Herein Lies The Peace of God

  Photo Credit: Sincerely Media Dolores kept crossing my path. When I first moved to Virginia, I volunteered at the Loudoun Interfaith Food Pantry . Since I didn’t know anyone it seemed like a good way to connect with like-minded people. One lady named Dolores was especially friendly. We were on the same shift and saw each other regularly for about a year. Soon afterwards I walked into a store and there was Dolores! We recognized one another and chatted a bit. The following year I started a coupon blog, posting deals at stores in Loudoun County. Imagine my surprise when Dolores began leaving comments on my website! It turned out that she was an avid couponer, and had landed on my page while Googling deals, then recognized my photo on the bio page. When I posted about dumpster diving, she messaged me to say that she also had some great finds from dumpster dives that I might like to sell in my eBay store. I became a regular visitor at her home, collecting packing materials and dumpster f

  Photo Credit:  Kat Yukawa Scarcity thinking must have been programmed into my DNA. My grandmother once told me that she took me grocery shopping when I was 3 years old, and she offered to buy me a box of animal crackers at the checkout counter. I replied, “I can’t have those. They’re too ‘spensive.” She thought it was cute that I couldn’t even pronounce the word “expensive” and probably didn’t know what it meant. My mother had trained me well not to ask for things she couldn’t afford. For decades I had a love-hate relationship with finances. I loved to make money and I hated to part with it! I felt empowered when I had income but vulnerable when I had debt. There were many years where I lay in bed at night trying to figure out how to pay bills. It was the last thing on my mind before I fell asleep, and the first thing on my mind when I awoke. When I was still working, I would calculate my finances while showering in the morning. When I stopped working to stay home with the kids, I wo

  Photo Credit: Scott Webb Last month my husband kicked our 19 year old daughter out of the house. It was 9:00 pm and she had nowhere to go. He gave her a few minutes to pack a bag and sent her out in the dark with no car. Then he promptly changed the code on the garage door so that she could not get back into the house. Her attitude had been steadily worsening for months. She was not following our house rules, was acting irresponsibly, and had developed a bad attitude. When she came home in a pissy mood and was extremely rude to me, it was the last straw for her dad. I thought she might end up staying with a co-worker from the restaurant where she was a hostess, but none of them would take her in. She moved in with a guy that she had just met on a dating app. And his alcoholic and bankrupt father. In the past I would have been freaked out by this situation. I would have worried myself sick about her safety and argued with my husband about his decision. This time I left it in the hands

  Photo Credit: Jamie Taylor I used to sell mostly books in my eBay store, most of which came from thrift shops. Once I was shopping at a thrift store in Virginia and a man standing near me started to bang a book against the wall. He looked like he might be intellectually disabled - if a person can look such a way. I just kept on browsing. But soon the banging started to irritate me, and these thoughts ran through my mind: Why is he banging that book? Why does he have to do that? Why doesn’t he stop that? I didn’t make a sound or look in his direction, but suddenly he stopped banging the book, looked straight at me and said: “I do this because it helps me to think more clearly.” Then he resumed banging his book as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn’t just read my mind! I know that A Course in Miracles says that all minds are joined, but until that moment, I guess I didn’t honestly believe it. My spiritual practice has been a constant effort to be aware of my thoughts, especially t

  Photo Credit: Sharon McCutcheon As soon as I was old enough to hear stories about Prince Charming, I started dreaming about my own knight in shining armor. Every time I passed a wishing well as a kid, I threw a coin in and wished for a boyfriend. As a young woman I dated and kissed a lot of frogs. The ego is all about seeking and not finding. After numerous failed relationships I had an epiphany: I didn’t know how to pick the right man. I thought I was lacking something, and therefore kept hooking up with men that I thought could complete me. The problem with finding your “better half” is that two incomplete people end up together. A healthy relationship requires two whole people. This erroneous strategy combined with my ticking biological clock had resulted in a lot of poor decisions. The belief that my true love would solve all my problems so that I could live happily ever after was so ingrained that I never even questioned that story until I was 30 years old. After yet another lo

This week I had a huge insight while I was reading workbook lesson 136 from A Course in Miracles - Sickness is a defense against the truth . It came when I got to the the paragraph near the end that said: If you let your mind harbor attack thoughts, yield to judgment or make plans against uncertainties to come, you have again mis­placed yourself, and made a bodily identity which will attack the body, for the mind is sick. I rarely get sick, but I remembered a few years ago when I was struck by back pain so severe that I could not function. I was fine when I laid down but it was excruciating to stand up or walk around. I never wanted to be able to vacuum so badly. It happened while I was working with a prayer partner every day. She was an angry woman. She was very unhappy with her life and she wanted to use our daily phone calls to vent her frustrations. Often, she was frustrated with me . I knew better than to take her rantings personally, and I tried my best to be patient and unders

