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Just Say “Yes”

Rev. Donna Marie Cary

I have been a minister of music for over 20 years, in fact, was honored with a certificate and title of Minister of Music, in 1994, through the Community Miracles Center. Since being a student of ACIM, since 1986, I have been trusting the Holy Spirit’s guidance, which has led me across the country to share the message of Love and forgiveness. With all of my travels, I have received just as much healing as has been extended from me to others. In fact, that is really all the Journey is about — healing my mind.

Thoughout these years, I have considered various ministerial programs, but none seemed to resonate fully. There was no big ‘yes,’ until I visited Pathways of Light in the summer of 2005 to partake in and share music at a week-long forgiveness retreat. Once again, I received so much love and healing. I was so deeply touched by their offering that something in me said, ‘yes,’ this is the one. I started the ministerial program shortly after leaving that retreat. I could have completed the studies and been ordained sooner, but I now know why I was to wait until this time. I was to be a part of the first teleconference training.

I had been looking forward to visiting Pathways of Light, once again, to finish the last part of the ministerial program. But I was not able to make the trip for several reasons. The main reason was that I could not afford it. I would be missing work and I had already missed much work due to my music travels and visiting family. So when Mary and Robert contacted me about the decision to try this teleconference training instead of the in person portion of the ministerial program at the Center, I immediately said, ‘yes.’

But, it wasn’t long after I said yes, that the ego began it’s chatter. “How can this work? It won’t be as intimate a process. I’ve been part of many group experiences throughout the years and the bodies need to be present with one another.”

On and on and on the ego went, with excuses not to trust this process. It was different than what I was used to. It was out of the box; out of my comfort zone. It did not compute. In fact computers were way out of my comfort zone when I first got one. I couldn’t think of writing a letter to someone on a computer instead of with pen in hand. It just didn’t seem as warm and cozy, not as intimate and personal. With the ‘celestial speedup’ occuring, there will be more and more boxes I will need to come out of.

Through this whole process, I did continually ask for help and guidance from Holy Spirit. When the day of the first teleconference was to take place, in spite of the doubts, resistance and fear, I said, “Yes, yes, I am willing to lay down all of my thoughts about what this means, what this will be, and I will be here now. I will accept what is. I am willing to see this differently.” With every experience in this dream, I am asked to practice this.

And wow! Wow! Wow! I am glad I said yes. Was it a good experience? Yes! Was it intimate? Yes! Was it just as effective as being together in person? Yes! Did I receive Healing? Yes! Were we joined? Yes! Joined in Spirit, which is the only place that joining occurs.

The course tells us over and over that bodies cannot unite; that we are not a body; that the body’s eyes cannot see and that the body’s eyes stop at the body and don’t go beyond to the Truth. So for me, this is just a step in the direction of True Communication, True Joining.

Before the teleconferences began I was in dread of ‘my’ whole month of Saturdays being used up with this process, but after the first one, I couldn’t wait for the next Saturday. I think I can speak for the whole group that we all felt the same, looking forward to the next Saturday when we would join in Love, joy, and healing. I love you guys! You have blessed me so!

Thank you Holy Spirit for extending through us to one another and out to the Sonship. And thank you Donna for saying ‘yes.’

Rev. Donna Marie Cary is a Pathways of Light minister who lives in Manassas, Virginia.

© 2007, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Holy Spirit — on a Teleconference?

by Rev. Dan Landis

I approached the new Accessing Inner Wisdom Counseling teleconferencing training with much concern. How in the world would I learn with everyone on a phone! I wouldn’t even get to see them in person. How would I read their body language?

The more I worried, the less peaceful I became. I thought maybe I needed to let them get the bugs out. I’ll let another group be the guinea pigs. Oh! But wait – I’m to trust that everything is perfect.

So I did! I stepped back — took a deep breath — and remembered ‘Peace First.’

Slowly my mind began to quiet and I decided to trust the process. The experience proved to be great!

Mary, Robert and Sharyn modeled excellent facilitation. The Holy Spirit took over and taught us that we didn’t need physical eyes to see. We were thousands of miles apart and He molded us into ONE!

This training proved to be so helpful to me on many levels. I released my fear of what others think and say. I learned to trust the Holy Spirit leading in a new way. I experienced Oneness with ‘complete strangers.’

I am completely confident that I am ready to facilitate the Accessing Inner Wisdom Counseling with anyone the Holy Spirit brings my way.  Thank you!

Rev. Dan Landis is a Pathways of Light minister who lives in Southern Pines, South Carolina.

