Art of Perception

8/14/2019 Art of Perception

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Beca LewisArt of Perception


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Art of Perception, Beca LewisThe opinions expressed in any articles in this publication are those of the individual authors and may not necessarily by shared by the

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CONTENTS:The Art of PerceptionWho Is Driving Your Car?"So Totally You"Reacting To IllusionsLike WaterFor The Love Of GodMy Mothers SpoonThe Ultimate Partnership

The Cat and The TrashWhat He Didn't SayConcentric Circles Of LoveThere Is Plenty Of RoomBoldly Love Where Your Love Has Never Gone BeforeThe Prod And The CarrotCha-Ching Clarity About GodThe Bee And The HummingbirdRe-Set Perceptions To Re-Set Your Life

Mist-PerceptionStuck, Inertia, And The Fire WithinPrisoners of PerceptionChoose Your PerceptionBoundaries That Set You FreeAt The ReadyGod By Any Other NameDisguising Ourselves As Human

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The Art of Perception

"The spiritual life is a call to action. But it is a call to ... action without anyselfish attachment to the results." -- Eknath Easwaran

I love this idea. That Life itself is a call to action. However, there are twopitfalls that cause us to often fail at this idea, and do the opposite; takeno action. Not the action of conscious non-action, but no action.

The first pitfall is that as humans we think we know better than theinfinite that is Life Itself, and two, we think we are human and as a humanwe are co-creators and creators.

Taking action without being attached to the outcome is a science and anart. It is the scientific fact that there is no intelligence in matter and theonly intelligence is in Infinite Mind as physicists have proven.

The art of it comes into play as we attempt to live what appears as ahuman life while knowing that we arent human and that we are spiritual

ideas.

This surely is an art isnt it? Isnt this a portion of what Henry DavidThoreau meant when he said, It is something to be able to paint aparticular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objectsbeautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the veryatmosphere and medium through which we look. To affect the quality ofthe day--that is the highest of arts.

Its the part of this quote to carve and paint the very atmosphere andmedium through which we look that carries with it a significant message.This is a statement about perception.

If we begin with the perception that we are human and better than Lifeitself, or that we have a control over Life Itself, well, we all know theamount of pressure, and stress that results from this point of view. It isinescapable.

No matter how many pressure and stress reduction techniques that welearn, they will only dampen down the underlying fear this point of view

produces. How can we affect the quality of our day, if we have not beenan artist with our own perception?

Choosing the perception of human, it may appear that we create a lifethat we love. Choosing the perception that we are Life Living Itself, thereis an immeasurable difference. One carries with it stress, one releasesus to the freedom of living as our USB, or Unique Spiritual Blessing.

Our thinking does not make it so. It is our perception about a subject thatmakes it so. This is a subtle difference in statement, but it makes a hugedifference in the outcome. One causes stress and guilt, the other reliefbecause it knows that what may appear one way is only because we areseeing it that way through our trained perception.

We can shift our perception in every moment and affect the quality of ourday. We can be an artist with our perception and choose the highestunderstanding we have at this moment of what it means that all that thereis - is Life Living Itself and Love Loving Itself.

Imagine that. Just imagine it.

I implemented this type of shift of perception as we searched for a home,and went through the process of buying one. Most of the time I was ableto stay in I Am statements, like I AM Home Itself and therefore there isno need to worry about this outcome or try to make it happen.

Sometimes I could feel the fear and stress rush in and tell me it wouldnever work (forget the reasons they are not important). Then when itlooked as if it was going to work, I still had to stay in the I AM Home pointof view, or the fear of oh my gosh, what have we gotten ourselves into

would rush in.

That human habit is always waiting at the door of our mind. It may hidein the bushes, but it is there, and at the first crack in the doorway it willpush its way in and try to settle into every corner of our consciousness.

But, it can be removed immediately by a perception shift, and Truth canfill the spaces of our consciousness so there is no room for fear to sitdown or hang out.


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To be an artist of perception takes practice, just as an artist of anythingtakes practice. But one day we will all witness that the artist is actuallyLove, Life, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Truth living and loving Itself andthat we are the consequences of that action.

Action is the movement of the spiritual essence we call God. Thereforeaction is what we are too. Its easy to allow ourselves to take action whenwe know that the outcome is not ours to decide, and that it will be betterthan we imagined.


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Who Is Driving Your Car?

I was traveling a familiar route, one that in the past 8 years I havetraveled over and over again, yet I kept noticing things I had never seenbefore. I noticed the steepness of the hill and curves in the road. Whatwas different this time? On other trips I was the passenger, and this timeI was the driver.

I was in a high schools guidance office talking to the school about doinga seminar for them. Hanging on the wall of the office was a poster thatsaid, You are the author of your own life story.

Isnt this the same idea as driving our own car? If we knew that we arethe authors of our own life story, like driving our own car, we would noticemore about what was happening in, and as, our life.

But we dont notice. Instead we act as if we are passengers in our life.We act as if someone or something outside ourselves has authored ourlife story. We blame others for the life we lead, or make excuses for

ourselves because of the outside forces that have put us in anysituation that we dont like.

