Love's Vision: A Healing Journey of Remembering Love's Truth

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Choosing Joy: The Freedom of Remembering Who We Are

An Invitation to Live Beyond the Ego, the Masks, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves

There is a great deal of noise in the world these days. Fear seems to have found a microphone, and everyone has something to say. We are surrounded by uncertainty, division, suffering, and endless predictions of what might happen next. There are days when it seems the entire world has forgotten how to breathe, much less laugh.

And yet, here I am, choosing joy.

Not because I am unaware of what is happening around me. Not because my life has been without sorrow, or because I have somehow mastered the art of spiritual living. Quite the contrary. I have known fear intimately. I have entertained the ego’s stories, defended my grievances, and held tightly to interpretations that brought me nothing but suffering.

I have spent years studying A Course in Miracles, and I can tell you that the ego remains a remarkably persuasive storyteller.

Sometimes I even believe her.

She knows exactly which buttons to push, which memories to revisit, and how to present a grievance so convincingly that I can almost mistake it for righteousness. She can make being right seem far more important than being peaceful.

But somewhere along this journey, I began to recognize something that changed my life.

Every time I identify with the ego, I am choosing pain. I am hurting myself.

And I simply do not wish to live that way anymore.

I want to live at the vibration of joy.

Not someday, when the world settles down. Not when everyone agrees with me, my body cooperates, or every circumstance falls beautifully into place.

Now.

Right here, in the middle of this gloriously imperfect human experience.

The Stories We Mistook for Ourselves

Throughout this series, we have explored the inner child, the ego’s defenses, the masks we wear, and the interpretations we allow to keep us bound. We have looked at the caretaker, the achiever, the rescuer, the strong one, and the frightened child who learned that becoming someone else might be safer than simply being.

I recognize some of those characters. Perhaps you do, too.

We can become so accustomed to our roles that we forget they are roles at all. We carry our childhood interpretations into adulthood, polishing them with experience until they begin to resemble truth.

And what extraordinary stories we can tell!

We remember the person who hurt us, the love we did not receive, the injustice we endured, or the moment we decided we were somehow inadequate. We replay these experiences, sometimes for decades, without realizing that we are continuing to give them meaning in the present.

Yet it isn’t the past that binds us. It is the meaning we continue to give it.

Our experiences may have shaped our personalities, influenced our relationships, and taught us how to navigate the world, but they never possessed the power to change what God created.

This has been one of the most liberating realizations of my spiritual journey.

I can acknowledge my past without living in it. I can have compassion for the child I once was without continuing to believe everything she concluded about herself. I can recognize the ego’s defenses without mistaking them for my identity.

And perhaps most importantly, I can stop trying to repair a Self that was never damaged.

The Courage to Look Within

I did not arrive at this understanding simply by reading beautiful spiritual passages and hoping they would somehow transform me.

I had to do the work.

I had to face my secrets, my fears, my judgments, and those uncomfortable corners of my mind where I had carefully stored things I preferred not to examine. I had to become willing to question beliefs that had accompanied me for much of my life.

And I had to become honest about how often I was participating in my own suffering.

That was not always pleasant.

There is something rather humbling about discovering that the very grievance we have been nurturing, defending, and occasionally decorating with fresh evidence is the thing standing between us and peace.

The ego does not surrender its arguments gracefully.

It wants witnesses. It wants validation. It wants someone to agree that we have every reason to be upset.

And sometimes I still give it exactly what it wants.

But A Course in Miracles offers a radically different invitation:

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

Such a simple sentence.

And such an extraordinary practice.

What if, instead of defending my interpretation, I questioned it? What if I became more interested in peace than in proving my story? What if I allowed the Holy Spirit to show me something I had been unwilling to see?

That is where the miracle begins for me.

Not in changing what happened, but in changing the mind with which I look upon it.

Choosing the Vibration of Joy

I have come to believe that joy is not merely an emotion that visits us when life is pleasant. It is a way of being, an orientation of the mind, a willingness to remain aligned with Love.