  Photo Credit: Sunguk Kim Last summer I left my 22 year old son in charge of my house, the dog, and his 18 year old sister for a week. My other daughter was working in North Carolina for the summer and invited me to spend the 4th of July with her. I was very excited about spending time with her as well as being near the beach!  She was working for an adventure tourism company and said that she could hook me up with a free tour and a free place to stay. It was all going just peachy until the night I couldn't reach my son on the phone. He was out late with friends and not responding to my calls or texts.  His sister was at work.  Who was taking care of our elderly dog? When I finally got hold of him, he told me it would be several hours before he made it home.  I was ready to blow a gasket.  I wrung my hands and stomped my feet and complained to my daughter: Why was he so irresponsible? Why wasn't he staying in touch with me? Why wasn't he doing things the way I thought they

Photo Credit: Mathilda Khoo   Many years ago, when I worked for the U.S. government, a young colleague of mine was killed in a car accident. My supervisor arranged for a grief counselor to come in to the office and meet with all of the employees who had known him.  This grief counselor was the ugliest woman I had ever seen!    I could not get over how unattractive she was, but as she began to speak, something strange started to happen... Her voice was so calm and sweet, and her compassionate nature was so powerful, that it seemed to sweep through the room. I could literally feel her loving and kind energy. I was transported by her voice to the point that I lost all consciousness of her appearance.  She probably spoke for half an hour and during that time  my opinion of her changed entirely.  It truly seemed like a miracle, because, by the time she left, I thought she was one of the most attractive women I had ever met. It was definitely  a shift in perception!  I did not realize it at

Photo Credit: Elijah O'Donnell   About two years ago my husband developed a habit of watching the news after he climbed into bed. It was always BAD news, and the commentators arguing with one another annoyed me to no end.  I would be in the bathroom getting ready for bed, listening to the sounds coming from the bedroom, and getting tense. My thoughts went like this: Why does he have to listen to that crap? Why won't he change the channel? Why doesn't he choose something I like? It is never productive to ask "why" in these situations.  I decided to employ the lessons of  A Course in Miracles  and changed my mind about the situation.  I tried tuning the sound of the news out. I tried telling myself that it didn't matter. I still felt annoyed. Then, I decided to consciously focus on my love and appreciation for my husband, instead. I thought about how he had worked hard all day, commuted for two and a half hours, and ought to be able to relax however he pleased b

  Several years ago when  A Course of Love  by Mari Perron came out there was a big debate about it my ACIM study group.  Our group facilitator had strong opinions about it!  She started to read it and found passages that were the same as those in  A Course in Miracles .  She told all of us that it was -- the horror! -- plagiarized. "Wait a minute", I said, "didn't Mari Perron channel this work from Jesus? If so, then isn't Jesus the real author of BOTH books? And if both books had the same author,  then it wouldn't be plagiarism, would it?" My logic was lost on her. She was convinced that Mari Perron, a former ACIM student, was committing some atrocity by advertising the book as  a sequel  to ACIM.  Really? A Course in Miracles teaches us that it is the content that matters - not the form.  If the message is loving, kind, sincere, encouraging, and inspirational, then it has value. The person delivering the message is irrelevant.  Our group facilitator

  Photo Credit: vanveenjf This week the Holy Spirit blessed me in spades. The funny thing is, it didn't start out looking like a blessing. In fact, the ego wanted me to think it was a curse - but I wasn't fooled!  My husband and I had traveled to the Washington DC area from Houston, Texas. We were scheduled to return home on the same plane, although he had purchased a ticket and I was flying standby.  When we got to the airport we saw that the flight was full and it was unlikely that I would get on. I started searching for alternatives, and saw that ALL of the flights from DC to Houston were full that day.  I tried to solve the problem by looking up other cities into which I might fly - any place where I had a friend or relative that could put me up for the night. All of those flights were full too!  My husband got on his plane without me and I started to feel desperate.  I asked the Holy Spirit for help. To guide me. To give me peace. To show me the way. I put the entire probl

  Photo Credit: Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu Once upon a time I had technical issues.  My printer and my computer would refuse to communicate, for no apparent reason. I would press "Print" on my computer keyboard and get results sometimes.... and sometimes not.  I would unplug my printer and plug it back in again. Power it down and power it back up. Turn my computer off and back on again.  Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I would spend hours, sometimes an entire day, searching for solutions online. I would find something that worked one day, and then next week it didn't.  I would become extremely frustrated and angry and feel really hateful towards my printer.  But that all changed when I changed my mind.  I realized that I had been very judgmental towards my printer. Holding it in contempt.  Blaming it for not performing in the way that I expected.  We all know that the definition of insanity is to keep on doing the same things and expecting different results. 

  Photo Credit: Felix Koutchinski Guilt reared it's ugly little head this week.  March has been a month of company for us at our new home in Texas. We have had a constant stream of visitors and it has been a lot of fun, but the last round triggered a deeply hidden resentment.  My husband's brother and his wife flew down from snowy Pennsylvania to bask in the Houston sun for a few days. When I learned that they wanted to also visit San Antonio and Galveston during their stay,   I thought they were crazy.  Didn't they realize how big the state of Texas was?  Didn't they know that they were going to spend half of their 4-day visit in the car, just driving to get from place to place?  My husband said that it was their vacation to spend as they pleased, so I dropped it.  Next, there was some confusion in the guest bathroom. They asked what to do with their wet towels. I said they could hang them up to dry.  They looked startled and told me that they used a fresh towel every