It doesnt matter how much we decide that someone else is driving ourcar, or authoring our lives, they arent. The truth is we are always theauthor our own life story, we are always the driver of the car of our life,but rarely are we completely conscious of the story, or what road we aretraveling. We are unaware of the perceptions we have agreed to thatappear as our life.

In order to fully see the road of life that we are driving we must be awareof the point of view from which we are authoring our life story. We need tobecome aware if we have chosen the point of view of personal power, orthe point of view of One Cause and One Creator.

There is no way to actually write a life story that wont implode at somepoint if we begin with the point of view that we have any personal powerother than to power to choose to shift our perception.

Not many of us are willing to accept this though, and none of us are allthe time. When life works well on some level we figure that there is noreason to give up our human personality. After all, individuality aspersonality is a celebrated and honored quality in the world today.

Why would we give it all up? Usually we wait to give it up when we areprompted by suffering of some kind, which forces us to examine our pointof view and perceptions. If we are suffering enough we may decide to letgo and let God. If we are lucky we find joy in that letting go, because the

sooner we are willing to give up how we think things should be, and shiftto the awareness of the Intelligent Mind that creates only from Love, thehappier we will be.

As I drove my car home I realized that if we always let someone elsedrive our car, or choose the intent of our life, we will always miss someinformation that can only be experienced when we are the driver, orconsciously choose our own life, our own point of view, our own intent forour life.

Its easy to get distracted from this awareness through the human habit offixing people, places and things and letting other peoples ideas andperception and the worldview become ours. It may feel easier to agreewith others than it is to choose our own perception based on our ownawareness of Spiritual Principles, but sooner or later we will find that thisshift of perception is a necessity for happiness.

As we make that shift we will discover for ourselves the fact thatabundance, love, happiness, joy, health, and love is not our responsibilityto create, it is how it is. Our responsibility is to shift to this awareness,and then live what we have discovered to be true, the best that we can in

every moment.

Then our life story will be more rewarding than we could have humanlyperceived and believed could be possible.

The work is not in the doing, but in The Shift from what we have beentaught, believe and perceive to be true (the worldview) to who and whatwe really are and then accepting it and living it.


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"So Totally You"

There is an old butterfly story that goes like this: Three caterpillarswatched as a butterfly soared above them. One said, Just look at thatfellow giving himself airs! The second said, How I would like to be ableto fly like that. The third one said, Thats me!

When our granddaughter Cassi turned six, all day long on her birthday

she celebrated her life. There was not one moment in the day when shewasnt thrilled with the day, the presents, the attention, and the joy of itbeing her day and it being all about her. Del and I had bought her abirthday card that listed a number of wonderful qualities about her. Whenwe read the card to her she said, That is so totally me! How did youknow?

There was a man with two sons. One son left home to live on his own.The other son stayed home and worked with his father. The first sonspent all his money on riotous living and ended up without anything atall. He decided to return home and ask forgiveness and become a hired

servant of his father so at least he would have food to eat.

His father, seeing him coming, ran to meet him and celebrated his return.His other son felt slighted and angry. After all he had stayed home andwas faithful. His father turned to him and said, Son, thou art ever withme, and all that I have is thine. (Luke 15:31)

The devil was having a yard sale. All the tools of his trade were laid outfor others to buy. A man strolled through the yard and noticed there wasone tool that was old and dirty and dingy, but was priced much higherthan the other tools He asked the devil if he had made a mistake on hispricing. No, the devil replied, That tool is my most important onebecause no one knows it is from me. What is it? asked the man. Thedevil replied, Discouragement.

Do you see the common thread in each of these stories? It is up to youto decide which version of events you will see and experience. The thirdbutterfly and Cassi already knew what the second son did not. Theyacted from the understanding of what it means when our Father hassaid to us, All that I have in thine.

How often do we look at a situation and discount it. If it is someoneelses good we either judge it or condemn it thinking it is not ours. Ifothers want to celebrate the joy of having us in their lives we discount itthinking that is required of us to be humble.

We have unwittingly purchased and used the Devils tool ofdiscouragement. We have looked at the gifts that have been given usand discounted them.

Have you ever given a present, waited for the joyful reaction but didntreceive it because the recipient was not willing to fully accept the gift astheirs? Then you know that this is not what has been asked of us.

All that we see is ours. Not ours to dominate and bring under our rule,but ours to acknowledge as the qualities of God present in our lives. If itappears as something outside of ourselves, it is up to each one of us toremember that what we see outside is the inside projected. We wouldnot be able to see what we were not already aware of internally orsubjectively.

If you yearn for beauty, it is because you already know beauty within. Ifyou desire abundance it is because you know what abundance feels like.If you wish for love, it is because you already feel love.

When we attempt to narrow infinite abundance into the specific way wewant to receive it, or events to happen just as we have envisioned them,we miss the gift. Too often we have unwrapped the package of doubtinstead. There is a quick test to find out if doubt has invaded your home.Just remember, there is no joy in doubt.

But there is joy is seeing all the beauty, abundance and love around us

and saying, That is so totally me!


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Reacting To Illusions

Standing in the shower I glanced up and saw what I thought were dropsof water leaking from the top of the shower structure. Since our days inour new home have been about fix and repair my first reaction was, Ohno, not another thing to fix.

Then I looked again and saw that what I was seeing was the reflection of

the shower hooks on the ceiling. There was nothing to react about, theproblem was an illusion.

