Mutterings from your L.U.T.
2022! Who would have thought it possible to still be caught in the fears and concerns of Covid two years later? I admit that I have days where I despair, thinking “are we ever going to get the lesson we are supposed to be learning so we can release it and move on?” Then I have to laugh at myself, remembering the lessons I have read, over and over again, from A Course in Miracles, as well as many Unity teachers, that it isn’t the world that needs to change, it is me! I need to change my mind about the suffering I think I’m enduring and instead remember the goodness of God, which is the truth of who I am. And, once again, I am always amazed at how quickly my mind can return to peace when I give up my negative thinking. When I am really willing to “see things differently,” my inner spiritual connection steps in and shows me the blessing, or even the humor of what I am viewing with negativity. This is when miracles truly happen: all of a sudden people stop for me to cross the street, or wave me ahead in the line at the grocery store. Old friends whom I haven’t heard from in months give me a call. Or, perhaps, people who have stopped speaking to me because of some misunderstanding, appear in my life again and it’s like a happy reunion. I have to admit to you that all of these (and more!) blessings happened to me this past holiday season.
My husband Tom likes to repeat a quote from the Course this time of year: “Make this year different by making it all the same.” I must admit this quote stops me in my tracks, wondering what is it really trying to tell us? How can we make something different by making it all the same? I’m pretty sure this is why many people despair of ever being able to make sense of the Course. And the same thing is true when attempting to read Charles Fillmore (the cofounder of the Unity movement). Some of the wording seems archaic, or obscure, if not just downright impossible. For years I have told people not to focus on understanding with our human intellect, but to listen from our hearts. Listen to how the words resonate, perhaps with the idea that they are poetry. It also helps me (a lot!) when I ask my inner spirit for help because I’m just not getting it. When I can let go of my ego brain wanting it all to be a logical, step-by-step process, and just am willing to accept it as truth, a flash of insight can appear. Perhaps this teaching is like the Buddhist one of acceptance, or as Pema Chodrin puts it in her book When Things Fall Apart, embracing suffering. Perhaps we need to let go of judgment, of thinking that certain events and happenings in the world are “bad” or “good,” but just see them as “all the same,” just part of the world’s journey. Maybe when we get to that place of peace in our minds, we will truly transcend the cares of the world. And by doing so, we can “make it different,” and even find a blessing in the midst of a pandemic.
One of my favorite teachers, Hugh Prather, had a great lesson I heard many years ago. He talked about how “the world doesn’t work.” He liked to point out that we travel through our life, expecting that somehow the world can work. That things can be changed so that we will see peace in our families, as well as with our neighbors. That other people will be kind and recognize that we truly are more important and deserve to be treated with deference. That things will go smoothly if we just get them to go our way. And, of course, none of this happens. We may start the day in a great mood, but then we look in the mirror. Or we find out the cereal box is empty. Maybe we’ve misplaced our car keys. Or the neighbor has blocked our driveway with their car. Where does our peace go? We need to just say “the world doesn’t work,” and move into accepting things as they are. That we have the power to stay in peace no matter what is happening on the outside. And then we can do what we need to do to make changes and let miracles happen. We make a difference when we start in peace!
Wishing you blessings of peace,
Linda Andrus, your Licensed Unity Teacher