© 2007, 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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A Course in Miracles Enlightened Parenting

by Rev. Myron Jones

The following is an excerpt from Myron’s pending book about applying the principles of A Course in Miracles to parenting. She has been studying A Course in Miracles for 25 years and has had extensive experience applying Course principles in parenting her children. Her children have encouraged her to write a book so that others can benefit as they have. Myron will also be facilitating a workshop on enlightened parenting September 15-16 at Pathways of Light.

I bought a new car last year, and noticed that there was not one, but three, instruction manuals in the glove box. I looked in one of them to see how often I was supposed to change the oil, and when I should get a tune up. I haven’t looked at any of them since. I will use them if a light I don’t understand comes on.

The manual I didn’t get was the one I would have really appreciated. I will never understand why babies don’t come with instructions. Learning when a cry is boredom and when it is urgent comes pretty quickly, but there are so many other cries in between that leave a new parent baffled, uncertain, and fearful of making a major mistake. There are so many things we, as new parents, just don’t know. It is “on the job” training with very little to go on.

Each stage of their lives requires different skill sets from the parents, and we are expected to learn these skills through trial and error. Just as we get it figured out, they have moved on to another phase. By the time my children were teenagers, I was not so much confident as I was resigned. I knew I was going to make lots of mistakes, and all I could do was hope I wouldn’t do so badly that they would need extensive therapy to recover from my parenting.

And yet, my kids are grown and doing very well. I love them and they seem to love me right back. I even like them, and enjoy their company. My job as parent is over and now we are something else. Perhaps not buddies, but the relationship is now more relaxed than it was as parent/child. We are all adults and facing the same challenges. When they have a problem they may come to me, not as children looking for someone to solve their problems, but more as younger adults to a more experienced one asking for her opinion.

Occasionally, I forget my new position and fall back into my role as parent. My kids do not welcome this. They don’t need me in that way anymore. I am pleased to step back. I don’t want to fill that position for the rest of my life anymore than they need me to. I now do for them what I would any of my friends. I listen intently. I care and I know the truth for them when they forget. I offer suggestions if appropriate, and if that seems to be what they want. If not, I just step back and know that they are exactly where they need to be in their life, and that they have the same Inner Wisdom to draw upon that I do.

I want to speak for a moment to those of you who have already raised your kids. You may be wishing, as I often did, that you had done a better job. For a long time I was plagued by a lingering uncertainty, and sometimes by truly debilitating guilt. I knew that I had not been a perfect parent. I also knew that at times I had failed miserably as a parent. I had more convincing evidence of my failure than many parents did, and I would remind myself of that from time to time, and just wallow in the guilt until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

Interestingly enough, my children, whom I was thinking of as the victims of my errors, did not accuse me of anything. That did not stop me from imagining that they were just too nice to say what they were thinking. I remember asking my oldest daughter, Sheryl, to forgive me for something I had done to her that I was just so tired of carrying around. I thought maybe getting actual verbal absolution would help me to let it go. She told me that, of course, she forgave me and that she understood the concept of making amends very well. Then she surprised me. She confessed that she had no idea what I was talking about. Obviously I had not scarred her for life as I had feared. Who knew?

I tell this story because I believe it is more common than you would think. I told that same story to a friend once, and she had her own story to relate. The ego self thrives on guilt and is anxious to perpetuate it. I lived under a terrible burden of guilt for many years. When my first two kids, Scott and Sheryl, were very young, I left them with their dad and moved away. My fear of being a parent was just more than I could overcome at that time. The resulting guilt and shame overshadowed everything I did from that point forward.

Later after I had matured, and after I had found my spiritual path, I desperately wanted them back, but felt it would be unfair to their dad and to them. I had two more children, Susan and Toby, and I kept in regular contact with Scott and Sheryl. The burden of my guilt, though, was truly awful, and colored everything I did for many years.

When I was fifty one years old, I got really serious about my spiritual life, and began studying for the ministry. While at Pathways of Light doing my in-person training, I was introduced to Accessing Inner Wisdom Counseling. In the course of learning to do this counseling, I both gave and received counseling. This kind of spiritual counseling is unique in that the counselor doesn’t tell you what to do or even encourage you to talk it out. Instead, the counselor helps you to get into a deeply relaxed meditative state where you can receive help from your own Inner Wisdom.

I had been studying A Course in Miracles for many years, and now felt that it was time to release the guilt I had been carrying around for so long. As part of the counseling, I looked at the clusters of thoughts that were causing my discomfort. I saw that I felt I had made unforgivable mistakes, and that to forgive myself would be unfair. If I had failed my children so badly as to affect their lives forever, the least I could do was suffer with them. I had never realized that this was my unconscious motivation for holding onto the guilt.