When I speak of living at the vibration of joy, I am describing the quality of awareness I wish to cultivate. The energy I bring into a room. The thoughts I nourish. The way I greet another person, respond to difficulty, or experience an ordinary afternoon.

I want my life to be an expression of gratitude rather than a reaction to fear.

For more than three years, I devoted myself to a daily gratitude practice. Some days I spent only a few minutes writing. Other days, I could lose myself in it for an hour or more.

And something beautiful happened.

My experience of life began to change.

The more I looked for things to appreciate, the more I noticed them. Small kindnesses became extraordinary gifts. Ordinary moments became opportunities for wonder. I began to recognize beauty in places I might once have overlooked.

My circumstances did not have to become perfect for my experience to become richer.

My attention had changed.

And with it, my perception.

I sometimes think of this as a form of manifestation, although not necessarily in the popular sense of attracting possessions or arranging the world according to my personal wishes.

What I am describing is a transformation of perception.

When I continually give my attention to fear, I experience a world colored by fear. When I cultivate gratitude, forgiveness, and Love, I become more available to recognize those qualities around me.

The Course reminds us:

“The power of decision is my own.” (W-pI.152)

What an enormous responsibility, and what an extraordinary gift.

I may not control every event in my life, but I can practice choosing the teacher through whom I interpret it.

And increasingly, I choose joy.

Loving the World Without Joining Its Fear

Of course, choosing joy in today’s world can seem almost rebellious.

There is so much demanding our attention. Our bodies require care, our responsibilities require action, and our relationships require presence. We have work to do, people to love, appointments to remember, and all the ordinary details of being human.

Then we turn on the news.

Suddenly, the mind is invited into a thousand different fears.

It can be difficult to remember our spiritual identity when the world seems determined to convince us that we are fragile, separate, and perpetually threatened.

But I am learning that I can care without carrying every fear.

I can acknowledge suffering without making suffering my identity. I can respond to injustice without allowing hatred to become my teacher. I can extend compassion to someone whose beliefs are entirely different from mine without surrendering my own peace.

In fact, I believe I am far more useful to the world when I am peaceful.

Fear rarely brings out the most loving version of me.

Peace does.

Joy does.

Forgiveness does.

This does not mean turning away from the world’s suffering. It means refusing to add my own fear to it.

I want to be someone who brings a little more light into a room, a little more gentleness into a conversation, a little more laughter into an otherwise difficult day.

I cannot imagine a more meaningful way to participate in the healing of the world.

The Practice of Remembering

After all these years, you might imagine that I have become quite accomplished at choosing peace. Ha!

Some days, perhaps.

Other days, the ego catches me before I’ve finished my morning coffee.

I can recognize an old grievance, become defensive, or suddenly find myself deeply invested in something that, upon reflection, has absolutely nothing to do with my eternal Identity.

And there I am again.

Momentarily auditioning for the leading role in another ego drama.

I have learned to find a little humor in this.

Because if I begin judging myself for forgetting, I have simply handed the ego another opportunity to take the stage.

The Course offers a reminder I return to often:

“The new beginning now becomes the focus of the curriculum.” (T-30.In.1:1)

A new beginning.

Not tomorrow. Not after another year of study. Not when I have finally forgiven every grievance and uncovered every hidden fear.

Now.

The spiritual journey, as I have come to experience it, is not a straight line toward some distant state of perfection. It is the ongoing practice of remembering, forgetting, and becoming willing to remember again.

Forgiveness is my training.

I practice releasing the meanings I have assigned to events. I practice recognizing when I am defending an illusion. I practice asking the Holy Spirit to reinterpret what I believe I see.

Sometimes I remember quickly. Sometimes I remain tangled in my story far longer than I would like.

But the invitation never disappears.

I can choose again.

And so can you.

Returning to the Child Within

When we began this series, we looked at the inner child and the ways we learned to protect ourselves.