Heres the thing that we often forget. All problems are an illusion. Uhhuh, I know. We all know the many ways that problems do not feel likean illusion. But that doesnt make them real.

This includes the often said, but almost always misinterpreted, statement,There are no accidents. Yes, thats right. There are no accidents.They are an illusion. Not that an accident leads to something good asoften stated.

No, there are no accidents. Yes, because we have a choice of how toreact to what appears as an accident (the illusion) then that learning, thatgrowth, that awareness, can and often does, lead us to good.

But, an illusion is an illusion whether it is drops of water on the ceiling oran accident, or mistreatment, hunger, lack, sickness or an accident, theyare all illusions.

In each case where an illusion tempts us to believe that it is real, wehave a choice of reaction or replacement. We can react to the illusion orreplace what the outside is telling us to be true with what we know to beTrue within.

Where does this statement that anything that is not good is an illusioncome from? It comes from the Principle that you know and accept. It isthe Principle that God is Love and Love is omnipresent and omniscience.This statement, this Principle, leaves absolutely no room for somethingother than Love as the only Reality.

The next question is, Doesnt Love give us these accidents and badthings in order to teach us? No. Omnipresent Love couldnt knowanything other than Love. It doesnt know us as humans needing to betaught a lesson. Divine Love isnt a glorified human personality.

It is a human interpretation of love that Love punishes, denies, or takes abreak. Divine Love, as a Principle of being, knows nothing aboutanything other than Love Loving. This means that if we are not seeingdirect evidence that Love is omnipresent, then we are being hypnotizedby the illusion; remember that it is only an illusion of the non-presence ofLove.

Feelings of fear, anger, hate, discouragement, despair, not knowing, lack,unhappiness, and doubt all stem from that illusion of the lack ofomnipresent Love.

In the shower I looked again at what appeared as something bad andsaw my mistake. In life, we need to look again at the illusionrepresenting itself as real, and see that right there is also the evidence

that it is an illusion.

It takes practice, but that is only because we have practiced so long inthe illusion of lack that we have to rebuild our awareness of Truth. Withineach of us is an already present awareness that right where lack appearsto be is the direct experience of Love Loving Itself.

Either Love is omnipresent, or it isnt. Since what we determine andperceive is Reality is our personal reality, is what we experience, thenwhether we actually believe that Love is omnipresent, or have a directexperience that it is, or even if we dont believe it, why not choose thatperception that it is.

Since our perception is our reality, why not choose the big R Realitywhere God, Divine Love, Infinite Intelligence with Its constant care andprovision is the Truth of being? Id rather be practicing that point of view,and living in that state of mind, then the one that demands constant, fixand repair. Wouldnt you?


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Like Water

As I prepare to write about the power of water, a gentle mist immediatelyrises outside my window, reminding me of all the ways that water aspower appears. This mist softens the edges of all that I can see andonly the clear sounds of birds singing can be heard.

Ah, to be like more like water flowing, gentle, patient and ultimately

always effective in carrying out its purpose. And it accomplishes this byjust being water. Not attempting to be a tree, or a flower, or the wind. Itsimply is all the qualities of itself water.

Not like us. Putting aside for the moment that we dont act likeourselves, but instead act as if we are human; we believe we arepowerful. And we, in that belief, attempt to achieve our purposes throughour own personal power.

We learn behavior techniques, sales techniques, and personalitytechniques to become more skilled at making things happen. Or we

use learned family behaviors and society behaviors to get what we wantand need.

It doesnt matter how big or small our purpose may be, we believe byusing our own personal power we can overcome all obstacles andsituations in order to create and achieve it.

Water adapts to the situation. This morning it is the gentle mist, last nightis was a hard pouring rain. I have lived by a lake and watched its calmsurface mirror the entire universe in perfect reflection. Beneath itssurface it cares for millions of lives. As a stream it carves out beautifulcanyons built simply because it flows. As a river it replenishes itself as anocean. As a drop of water in a flower it supplies a thirsty bird. In itsabundance it waters the flowers and trees.

Flowing, gentle, patient, and powerful; water brings itself to every livingthing and thereby fulfills its purpose.

As I sit in meeting rooms, glance at TV, read the news, watch peopleinteracting, and watch myself in all these situations, I dont see flowing,

gentle, patient or powerful. I see ego, unconscious and conscious, tryingto make things happen, setting goals and putting rules and laws in placein order to achieve a purpose.

Yet the result of us attempting to be powerful always produces theopposite effect. It may appear we have accomplished a purpose, but itwill not last and at what cost?

I was in a meeting where a young man told how in 3 years he had madealmost a million dollars. It was sad. He has used extreme personalpower and ignored all else and didnt care.

Many other young men sat in that room listening to him askingthemselves why didnt they do that, could they, should they? I knowbecause of few of them asked me what I thought of the talk and insteadof answering I asked them what they thought. As they responded I heardthe sadness and despair this so-called inspirational speech hadproduced. But what about love they were asking?

Yes, what about love? Have we forgotten about love, omnipresent Love,the only real power? Have we forgotten that we were made in theimage and likeness of Love? Have we forgotten that there is only One?

