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October-December, 2023

Mining for Gold

by Rev. Ashley Rose Legrand, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

As a flight attendant, one thing that is so unique to my industry is that I’m always working with new people every week. Sometimes even day to day. I may fly with someone on a two day trip and then not see them again for another five years.

Meeting and working alongside so many different people on a regular basis, one thing has been made abundantly clear to me. People are mostly good, mostly loving. This may not always be so obvious at first, but given the chance, on the extension of the slightest invitation, this “goodness” quality will reveal itself.

There is a caveat though. Its revelation is dependent on one thing — a willingness to have an open mind to see with fresh eyes and drop assumptions. “And if you choose to see a world without an enemy, in which you are not helpless, the means to see it will be given you.” (T-21.VII.9:4)

I know that in working with even some of the most difficult individuals, there is a commonality between us… and I will find it. But I have to want to find it. I have to decide first. “Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly.” (W-132.5:2)

We will find what we’re looking for. If love and connection is the predetermined expectation, that’s what we are sure to see.

There are times when I encounter those that make witnessing this love a little more obscure, a little more of a challenge. However, it is my belief that those that don’t appear to be all that loving, really do want to be. They’ve just been a little battered down. The world and its experiences have left them a little hardened, leaving them feeling betrayed and let down, exposed like a raw nerve. And so they put up walls to protect themselves, shutting out the very thing that will heal their wounded hearts — love, unity, connection.

Those that exhibit this armor and this callousness are just deploying their defense mechanism. It is an expression of their call for love. The defensiveness and that empty look behind their eyes is just an ego tactic, designed to keep their fear (and the separation) going.

But it is with Christ’s Vision that I can see past all of that — see past the hurt, to the heart of the matter — to their heart; to the beauty within.

An understanding arises within me and I know that they just haven’t found their own way yet, that thing that will crack them open, tear down their walls and allow them to see clearly again. They will find their unique message that will speak to them specifically, in a way they can understand and use in this world of form. They will have the experience that will show them the way to get in touch with their higher Self and reconnect them to the love of God within, which is what they are and have always been.

Rather than write these people off, I stay a while. I lean in. I stick around for the miracle. Like a miner with her pick, I chip away at the armor, one little loving stroke at a time. The airplane becomes Holy ground. Now are we flying high, “above the battleground,” where the investment in fear and separation is dismantled. “…He understands how your relationship is raised above the battleground, in it no more. This is your part; to realize that murder in any form is not your will. The overlooking of the battleground is now your purpose. 

Be lifted up, and from a higher place look down upon it. From there will your perspective be quite different.” (T-23.IV.4:5-7;5:1-2)

With tender loving care and open arms, I create the trust that makes it safe for them to reveal themselves — to expose their loving heart. And when I see the life come back into their eyes, the sparkle return, I know that God is there with us. I know the Love in them is perking up in remembrance, rising to the surface. I know God has done His work of uniting us as one.

Sometimes the gold isn’t in plain sight. Sometimes we’ve got to dig for it. It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it. There’s no greater fascinating and rewarding excavation than of letting Love reveal itself, nothing more beautiful, nothing more Holy, nothing more awe-inspiring.

I LOVE when God breaks down our walls; shows us another way; surprises us; reveals to us our commonalities that we were so sure did not exist.

We always think we know. We think we know so much. But in reality, there is a higher knowing, a much more intelligent one. I imagine God looking down from above and giving a little wink and a coy smile when this apparently tiny, yet momentous, thing happens.

I love His sense of humor. I LOVE when He proves me wrong and I love when He dispels my illusions, dismantling the house of cards with one effortless breath of Love. Poof!

Rev. Ashley Rose Legrand, O.M.C., is a Pathways of Light minister living in Metuchen, New Jersey. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2023, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2023

Transforming Our Relationships with Holy Spirit

by Robert and Mary Stoelting, founders of Pathways of Light

The only way we can transform our relationships is to let the Holy Spirit guide our thoughts toward seeing innocence and unity instead of letting the ego’s false beliefs of being separate, alone and guilty guide our thinking.

When we are following the ego, we identify with this world because we like the differences we have made up and we want to make it understandable. We want to make it appear to be our reality. We value the dream of having a unique identity. We value competition and specialness.

