our trauma rather than be defined by it?

Until now this channeled message was safely tucked in the pages of my journal and I have only shared with a few trusted people because there was a fear of expressing honestly and openly what has been coming through for a very long time.

I know there is more. It is in no way complete; but for now it feels like an important step for me in my further development of Trust to share as it is. I am trusting Holy Spirit to continue to express through me; and I’m trusting you, my brothers and sisters as we awaken to the awareness of loves presence together.

“Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself.” (W-181.1:1)

Rev. Cathy Silva, OMC, is a Spiritual Counselor and Coach committed to being of help in the healing of relationships and awakening to our true nature. She lives in Punta Gorda, Florida. She can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or on her website cathysilva.org

© 2025, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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I Am as God Created Me

by Erica Leftus, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I sat with a loved one outside our local café yesterday. As we watched the sea view, the seagulls, the dogs walking their owners, and the general comings and goings of the café’s patrons, I noticed an unease within me.

Nothing was wrong. I was with someone I loved. I was enjoying a beautiful morning. But I had this unease, this restlessness within me and a question in my mind, “When will I be content?”

I am having a career transition, and I have never really done the work I feel I was truly called to do, so at 51, I have been studying to help others in the spiritual way that would bring me the most joy, counseling informed and inspired by the teachings of A Course in Miracles.

As I was noticing a mild annoyance about myself as a result of my unease, I noticed a man walk towards us, joyfully holding his baby, with his wife beside him. Radiantly he beamed a smile at me, while I was holding a baby of my own — our toy poodle!

We shared a recognition between us that we were holding something innocent and beautiful in our arms; a being to love.

This man then sat down with his wife. His baby was wearing a beautiful woollen jersey. He looked so comfortable, so warm, so content — there it was! He had what I wanted! I watched as his parents, who obviously loved each other, doted on this little baby boy… “Do you want your snack? Do you want your toy truck? And yes, “Yay,” no technology was in sight to occupy this child! His parents just wanted to be together and to be with him. This boy was, if my observation was correct, going to be a very secure, and dare I say, happy adult when he grew up.

So many people miss out on this great start this child was having, even though all parents are always doing the best they can! But it was a wonderful message to me, that it’s not too late. Even if we didn’t get that idyllic childhood, we are adults now, and we have within us all the resources that our inner children within us need.

It reminds me of a little insight I had the other day — we have our childhoods where we make all our meaning, and we get a do-over in adulthood where the same patterns emerge, the same dynamics in relating are still there, but as we are adults now, we can heal the past by being conscious in the present.

I know this very well after having just become certified in the Pathways of Light, Healing Inner Child 8-week Program which I believe in and love so much and I am so excited to be facilitating.

For me, what this illustrates is a pattern of having decided an untruth about ourselves when we were children — that we were not good enough in some way — and now as adults, we get to forgive ourselves for having believed we were anything less than one of God’s eternally beloved children. Such freedom in that! I am still as God created me. See lessons 94, 110, 162, 219 and review of Lesson 199.

Rev. Erica Leftus, OMC, is a Pathways of Light minister living in New Zealand.
https://www.facebook.com/ericaspeaceplace/

© 2025, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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