If we remembered who we really are, and who each person we see, readabout, and know; really is wouldnt it be easier to be more like of thequalities of water? And if we did that wouldnt we be more aware eachday that Grace is our life and allow that awareness to guide us?

No purpose to achieve but this one; to come out of the world of personalpower in our thinking and into the awareness of Love and Grace as our

lives and let that knowing supply all that we want andneed.


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For The Love Of God

When words are spoken some people see pictures. I am one of thosepeople. When I was a child I was often taken aback by what people saidbecause it translated immediately into a literal visual expression.

Sometimes it was funny, and sometimes is scared me. The saying,Catch you later always invoked the picture of me flying through the air

to be caught by the other person - later. It always gave me a start until Icollected myself and realized they didnt mean it literally.

When I was about eleven I was walking through the living room while aTV show played in the background. Out of the corner of my eye I sawsomeone on the TV sneaking around a barrier with a rifle, and theannouncer said, You asked for it!

Whoa, I was stunned. What had I done that meant I had asked forbeing stalked by a man with a rifle? Of course I realized in a second ortwo it was TV and they werent talking to me, but it made quite an

impression.

Words are what make up our thoughts and we all know the importance ofpaying attention to what we are thinking. But we often hear words orphrases and dont really take the time to know what we are hearing orsaying.

Sometimes we are misled by our own impulses, like mine to see literalpictures, but often it is because we are so used to hearing something wedont stop to see what it really means.

Which brings me to the phrase, For The Love Of God. This phrasepopped into my head as I thought about Valentines Day. I was thinkinghow we take one day a year to express our love, but wouldnt it be greatif everyday was about Love, for the Love of God.

Yet, as I heard that phrase I realized that it is usually said from oneanother person to another with another phrase following it that sayssomething like, Why dont you pay attention, Cant you be more likeyour sister? Dont you have any sense?

But, when we say For The Love Of God What Is Wrong With You! arentwe missing something? Wouldnt the Love Of God be more about ForThe Love Of God Do You Know How Wonderful You Are? Or even moreaccurately said, As The Love Of God Do You Know That You Are TheLoved Of Love?

The bathroom night-light was not lighting up. Since there was only oneoutlet in the bathroom I had a plug with six outlets plugged into it, and ofcourse the night-light was taking up one of those outlets.

I removed the six-outlet plug and reset the one outlet. We checked thefuses, which were fine. So I plugged the six-outlet plug back in andtested the night light. Nope didnt work. I tried all six outlets, nope didntwork.

My conclusion? That the six-outlet plug was broken so I threw it away.Then I replaced the bulb in the night light for good measure and pluggedit back in. Didnt work. Tried it in every outlet in the house, and it still

didnt work.

It took me way too long to realize that my original conclusion was wrong.There was nothing wrong with the six-out plug; it was the night-light itselfthat was broken.

The phrase, For The Love Of God is not broken so there is no need tothrow it away. It is the many other phrases that we tack onto it that makeit appear to not work.

If we could say to ourselves these words, With every task I undertake,for the love of God I do this, and then replaced the word God into aquality of God to match the task, then wouldnt Love be the order of theday?

For the love of Beauty I clean my house. For the love of Order I balancemy checkbook. For the love of Innocence I protect my children.

With variations of the phrase, For The Love of God, as our mantra,every day would be about and for Love. We could celebrate this fact with


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hearts, flowers and candy once a year, but every day would be For TheLove Of God. Imagine where our thoughts would be then, and what adifference that would make.

For The Love of God, lets practice For The Love Of God and prove toourselves that it is not broken.


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My Mothers Spoon

We were visiting my Mom when she showed me the spoon that shewants me to have someday. It was purchased just a few days after I wasborn by my grandmother, Mimi. At the time we were a small family. It was

just my Dad, my Mom, and me, and all three of us were struggling for life.My Dad had been in an accident and had been given 9 hours to live, andmy Mom and I had struggled for life during my birth.

Mimi had come to help out. At the time of the spoon purchase we were allon the mend and she and my Mom wanted to make some spaghetti.Mom told me that Mimi said to her, Lets get a really good spoon, onethat can handle a lot of spaghetti and will last a long time. They did.

As I write this Dad is now 86, way outliving that nine hour prediction, andthat spoon looks as good as the day it was purchased. It is notglamorous, but it is beautiful, and useful. Its exactly what Mimi wanted. Ithas a hole in the handle, a large spoon surface and whatever it is madeof has remained, as i t was that first day.

It would be hard to pick better qualities to aspire to, strong, sturdy, anduseful. It is also beautiful because it is consistent with its intent andpurpose to be sturdy, strong and useful. I am sure that as the nextgeneration uses that spoon it will only gain in its beauty because evenmore people have come to rely on it to be exactly what it was intended tobe.

Too bad we are not more like that spoon. We tend to make our lifepurpose complicated. When Del and I ask people what they most wantthey often give a big purpose answer like, to bring peace to the world.Complicated. Why not peace to one person at a time, by being exactlywhat we have been designed to be.

The spoon doesnt have a desire to be a fork. It would make a terriblefork or knife. But as a sturdy, useful, consistent and clean line spoon, itsa given. It takes no work on its part. It just is. Perhaps this is too simple ofa symbol to apply to our lives and ourselves? I dont think so.