The good news is that we can’t separate from the Holy Spirit, Who is always there in our mind, waiting to help us receive the truth. When we are willing to let the Holy Spirit transform our thoughts, we learn that everyone was created holy. We are guided to the truth that everyone is an extension of God’s Love, because everyone is included in God’s wholeness or oneness. We see that everyone is really the same Love of God, even though we have chosen to make up stories of differences and uniqueness.

The Holy Spirit is the Thought God gave us in our mind to lead us to our eternal Home in God’s universal Love. This Thought is our best Friend, for Its purpose is to awaken us to God’s Love. The Holy Spirit is always present in our mind. It cannot leave us because God placed Him there. With the Holy Spirit we come to recognize that the differences we see in illusions of separate bodies are all equally unreal.

All our distress and unhappiness in the world comes from believing we have separated from our Source. The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to help us undo our mistaken beliefs. As we are willing to accept His help, we learn to see the Love that surrounds us and is in us. We let the Holy Spirit transform our relationships. As we open our minds to His loving correction, we find peace and happiness that is part of the Love we have always been.

“This year determine not to deny what has been given you by God. Awake and share it, for that is the only reason He has called to you. His Voice has spoken clearly, and yet you have so little faith in what you heard, because you have preferred to place still greater faith in the disaster you have made. Today, let us resolve together to accept the joyful tidings that disaster is not real and that reality is not disaster. Reality is safe and sure, and wholly kind to everyone and everything.” (T-16.II.8:2-6)

Because the ego is the idea of being separate from Love, of course it relates to stories of suffering, sacrifice and deprivation. It loves these stories because they increase its sense of a separate ‘self.’ They increase its sense that it has really made its world of specialness, of individuality, real. If we consistently practiced seeing past these stories with the help of the Holy Spirit, the ego would disappear.

Jesus tells us very specifically how to do this when he says, “…if you will merely sit quietly by and let the Holy Spirit relate through you, you will empathize with strength, and will gain in strength and not in weakness.” (T-16.I.2:7)

To receive the Holy Spirit’s guidance we need to be in peace; we need to take time to quiet our minds and be receptive. The ego’s first impulse will always be to reinforce separation. Our vigilance to not follow this first impulse but to step back and open our minds to the Holy Spirit’s guidance allows us to be taught how to heal all our relationships.

He tells us, “Focus your mind only on this: I am not alone, and I would not intrude the past upon my Guest. I have invited Him, and He is here. I need do nothing except not to interfere.” (T-16.I.3:9-12)

As we diligently practice this stepping back and not interfering, we will experience the Holy Spirit’s insight through us and thus learn what it is. The form in which this perspective is expressed will vary according to each situation but the feeling of unity will be the same. As always the Holy Spirit will use every situation to teach us of the reality of oneness, if we let Him.

The ego thought system is belief in weakness — separation from the strength of Love. The ego uses relationships in order to reinforce belief in weakness and loss. But we are told here that the opposite is true.

“The meaning of love is lost in any relationship that looks to weakness, and hopes to find love there. The power of love, which is its meaning, lies in the strength of God that hovers over it and blesses it silently by enveloping it in healing wings.” (T-16.I.6:1-2)

The Holy Spirit remembers we are all one and that we all still remain the same as we were created by God. We could never be weak in truth and we could never get sick and die. As we learn to step back and not think we know anything on our own, we leave room for the Holy Spirit to work through us.

That is why Jesus gives us this advice in reference to all of our relationships: “What you give through Him is for the whole Sonship, not for part of it. Leave Him His function, for He will fulfill it if you but ask Him to enter your relationships, and bless them for you.” (T-16.I.7:8-9)

Mary and Robert: For well over 40 years we have joined together with one purpose in mind — to step back and let Holy Spirit lead the way with every problem we perceived. Together we were also able to reinforce that it is through stopping and listening to the Holy Spirit we learned to pay attention to God’s Answer regarding healing all our relationships.

Over these many years of practice, we have found that the Holy Spirit is a very good Teacher. Our trust in remembering that we know nothing on our own has brought us both peace and a very happy life.

We have learned that if we allow the Holy Spirit to show us the holiness in every brother, we will see it. We cannot see wholeness and separation at the same time. When we let go of believing in what we see with our physical senses, we leave an opening for the truth of wholeness or holiness to enter.