We explored the masks we adopted, the defenses we constructed, and the stories we came to believe.

But perhaps the greatest gift of looking within is discovering that none of those things is who we are.

We do not need to condemn the child who was afraid or the adult who learned to protect her.

We can meet them both with tenderness.

We can acknowledge the pain, honor the experience, and recognize the patterns without continuing to identify with them.

We can stop asking the past to explain our worth.

We can stop asking the world to confirm our value.

We can stop asking other people to become different so that we might finally experience peace.

And we can begin remembering the Love that was present before we ever learned to question it.

Our innocence has not disappeared beneath the masks.

Our wholeness has not been diminished by our stories.

Our connection to God has not been severed by our fear.

We have simply forgotten.

And remembering is available in every moment.

And So, I Choose Joy

I do not know what tomorrow will bring.

I cannot predict what the world will look like next year, what challenges may arise, or how many more opportunities I will have to practice forgiveness before this lifetime is complete.

But I know how I want to live.

I want to greet each day with gratitude.

I want to notice the ridiculous, delightful, unexpected beauty of being alive.

I want to laugh freely, love generously, forgive willingly, and stop taking the ego’s arguments quite so seriously.

I want to be present for the people I love without asking them to fulfill the expectations of my stories.

I want to experience the world through the eyes of Love rather than through the lens of fear.

And when I forget, as I surely will, I want to remember that forgetting is not the end of the journey.

It is simply another opportunity to practice.

Perhaps this is what I most want to leave with you as we conclude our time exploring the inner child and the ego.

You do not have to wait for the world to become peaceful before you choose peace.

You do not have to wait for every old wound to stop aching before you become willing to forgive.

You do not have to wait until every mask has fallen away before you begin remembering who you are.

And you certainly do not have to become spiritually perfect before allowing yourself to experience joy.

You can begin right here.

With this breath.

This thought.

This willingness.

This moment.

The world may continue telling its stories. The ego may continue offering its interpretations. Our bodies will continue asking for attention, and life will continue unfolding in all its unpredictable ways.

But beneath the noise, beneath the fear, beneath every mask and every story, Love remains.

And that is where I want to live.

Not because I have finally mastered the Course, but because I have experienced enough of its truth to know that I no longer wish to make a home in fear.

I choose gratitude.

I choose forgiveness.

I choose to keep practicing.

And whenever I remember that I have a choice, I choose joy.

Again and again and again.

What a beautiful way to live.

And what a beautiful reason to remember who we are.

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Part 4: Interpretations We Allow to Keep Us Bound ⭐

It isn’t the past that binds us, but the meaning we’ve continued to give it.

A Course in Miracles gently shifts our attention away from the past and into the present with this beautiful reminder:
“The new beginning now becomes the focus of the curriculum.” (T-30.Int.1:1)

What a profound invitation!

The Course is not asking us to deny that painful experiences occurred. It is asking us to question our interpretations we made (about ourselves) because of those experiences.

As children, we naturally tried to make sense of the world. We drew conclusions that felt true at the time:
“I’m not enough.”
“I have to earn love.”
“I’m alone.”
“I must protect myself.”

Those interpretations became part of the ego’s thought system. Over time, we repeated them so often that they began to feel like facts rather than interpretations.

Yet they were never God’s Truth.

The past itself has no power to imprison us. What keeps us bound is our continued allegiance to the meanings the ego assigned to it.

Healing, then, is not found in endlessly revisiting our stories. It is found in becoming willing to surrender our interpretations to the Holy Spirit.

The miracle is not that the past changes.

The miracle is that our mind changes.

Every moment offers a new beginning because every moment offers a new choice. We can continue to see ourselves through the lens of fear, or we can allow the Holy Spirit to reinterpret every memory in the light of Love.

Healing has very little to do with the story itself.

Healing is remembering that no story has the power to redefine what God created.

The past may explain why the ego learned to think as it does, but it cannot determine who we are.

Our Identity was established by God, and NO interpretation can change that.