The problem often lies with our having no idea exactly what we wereintended to do or be. Or, even if we do know, we think it isnt possible.Most people live someone elses life and intent. Sometimes that otherperson is ourselves from the past, or even the future. We live how wethink it is supposed to be, or what is expected of us.

But, like the spoon, our purpose is actually very clear when we begin withthe qualities of who we are and respect and honor that they are uniqueand necessary to the world.

It is an interesting phenomenon that in our culture those that clearlyexpress their uniqueness are honored as celebrities of one kind oranother. We can see this in our highly paid actors and athletes. The moreuniquely that they express themselves, the more attention and money weshower on them. Even those unique individuals such as artists, writers,and thinkers that we may not shower celebrity status or money on, wecelebrate and remember in other ways.

The opposite is true in our daily lives. We try to fit in. We follow those

with more authority. We stifle the creative and thoughtful desires to liveour lives differently. This is hard to do. It is much harder too live thewrong life, than it is to live our life as our unique qualities.

This is like my mothers spoon trying to live life as a fork. Why not let lifebe easy? Why not live who we really are, knowing that those that haveuse for our type of spoon, will appreciate, love, honor and support ourintent and purpose.


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The Ultimate Partnership

Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent,omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and theuniverse. Mary Baker Eddy

A step into a study of partnering becomes an exercise in an increasedawareness of how we are all one when we begin with the ultimatepartnership between the Principle of infinite Mind, and its idea: man and

the universe.

Mind knows itself through its ideas, and ideas cannot exist without theMind that knows it. This is perfect partnership. This partnership cannotbe split into separate identities or existences; it begins and foreverremains one.

In nature everything reflects the principle of this oneness as partnership.For example; every flower partners with a multitude of ideas like air, sun,and water which assist it to grow and flourish. If we try to name all the

partners a flower has we find that the list is endless. When we reversethat list we discover their equality and inseparableness. Thats justflowers; try everything else we see and the partnership between Mindand its idea becomes crystal clear.

Of course, our worldview training makes us think that we dont have tochoose to partner, or that we are lonely without partners. And yet we arein the ultimate partnership with the entire intelligence universe caring forus, as we care for it.

There is no escaping partnership, but believing that we are separate

humans we can certainly try to, resulting in the experience of imperfectpartnerships. But, that is just a misperception.

We think we have a choice about partnership and we do, but not the onewe think. We have a choice to hide from the awareness of partnership,but that doesnt change the fact that each one of us is in a variety ofpartnerships at all times.

We partner with the person checking us out at the store, with themailman, with our garden, with our home, with our body, with ourbusiness or job, with our food, with our cars, with our family and with thechildren of the world; we are always in partnership.

We each have a partnership with the earth, with our purpose, and withour personal being. We care for these ideas, and they care for us. It is adynamic, ever present awareness that the well-being of our partners isessential for our own well-being.

Beginning every partnership choice and participation with the premise ofequality and inseparability each partnership in our life reflects to anincreasing degree an accurate representation of the divine Principle ofLove loving itself.

After a couple danced together beautifully one of the judges said to theman, You are so generous to your partners. You give them everything,you are so present for them, and they make you better and that is whatyou need for a great partnership.

The dancers referred to the twenty of them who had been chosen for thecompetition as family, but dancing with their partners had a differentquality and concept. Without each partner being entirely present for eachother in every way there would have been no dance at all, or at the leasta boring one, or at the most a dangerous one.

The secret here is the choice to be absolutely present in a partnership;to be as dedicated to the well-being of our partner as we are toourselves.

I watch the birds in our yard as they partner together. They areconstantly caring for each other; while one eats the other keeps watch.They call to each other constantly throughout the day; one calls and theother answers, much like the thumbs up sign of the scuba diver. Theydemonstrate a quality of communication that is a foundation of goodpartnerships.

The dynamics of partnership enriches each participant because of itsrequirement to be awake and aware and present for each other. It


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provides a sense of security and safety and freedom knowing thatanother has our welfare in mind as we have theirs in mind.

Many of us hesitate to fully participate in partnership because we havebeen in partnerships that appear to not have worked out. But,relationships are about partnering and no matter how much we may try toescape them, they are the foundation of life.

Acting from the awareness that Principle and its idea is one our personalpartnerships grow and flourish. Accepting that we are the idea of thePrinciple of Love we will wisely choose those partnerships that are basedin equality and care.

All partnerships are born from the essence of the ultimate partnership,the one between the divine, God, Principle, Mind and its idea each oneof us as one, never separate, never alone, always and forever one asLove loving itself. Knowing this fact we can rejoice in the quality of theultimate partnership present in and as our lives and experience forourselves the consistent availability of perfect partnerships.


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The Cat and The Trash

Love is always present and cannot remain forever unseen. That wasthe point of view we were maintaining in spite of the fact that theevidence before us told us otherwise.

The first problem we had is that we appeared to have lost a clientsbeloved cat. We had been told that the cats could easily sneak out of thehouse so we were doubly careful to make sure that when we visited themthey were still in the house when we left. Yet one cat was missing thenext day when we came back, and a door that we thought we had closedwas now open.