“Bid Him welcome, and honor the witnesses who bring you the glad tidings He has come. It is true, just as you fear, that to acknowledge Him is to deny all that you think you know. But what you think you know was never true.” (T-16.II.6:5-7)

We discovered that it really works. It is here that we find certainty. It is here that we find peace. It has been worth the effort. Through this consistent practice we return Home to the oneness of our Father.

Robert and Mary Stoelting are co-founders of Pathways of Light.
Website: http://www.pathwaysoflight.org  Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2023, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2023

Peace Is Our True Nature

by Rev. Dan Strodl, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

We live in a world of separation, fear and guilt. But under these dark clouds lies the real world… of love, peace and happiness.

Peace is our natural state that we experience when we release the blocks in our minds. The world was made by ego to distract us from who we really are. As we let go of the world of the ego…  conflict, judgments, separation, pain… we create space in our mind that will fill with peace.

We have been given a Guide to help us release all these insane thoughts, and return us to our true home; that is what the Holy Spirit is there for. As we learn to notice our insane thoughts and give them to the Holy Spirit for healing, we are released from the dark clouds, and the light of our true Self shines through.

When we let the Holy Spirit be in charge of our mind, thoughts of conflict will fall away. As they fall away, notice the peace that comes into your mind… it has always been there. And we will be more motivated to put the Holy Spirit in the center of our life.

The more we heal our minds with the Holy Spirit’s help, the more we experience true peace. This is a process, and happens when we practice forgiveness (letting go of the world). Slowly dismantling the ego’s thought system through forgiveness allows all things to be just as they are and we will be in perfect peace.

For most people, peace in this world fluctuates. We can be calm, peaceful, happy one minute, and then something triggers us and throws us back into the anxiety, fear and upset.

For most of my life I lived in a world of fear, anxiety, stress and judgments. All of that changed when I began studying A Course in Miracles many years ago. I began to have respite from the fear in my mind, and I would feel more peaceful.

As I learned to notice my thoughts and give fears and judgments to the Holy Spirit for healing, my peace level grew. Today I live mostly in peace, and when something disturbs me, I give it over to Holy Spirit for healing.

Sometimes I ask myself what my peace level is, and grade it from one to ten. It’s usually between eight and nine, but occasionally it can crash way down to one or two.

I have a favorite organic shop I go to all the time. I have made friends with many people who work there, and it brings me so much joy to go and see them. Yesterday I was eating in their restaurant, and a staff member came up to me and told me I would have to leave in ten minutes. He wouldn’t tell me why. It turns out that the shop went into administration and the store was permanently closing down. And all of my friends who work there were made redundant. I felt so sad, so upset, so much pain.

“I could see peace instead of this.” (W-34)

So I stepped back, quieted my mind, and asked the Holy Spirit, “How would you have me see this?” What came to me was “Relax. All is well. Just send them blessings.” So I blessed them in their acceptance, in their peace, in their happiness, in their strength. And with that I experienced a miracle… my peace returned.

Rev. Dan Strodl is Manager of Miracle Network, a Pathways of Light Spiritual Counselor and an Accessing Inner Wisdom Counselor. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2023, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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October-December, 2023

Roses of Forgiveness

by Rev. Robin Singler, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

I’ve recently had the opportunity to look at a destructive and depressed part of my mind, a very dark thought pattern, as it rose up and seemed to take over me for an evening. It’s a part of me that I’ve been carrying around all my life, sometimes more in the background, and sometimes right in my face.

I’ve tried to mask, demonize, ignore and push it aside, but it’s still there. I’ve tried to talk myself out of these beliefs using metaphysical logic, tough love self-talk (which amounts to yelling at myself), self-help mumbo-jumbo, and A Course in Miracles concepts. I have also admonished myself for having this pattern in my life, and for all of the behavior it leads me to do, or not to do. The shame has been crushing on and off throughout my life, just for it being part of me and seeming so strong and real. It is a place of distraction, of putting off what is truly helpful, joyful or fulfilling. It is a hopeless, sad, depressed, dejected part of my identity that represents a lack of self-love and care.

It tells me of having no motivation to rise up, to love and be loved, to put effort into anything meaningful, yet this part also dreams of a future release into a passion-filled life of purpose and childlike joy that is free of these beliefs of unworthiness. While it used to run the show in my life in far more overt ways, it is indeed still there, lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings on this Robin-puppet.