While still in the counseling process, I brought these guilty thoughts to the Holy Spirit for healing. The healing that took place during the Accessing Inner Wisdom Counseling was truly a miracle. In a blink of an eye, a lifetime burden was released. When I asked the Holy Spirit for a new way to think, He told me that I had never done anything wrong. In that moment, I lay down my burden and began to live. My decision to relieve myself of guilty thoughts about my failure as a parent also relieved my children of the burden of receiving my sacrificial offerings. We were now free just to love each other without the past overshadowing everything we did.

If you seem to have made mistakes as a parent, and it is likely you think you have, let me reassure you that everything is exactly as it should be. There are no errors. You have made no mistakes. Your children chose you as their parent because they needed exactly the lessons you brought to them. The ego divides all your actions into categories; this one good, that one bad, this one to be proud of, that one is perfectly shameful. This is what the ego does and you cannot change this about the ego.

You do have a choice, though. There are two voices. You do not have to listen to what the ego says. You can, at any time, turn your attention from the ego and listen instead to the Voice for God. When you do, you will hear that Voice gently laugh at the thought you could have done anything wrong. You did exactly what you came to do. You fulfilled your part in your children’s stories just as they needed you to so they could learn their forgiveness lessons.

The Voice for God will tell you that there is only one category, and everything you said or did goes into it. This category is labeled, “Perfectly Done.” This Voice will assure you that you can lay down your burden of guilt, for truly you have never done anything wrong. It will show you that the help you always wished you had is right there within you, gently guiding you to the absolute certainty that you are God’s holy child and that He loves you. You may feel trapped in a situation with no good choices available to you, but the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, will show you another way. You can be certain that His way will always bring joy and peace to everyone in the situation.

Rev. Myron Jones is a Pathways of Light minister living in St. Charles, Louisiana. Read more of her inspiring Healing Journal articles on the Pathways of Light web site.  Web site: http://www.forgivenessistheway.org

© 2007, 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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The Importance of Remembering “I Know Nothing”

by Revs. Robert & Mary Stoelting

It is thinking we already know ‘what’s what’ that blocks the Holy Spirit from entering our minds. When we think we are separate and alone and can think clearly on our own, we are mistaken. The separation we see through our body’s eyes is really showing us the opposite of the truth of our oneness in God’s Love.

Then how do we function in this world? The answer is to develop the habit of stepping back and being willing to follow Holy Spirit’s lead.

In Text, Chapter 14 we are taught to say to ourselves when anything threatens our peace, “I do not know what anything, including this means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now.” T-14.XI.6:7-9

This stepping back takes vigilance because the ego’s purpose for this world is to be independent — to decide things on our own — and to project the guilt we feel onto others.

Reversing this habit of making decisions on our own takes some work. It takes consistent practice. When it says, “I need do nothing” in the Course, it is reminding us that it is not our job to usurp what is Holy Spirit’s job. Our job is to step back and let Him lead the way. Our job is to be quiet and listen. Our job is to step back from what we think we know and be taught true perception, which is the opposite of the perception of separation. “To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides.” T-18.VII.7:7-8

In Chapter 27, Section IV of the Text it says, “In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved.” T-27.IV.1:1 When we develop the habit of giving time to quiet listening with an open mind, one of the first things we receive is Holy Spirit’s gift of peace. We can tell if we are truly opening up to the Holy Spirit by the level of peace we experience. If we remain locked in our squirrel cage of going round and round in our deluded thought system, we effectively block receiving Holy Spirit’s gift of peace.

If we soften and allow peace to enter our minds, we will notice a difference in how we feel. Holy Spirit’s gift of peace is not a small gift. It lightens our mind and brings us to an awareness that we are being carried to the truth, if we allow it.

As we allow peace to fill our hearts and minds, our sense of irritation disappears. All tension fades. The magnitude of peace is known. The gentleness of peace is felt. We love God’s gift of peace and we would carry it in our awareness. We would not push it away. We would be in peace. We would extend the peace we receive. We know there is no other way to experience true and lasting happiness.

And all this comes from remembering this one thing — “By myself, I know nothing.” Stepping back and letting Holy Spirit bring us to a peaceful state of mind starts the whole ball rolling in the right direction — toward awakening to the truth.

There is a quote in the Course which applies here that is our favorite — “I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace. I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise. I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace. I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him. I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.” T-5.VII.6:7-11

Mary & Robert Stoelting are co-founers of Pathways of Light. They live at the Pathways of Light Center in Kiel, Wisconsin.

© 2007, 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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