We looked everywhere. But, what we didnt do was first change our pointof view or state of mind perception. Instead we started with the thoughtand perception that we must have somehow made a mistake and theconsequences were unthinkable. Fear and guilt were our state of mindeven though we could see that the open door (which we later found outthe cat had done) did not lead to the outside.

So we searched that day, the next and the next. We even called the catsowner and asked where she could hide and after searching all thoseplaces we still couldnt find the cat. After the first day we did attempt tostart from the correct point of view that Love is always present andcannot remain forever unseen but the state of mind of fear and guilt thatwe could have made a mistake kept the cat hidden from view.

Finally during one visit Del sat down on the couch and flooded histhinking with the thought that Love is always present and cannot remainforever unseen and I called for help from a friend to get my own

perception on track. As I was on the phone and Del was on the couchthe cat peeked around the corner to let us know it was there. It was fearand guilt that blocked our view of what was already present.

At the same time we were packing to move across country. Although westill knew that Love is always present and cannot remain foreverunseen we were having trouble letting go of how we thought life shouldbe for us and moving on to something else. Lots of stuff had to go, lotsof physical stuff, and lots of thinking stuff.

We did start with the correct point of view perception that Love is alwayspresent and cannot remain forever unseen but the state of mindperception of sadness and wishing remained with us in varying degreeseach day.

It wasnt until the very last moment that the value of letting go wasevident in a tangible way. Our trailer was packed, the car was ready to goand still there were two big bags of stuff that had to go the trash whichmeant each of us had to carry one to the dumpster.

They were so big that I could barely see over the top and so heavy wekept bumping into each other as we walked. On reaching the dumpsterwe simultaneously heaved them in and turned to walk back to the car.The difference was amazing. We were light, free and able to easily walktogether.

The symbol of carrying trash and letting it go cant be missed. How muchstuff do we carry around that keeps us from being with other people? Itwasnt easy to go through everything we owned and let most of it go.

Every time we thought we were done with getting rid of things, there wasmore to do. But each time we did we were more aware that in realitynothing was gone, just our perception that we had to hold on to it in orderfor it to be available.


15/39

What He Didn't Say

He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. * Itastonished those who heard him speak. They expected him to speakwords of condemnation, and he did not. Recently I realized that therewas something else we might have expected him to say and he didnt.

It occurred to me after thinking through a few recent conversations that

they all had something in common. It was the belief of the person I wasspeaking to that they must have done something wrong to beexperiencing the situation that they were in. They were suffering andblaming themselves.

And that is what Jesus didnt say from the cross. He didnt blame himselffor the situation he found himself in. It appears ludicrous to think that hewould have doesnt it? But think about it; isnt that what we commonlydo? We find ourselves in situations and blame ourselves for poordecisions, wrong choices, not noticing, not being smart enough, notloving enough, the list is endless isnt it?

The difference lies in the premise of our thought and the perception wechoose. Jesus chose and demonstrated the Christ perception. He basedhis thought on One God, omnipotent Love. From that point of view hesaw through what appeared to be hate, fear and sorrow and saw insteadthe Reality of their and his Spiritual being.

There could be no other result then his rising from what appeared toothers as a grave. In Truth he was never part of what was perceived ashis suffering to those who had not yet understood what he had taught.We too can begin with the premise of One God, omnipotent Love. We toocan choose to see with the Christ perception. We too can practiceseeing others and ourselves as we are, not as we or they, appear to be.

When we find ourselves in situations where the temptation is to condemnourselves for what appears as wrong choices, or lack of wisdom, or notloving enough, or not seeing the truth of a situation, we can do one of twothings. We can either identify with what we have uncovered, and then l ivein the result, or we can release it knowing that it is not of Truth. In the

latter choice it is easy to forgive as we see clearly there is nothing toforgive. It is easy not to condemn, as there is no one to condemn.

A worldview perception is like a guest who has come to visit with theirbaggage. Perhaps we invited them or perhaps they came on their own.But once in our home they made themselves comfortable and weaccepted their presence. One day we realize that it is time to ask themto go, and when they leave they take their baggage with them.

This is the same with unwanted perceptions. When we ask them to go,the baggage of blame, guilt and fear goes with them. The worldviewperception must become an unwanted guest. It is time to ask, ordemand if necessary, that it leave your house (your consciousness) andtake its baggage with it.

Blaming ourselves for our situation is like an email virus that arrivestelling you to open it to save yourself from the email virus. If you fall forit, you get the virus. The email telling you about the virus is the virus.The thought telling you about blame, guilt and fear is the blame, guilt and

fear.

Delete it!

The result of choosing the Christ perception instead of acceptingworldview perception will be the rolling back of the stone that blocks theway to living life fully. As we rise from the belief of death in its many formswe find ourselves free and so far above all mortal strife. *

It takes work to stop being tempted by the worldview perception andchoose instead the Christ or Spiritual Perception, but think about it, what

could be more important or reveal a greater glory?*

Quotes:Bible: Luke 23:24Poem Christmas Morn by Mary Baker Eddy: written 1898


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concentric circle that extends from what we do and say. It is our choicewhether we expand love, or the opposite of love.

As we choose love that concentric circle will bring into each of our livesthe fullness of what it means to love and be loved and together we canenjoy the sweet fragrance of the unique blooms called us.