As the thought pattern came up and I found myself listening to it, believing it yet again, letting it take me on its hellish journey, I decided I was NOT going to let the wave overtake and crush me this time. Even as the tears started and the hopelessness came over me and the unwanted behavior was taking place with my body, a deeper part of me (the decision maker) refused to allow this thought pattern to go unchecked and unchallenged. I could hear it calling for Love; to be faced and healed; to be laid down in a way that hadn’t been possible before.

In this experience of darkness, shame and doom, I realized that by hiding and judging this set of beliefs; by keeping it buried under layers of coping maneuvers and numbing, I’ve protected this aspect of my self from being healed fully. I have been secretly believing the hurtful story it was telling me, which is why it has been so upsetting when it has come up before. If I didn’t believe it was true, it wouldn’t upset me and control me so much.

My power of belief is strong, not the thoughts themselves. The thought pattern has lingered because I have allowed it to. In the past when I’ve recognized this truth that I do this to myself, a wave of crushing guilt would follow and knock me over into further insanity. But it’s different now. I’ve done a lot of inner work, and now it is time to really look at this hopeless part of me. I must be ready and, despite the pain and discomfort, this is very good news.

As A Course in Miracles practitioner, I’ve been taught that my task, or my job, as I live my life is to practice true forgiveness. This means to pay attention to how I feel, and to look at my life and my thoughts without judgment. By looking at anything without judgment (from a detached place of acceptance), I am seeing it truly, and this is forgiveness. Looking at something without judgment frees me from the beliefs that cause the strife and suffering I otherwise experience. This is true for ALL things, whether it is a person, circumstance, memory, or a thought pattern. 

At my bedside are yellow roses that my sweet partner gave me last week, and they are reaching the end of their life cycle, with brown, crispy petals hanging off the stems. They have been drying up and disintegrating a little more each day this last week, leading up to this healing experience I’m in.

Their withered state seems a perfect symbol of the thoughts of unworthiness in my mind, and the task of looking at what could easily be judged as ugly and unacceptable. It’s so easy to judge and reject what doesn’t shine so bright, what is old and dried up, brown and dying and unpleasant. But who is deciding what is unpleasant and unacceptable? The world, or some other person? No, it’s me. I can pass the buck for only so long, but if I want my peace and joy restored to me, I’m going to have to give up ALL thoughts that judge, even about the brown rose petals and the dark thoughts.

It’s time to take FULL responsibility for the thoughts that I choose to believe in and keep alive in my mind. These roses are just like the depressed thought patterns of unworthiness that I’m looking at, worn out and tired. Yet there they are, taking up space in my life, on display for me to see. And until I fully acknowledge them they’ll never reach the trash can of forgiveness and will continue to take up space in my mind and life. 

To let them be there rather than shove them away; to look at them fully, to see them for what they are without needing them to be different, they are so innocent and beautiful to me. As I observe them with neutrality, with compassion, free of condemnation and attack, they can be gently discarded when their usefulness is completed.

The mind and heart healing is not my job; Spirit will do that for me if I step back and do my part. My part is to look, and wait, and judge not without pushing away or using denial tactics. And so, having seen and felt the thought pattern of unworthiness, today these old false thoughts are offered to Spirit to be laid to rest in His perfect timing.
They aren’t good or bad; they simply aren’t needed or useful any longer, nor are they true. But they have served their purpose very well, just as the once-yellow roses have. They have both brought me to a place of gratitude, Love and Joy, in their own unique ways. All things do work for good. Always.  

I am so grateful for this experience of diving into my own private darkness. It was all worth it. Along with the roses, my false thoughts are fading into oblivion. I feel so much lighter and I actually believe that the healing of this old unworthiness script in my mind is possible, and is happening NOW. In their place, new, fresh and bright thoughts will take hold; thoughts that I share with Eternity …thoughts and beliefs that shine with Truth, Joy, unconditional Love, compassion and innocence. 

May the mind be free of all suffering through this forgiveness practice, and in the meantime, may my life be filled with fresh, colorful flowers:)

Rev. Robin Singler is a Pathways of Light minister living in Huntley, IL. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2023, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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