That is why the new beginning is always now.

Perfection! In a perfectly imperfect world. Hugs.

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Part 3: Who Did I Become in Order to be Loved?

“The self-concept is made by you. It bears no likeness to yourself at all.” (ACIM T-31.V.2)

All of our labels and roles are self-concepts; the caretaker, the achiever, the rescuer, the strong one, the invisible one, the unloved, etc. ad infinitum…ad nauseam! Not a single one is “bad” or “wrong”. They are all, every single one, simply a mask that is worn to serve a purpose.

Do you know when a miracle occurs? When we realize we are not the roles we play, the masks we wear, we are not these self-concepts we made. We always, and this is ALWAYS and ALL WAYS, remain as GOD created us!

How did God create us?
Apart from this world. Underneath the chaos, the division and separation, each of us, you, me, every single being is PERFECT, WHOLE, & COMPLETE! Let us remember and Celebrate today!

Keeping it simple today. I love you!

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Part 2: The Ego Was Born to Protect You

“The ego is a device for maintaining separation.” (T:Ch 11-V.1)

Recently I found myself reflecting on a difficult interaction at work.

The situation itself wasn’t extraordinary. It was one of those moments that many of us experience—a comment, a tone, a misunderstanding. Yet my reaction felt larger than the moment itself.

As I sat with it, I began asking a deeper question:

“What exactly am I protecting?”

That question changed everything.

Like many people, I spent much of my life becoming competent. I learned how to manage, teach, lead, solve problems, and care for others. I became someone people could depend upon.

From the outside, that looks like confidence.

But spiritual growth has taught me that confidence and protection are not always the same thing.

Sometimes what appears to be strength is actually armor.

The more honestly I looked at my own life, the more I realized that many of my defenses had once served a purpose.

The desire to do things well.

The tendency to work harder.

The need to be prepared.

The wish to be appreciated.

The discomfort when I feel misunderstood.

None of these qualities are inherently wrong. In fact, many helped me build a meaningful life and career.

Yet beneath them, I sometimes discover a part of myself that still wonders:

“Am I enough?”

“Am I valued?”

“Do I belong?”

The ego was born to answer those questions through achievement, approval, control, and protection.

But the soul seeks a different answer.

A Course in Miracles teaches that fear is not our natural state. Love is.

When I look honestly at my own perfectionism, people-pleasing, or desire to be understood, I no longer see flaws.

I see a self who was trying to stay safe.

And rather than judging her, I have learned to thank her.

Thank you for protecting me.

Thank you for helping me survive.

Thank you for getting me here.

I don’t have to carry this burden anymore.

God is carrying me now.

Healing began for me when I stopped treating the ego as an enemy and started seeing it as a frightened protector.

The ego built the armor.

Spirit invites us to lay it down.

Not all at once.

Not perfectly.

But gently.

One layer at a time.

“You will defend the ego because you believe that it is you.” (T:Ch 6:IV)

The miracle occurs when we stop asking, “How do I get rid of my ego?” and begin asking, “What fear is this defense trying to protect?”

The answer is almost always some version of the same ancient wound: the belief that we are separate from Love.

Yet the Holy Spirit continually reminds us that separation never truly occurred.

Our task is not to become worthy of God’s love.

Our task is to remember that we have never been without it.

As the ego softens, something beautiful begins to emerge.

We become less defensive.

Less controlling.

Less concerned with approval.

Less attached to being right.

And more available to peace.

The armor begins to fall away.

What remains is not weakness.

What remains is truth.

The truth that beneath every defense, beneath every fear, beneath every story of inadequacy, there remains the radiant Self God created—whole, innocent, and forever loved.

That is the Self that was waiting beneath the armor all along.

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Who Is the Inner Child?

Almost everyone has heard of “inner child” work. But what does it actually mean? Who exactly is the inner child?

I remember when I first heard the concept—I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes. To me, it seemed like a way of holding onto the past, which I already had a difficult enough time letting go of. I was not a fan.