It doesnt matter if we are the cat or the crow. The crow had to give loveto something he wasnt supposed to love, and in return the cat had to

accept love from something he wasnt supposed to trust.

If they can do it, we can too! Like the women in Enchanted andStardust we can shift the world we were sent to into the world weknow it really is, love.


18/39

There Is Plenty Of Room

The dawn chorus of birds singing of their freedom and the beauty of anew day has begun outside my window. It fills the space with the songsof celebration of loving life. The trees are completely leafed out spreadingout as far as they can reach, and the stream flows freely.

This expansive outreach of life is a far cry from the condensedexpression of living so commonly found within our own lives.

Once many years ago, desperate for answers as to why it felt as if I wasalways sacrificing one area of my li fe for happiness in another, I asked forhelp. The answer I received was simple. I was told, There is plenty ofroom in the world for you.

It was the same concept and advice I heard in my dance lessons, Takeup space. Use the entire room. Use every level of the space given. Beseen!

Or the same advice art teachers always give, Use the whole paper!

There is plenty of room in the world for you too to live expansively asyourself. Nature apparently needs no such advice; it simply provides theexample of what living life fully looks like.

But, how do we do this? Our programming within the worldview is to nottake up space, to not live life in celebration, to not live as the gift that weare; to learn lessons through suffering, to lose what we love, to never besafe.

The worldview is about never enough and the fear that conceptproduces. This programming invades every moment of our lives, fromwhich we can sometimes get a momentary release, but it often feels as ifwe can never fully escape from it.

For over a month I was dealing with a virus problem within my websites.I could fix the problem so it disappeared, but I couldnt find the core of theissue to make it stop coming back. The virus was taking the form of ascript that had entwined itself through everything.

I asked for help and found it. The simple, elegant, and effective solutionwas provided by an expert who wrote a good script, and that goodscript crept through every page and ate the bad script.

The same solution can be applied to our bad script programming. Senda good script through it to dissolve it forever. No need to waste timefixing it once and then having to fix it over and over again. No need tosacrifice one area of our life to be happy in another. No need to limit ourexpression of ourselves.

The script is so easy; you may think it wont work. But, it will because itis based on universal principles of omnipresent good, that what weperceive to be reality magnifies, or said differently;Finally, brethren,whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoeverthings are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if therebe any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8

Say this: I love my life. Four simple words, easy, elegant, and effective.

You may say, But I dont love my life. But, that is part of thatprogramming. When my websites were infected they were not visible,they were hidden from view by the bad script. Once that script wascleared out they were visible again. They never went anywhere.

In the same way, the life you love is always present. Say, I love my lifewith feeling and discover the truth of this for yourself.

Say this good script in every moment of your life no matter what isgoing on. I guarantee that it works. Turn it on and keep it running.

It took a week for the good script to crawl through my websites to destroythe bad script, so be patient while these four words work in your life.

In the mean time you can trust in the outcome and celebrate the joy oflife as freely as the birds that call to you in the dawn. The sun alwaysrises. Love is always Life. There is plenty of room in the world for you!


19/39

Boldly Love Where Your Love Has Never Gone Before

You dont know what love is. Thats what Ginny said to Forest in themovie Forrest Gump. At the end of the movie when he told her, I doknow what love is Ginny, we all knew that he did.

Love always shows up. Thats what someone said to me years agowhen I was questioning anothers love for me. That person didnt showup for me, but Forrest did for Ginny. He consistently loved without the

question whats in it for me. Instead he boldly loved, without guilt orneed, because he knew himself and was clear about his intent andpurpose.

A few years ago I wrote an article called Disguising Ourselves AsHuman. But, its more than just disguising ourselves as human. Wedisguise ourselves in much more basic ways.

We disguise ourselves as our jobs, our past, our family, our race, and oursex: the list is endless. And every one of these disguises keeps us from

completely showing up for those we love, beginning with ourselves.When we show up for other people as part of our disguise it is not love, itis escape.

Life gives us moments that we can seize to learn more about boldlyloving instead of escaping to good deeds. Once, after a fall, I had tomove very slowly and even sit down all day and let Del take care of me.It was hard. I am used to getting up, doing things, keeping busy, helpingout, seeing what others need, and in general escaping in my disguise asefficient and caring. Letting Del take care of me revealed my disguise tomyself I am sure he already knew.

When I was in my early 20s I read a quote by Dag Hammarskjold, theSecretary General of the United Nations that I have never forgotten, butoften forget to apply. Mr. Hammarskjold was awarded the Noble PeacePrize posthumously in 1961. I tell you this so there can be nomisunderstanding about his meaning. He said, It is more noble to giveyourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for thesalvation of the masses.

We make love much more complicated. We escape from this kind ofbold love through our disguises and in our duties to mankind andothers. We mistake big events as something important and miss out onthe small events that mean so much more. Loving boldly is about lovingconsistently in everyday life.

Mr. Hammarskjold also said, The great commitment is so much easierthan the ordinary, everyday one--and can all too easily shut our hearts tothe latter. A willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice can be associated

with, and even produce, a great hardness of heart.

It is oh so easy to hide in the excitement of a big plan, and it is oh sodangerous to forget that real love is simple, powerful, effective,consistent, and ultimately the victor over every circumstance that wouldclaim otherwise.

