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January-March, 2014

It Is Inevitable. We Will Get It.

by Rev. Mary Wongwai, O.M.C.

In my ACIM group today we began reading Chapter 22, the Introduction and Section 1. In this group we take turns reading a paragraph and we pause for questions or comments. Usually we glean better understanding by sharing impressions of the passages. The reading today, however, was landing in lots of different places. We didn’t have much input about the words. When people did comment it was not related to the Text.

The group was very chatty and easily distracted onto more simple topics. We seemed to be struggling to grasp the reading today and some people seemed like they were not wanting to work at understanding the words. There were a few exceptions, one member was inspired to share her sense of feeling powerless. We stayed with her on this subject for a moment but quickly the group went back to light banter.

I was struggling today with being with the group dynamic of not wanting to stay with the Text. At the same time, I have to admit that I too was not comprehending what we were reading. The words felt abstract, almost as if written in another language. I comprehended only little glimpses. I heard things about language and understanding and some talk of the Holy Relationship. At one point during the reading I had a flashback to an event I had witnessed the night before. I chose not to share it with the group when it came to me.

Toward the end of the meeting, after another member reflected on the subject of language of the Text, I decided to share what had come to me during the reading. I explained, “Last night I was at a gym where my child was practicing gymnastics. There was a child under the age of two there. He had not yet learned to talk but he was vocalizing all over the place. He came over to me and began talking to me. (I’ll paraphrase here) He looked at me and said “bibity, bobity, bibity.” I talked back to him in regular English. He said “bobity bibity bobity.” I was enjoying his great enthusiasm and I could even understand what he was saying. He was saying that he couldn’t reach the window to look through it. I said, “Maybe if you sit on this chair, you will be able to see through the window.” I know he understood some of what I said and he replied, “bibity, bobity, bobity” and walked happily off.

During this exchange, I was struck with the truth that he is totally going to learn this. It is a certainty. As I shared this story with the group, I could feel their unanimous agreement that yes, he would certainty be learning how to speak English. He was doing exactly what he should be doing. He was practicing. Then I suggested to the group that, “I think we are that boy. If we keep practicing, we will learn it. It is a certainty.”

Now, hours later, I am again thinking about the group and our seeming resistance to hear the message in today’s Text and I am seeing it differently. I see that it is all okay. Our inability to decipher the meaning completely, our resistance to hearing the message, our struggling with the concepts, my struggling with the resistance, it is all okay. We are all practicing and we are most certainly going to get it.

In reviewing the Text that the group read together I found this: “This is your language. You do not understand it yet only because your whole communication is like a baby’s. The sounds a baby makes and what he hears are highly unreliable, meaning different things to him at different times. Neither the sounds he hears nor the sights he sees are stable yet. But what he hears and does not understand will be his native tongue, through which he will communicate with those around him, and they with him. And the strange, shifting ones he sees abut him will become to him his comforters, and he will recognize his home and see them there with him.” (T-22.I.6:2-7)

I am in awe of these words from the Text now and I am touched that the little boy and I crossed paths just at the right time in perfect support of my learning. I am thankful for those “strange shifting ones” in my group. The two perfect events to bring these words to life. There has to be grace here and I am grateful.

© 2013, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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