Until I was.

My inner child, it has been revealed to me, is not a spoiled brat sucking her thumb and throwing fits until she gets her way. Rather, my inner child is full of wonder, innocence, creativity, and trust. My inner child is my beautiful, authentic, emotional self. Why would I not want to connect with that truth?

This world teaches us fear and self-protection. The ego develops as a survival mechanism. It is not “evil”; it is the frightened protector of the wounded child within us. The ego is our armor. The inner child is the one wearing it. To heal our inner child, we must remember who we were before fear taught us to hide.

I recall that as a small child, I lurked around silently, observing. I was meant to be seen and not heard—and probably not seen too often either. I had a biological mother who did not want me, a father who was out to sea, and aunts and uncles who were forced to help care for us against their will. There was definitely a thread of “unlovable” and “unwanted” woven through my childhood.

So, the armor went on.

When you are a child navigating a world where you feel like a burden, you quickly learn how to survive. My ego stepped in to protect that unwanted little girl. It told me to stay quiet, stay strong, not need anyone, and never let them see me cry. For decades, that armor served me. It kept me safe.

But eventually, the armor gets heavy.

You realize that while the suit of steel keeps the arrows out, it also keeps the love, the joy, and the wonder from getting in.

For a long time, I carried that thread of fear into adulthood, tightly knotted inside me. That is exactly why I rolled my eyes when I first heard about “inner child” work. I thought looking back meant drowning in those old feelings of rejection all over again. Why dig up the ghost of a little girl who wasn’t wanted?

But my turning point came when I realized that ignoring her did not make her disappear. It only kept her trapped in that silent room, still waiting to be seen. Healing did not mean wallowing in the past—it meant going back to rescue her, setting her free.

The world lied to me back then. The narrative that I was “unlovable” belonged to the adults who could not show up, not to the child who was surviving. Beneath the heavy silence of my childhood, that little girl was still a creature of immense creativity, observing the world with deep intuition.

When I finally stopped looking at her through the eyes of the people who did not want me, and started looking at her through the eyes of truth, I saw her for who she really was: whole, resilient, and ready to create.

Ahhhh… freedom.
Join me next week when we explore the ego as a defense mechanism.

© 2026, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Training in Forgiveness

For years now I have considered ACIM a training in forgiveness. I know it is not necessary “in the moment”, but in this world it is a mind-training of consistently letting go, over and over again. In the letting go, we are returned to sanity, to peace. We cannot let go if we are unable to forgive. It took me years and years and years of painfully gripping onto my story as shame and guilt consumed me. I did not feel worthy to be free, but that too is of the ego. I was not consciously aware that I was proclaiming by my actions that I knew better than God, than the Truth. It was a living hell. I also felt that if others could not walk the path with me, you know, those that I harmed, I had no right to walk it alone. I must wash their feet and remain lowly. Balderdash! In attaining personal freedom, setting the world free isn’t about imposing my state on others, but rather about how my freedom allows me to interact with and influence the world around me: shining my light, living authentically by example! Ahhh, and there it is. So simple, but not easy. I think I will continue this training and some moments will be better than others, but I will not give up!

© 2025, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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It’s All The Same

“Your Son is safe wherever he may be, for You are there with him. He need but call upon Your Name, and he will recollect his safety and Your Love, for they are one.”
ACIM Workbook Lesson 244

And with the above all is released and let go of. I am returned to truth. My soul tingles with delight. This one thought alone is my salvation. All is wonderful & right in this instant.

With gratitude I dance with my beautifully aching feet on my indoor/outdoor Florida Room carpet with all my (I use this next word very loosely) little potatoes. Myrtle & Lillie continue to be the show stoppers in their consistent mood of glee & celebration! They are the best examples of pure love!

With gratitude I inhale deeply & exhale slowly—-mindfully speaking words of thankfulness to the magnificent One — knowing all is perfect and does not require my manipulation or control.

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© 2024, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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