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January-April, 2024

Salvation in a Snow Globe

by Rev. Robin Singler, Ordained Ministerial Counselor

According to the Course, forgiveness is my function, and forgiveness looks and waits and judges not. This means forgiveness is the act of looking and suspending all judgment. It is looking at all things in my awareness, both within and without, from a place of calm observance and of detached watching, absent of all need to form opinions or condemn what is being observed.

When I first started studying the Course and attempting to apply it in my life I thought that Awakening would be reached by clearing my mind of all extraneous thoughts and all negative emotions. This led me to go down a path of denying the full experience of my feelings, fears and doubts because I thought it was “not spiritual” to have thoughts or experiences of suffering and that the goal was to somehow eliminate them from my mind and my awareness. But my Inner Teacher; the wise Voice deep inside my mind, has given me a very helpful symbol to use to apply the teachings of A Course in Miracles.

After asking my inner Guidance to help me apply a particular workbook lesson, I was asked to think about a snow globe, and how each snow globe features a figure of some kind at its center that is firmly fixed to the bottom of the snow globe. No matter how much you shake the snow globe the figure never moves; it remains stationary and stable and firm in its place even as the little bits of snow or glitter swirl all around it in chaotic fashion. No matter how much the little bits swirl around the figure, they all settle down eventually and the globe is calm and clear again. It is just as it was before the chaos started and the figure is not affected by the debris circling around it.

As I was guided to observe how a snow globe works, I have noticed many similarities with my own situation in my life and what the act of forgiveness really entails. Forgiveness doesn’t ask me to turn off my feelings and to deny any experience in the moment. Forgiveness asks me to watch what comes up, to welcome it to be there, and to judge it not. To deny my true feelings no matter if they’re ugly or messy or beautiful or shameful is not helpful; it merely keeps them pushed down and unhealed, waiting to reemerge in the future.

Forgiveness doesn’t ask for “perfection” in the world or in my life.
Forgiveness asks me to be just like the figure in the snow globe; to be still and watch in faith that this too shall pass and that I will remain untouched when the storm has passed. The figure gets jostled around just like the rest of the snow globe but it doesn’t move. It is not convinced it is in danger and it is not swayed by the swirl of debris around it. It knows that there is nothing of concern going on and that all is well in Truth.

Forgiveness asks me to observe with full awareness my inner and outer surroundings. Forgiveness asks me to watch without condemnation the thoughts, feelings and emotions in my mind and all of the appearances that seem to be out in the world. I am asked to not identify with them as being part of me. Looking without judgment from a calm, stable center allows me to accept that I am not what I observe. I am not what changes; I am Eternal.

The Course tells me that I am the dreamer of a dream, and that I am merely asleep as I experience myself as an individual person. I can’t possibly be both the dream figure who experiences all the chaos and drama of the dream AND the dreamer.  In other words I can’t watch a play in the audience and be on the stage at the same time. I must be one or the other, I cannot be both.
J
esus asks me in the Course over and over again to step back and look at the dream with Him; to step back and look without judgment on my own projection. So when I shake the snow globe and watch all the debris swirl around the figure in the middle that is very still at the center, I remember this is my goal: To allow chaos, sadness, upheaval and uncertainty all swirl around me while remaining in my calm center. I am to keep my eyes open to notice what is around me and to use it for my mind healing… to smile at it and to love it and to sit in that calm center and feel the stability and the strength of God within me and allow it to hold me up in moments where I am tempted to take the chaos seriously and to worry about what’s going on out there. If I am really The Observer then nothing of the world can harm me. I am untouchable and safe forever and this is very good news. This Truth is what makes forgiveness possible.

I really love the teaching of the snow globe that’s been brought to me. I always thought snow globes were such a waste of space but now I’m quite attracted to them and I’ve added a couple to my living spaces to remind me of my purpose in this world of dreams. It is very possible to look without judgment on chaos as it swirls around me and there is great joy and peace in this.

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