Look into your life. Is it what you meant it to be? Do you know who lovesyou? Do you love boldly and consistently in the little things? Are youmaking choices based on success measured by money, fame or guilt?

As we face situations, both large and small, it is a focus on the boldnessof love that will heal any situation. Boldness that stems from the principleof Love does not begin in fear. It flows from an unshakable awareness ofits ultimate power over all that does not appear as love. If we are notafraid for ourselves, we are not afraid for others.

Showing up as Love is what we will do naturally. Focusing on what is trueLove, we can easily see what is not. We will demand that it be correctedwithin ourselves first and as a result we will not accept anything less thantrue bold love in others. We will stop making decisions that are based on

fear, greed, or personal need.

Forest may have said, life is like a box of chocolates but his love heldno surprises; he lived boldly and consistently and acting from love healways showed up.


20/39

The Prod And The Carrot

It was the right height and width. The drawers slid open effortlessly.Everything about it was perfect, except for one small thing. It was thewrong color.

As hard as I tried to make the color work the file cabinet that I wanted,and felt I desperately needed, was the wrong color.I was tempted to buyit anyway. I lingered in the store for a long time wishing that if I looked

again somehow the cabinet would have become the right color, or that Icould do something to make it work.

But, I knew this temptation to buy the file cabinet was a decision thatwould never pay off. I knew that I might use the file cabinet, but it wouldalways be slightly irritating to me, or I would have to spend an inordinateamount of time trying to make it fit in. I knew it never would be exactlywhat I wanted and someday I would get rid of it and start again. We didntbuy it.

Later that day a client described to us the man she was dating. He wasalmost perfect. Everything about him was just what she wantedeverything except for that one thing that didnt fit at all into the kind oflife she was designing for herself. She knew he had a problem. But, shewas having trouble walking away. After all, he was perfect except for thatone thing. She was lingering in the store hoping that it wasnt true, orthat perhaps it would be worth taking the time to help him change.

Its the prod or the carrot that keeps us in the store tempting us to make achoice that we know is not the right one. We are prodded by the fear thatwe will never have what we really want, and perhaps we dont deserve it

anyway. The prod of fear attempts to convince us that if we miss thisopportunity another will never come again.

If the prod doesnt work then there is always the carrot of possibilities.We move forward, the carrot dangling before us, thinking that justperhaps it will work, perhaps we can control the situation, and imaginghow it could be. Many of us have been addicted to the carrot ofpossibilities, the carrot of if only.

But, we need to know that both the prod and the carrot is a trick. At bestthey waste our time. In the worst situations they can destroy lives. Boththe carrot and prod are born from the worldview perception of notenough, at least not enough for us personally. Others have it, but wedont and we want it. We deserve it after all. This point of view allows theprod and the carrot to rule our lives and to thrive in the world.

Once I wanted a new couch. I had the qualities in mind of the perfectcouch for my living room. I couldnt find a couch that completely matched

the qualities; so I got rid of the couch I had and sat on the floor for years.Getting the perfect couch became a symbol of not settling for whatwouldnt be the perfect qualities for my life. It was a new experience forme, but it felt great.

Choosing to not settle for the wrong couch helped me later when acompanion presented himself to me with many qualities that appeared tobe just right. Except for those few small things. This time I knew thevalue of saying no so I sat without a companion for years too.But I wasnt lacking anything that I needed. At the same time I had all thata couch represented to me. I was comfortable in my home and on myfloor. I also had all the companionship I needed. I felt loved andprotected and cherished by many dear friends and family.

When we succumb to the prod and carrot and choose what is notcompletely right it actually puts our true possibilities on hold. The wrongfile cabinet or couch or companion fills the space where the right onewould fit. Trying to fill what we need from the outside with the prod andthe carrot will always be less than perfect.

The Shift begins from the inside with an understanding that the qualities

of what we want, need, and desire are already present and perfect in ourlives. It takes practice to release the outside pull, but it can be done.Begin small. Choose the perfect file cabinet or couch.

The file cabinet I ended up with doesnt look like a file cabinet, but worksbetter for what I need right now. The couch I eventually found not onlylasted me for years, but also my daughters family. And Del, as the truecompanionship I waited for, is the revelation of Divine Loves presence inmy life.


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It will always work out this way when we, Trust in the Lord with all thineheart; and lean not unto thine own [worldview] understanding. (Proverbs3: 5)

With this in Truth mind, the prod and the carrot can never trick us again.


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Cha-Ching Clarity About God

Have you ever had a cha-ching moment? Its the moment when a newview of what has always been present becomes apparent to you; whensomething you have been trying to understand flashes through yourthinking in an entirely different way and as it does so you get it!

We have all had those moments when everything lines up and clarityappears. It is like a slot machine that has a guarantee of a pay off if we

just continue to put those quarters into it.

In this case we get paid in clarity which is much more valuable thanmoney. With clarity we can see the obvious which was just a momentbefore hidden from view. This clarity reveals the presence of any form ofsupply that is needed for our daily life.

After building the deck on the side of our house the door was installedinto my office. Now I can see a view that was always there, but was notvisible to me.

Recently we held a celebration of my dads life. The speakers werethose who knew him within his field of work. They shared stories andantidotes and as we listened we all had a new view of my dad.

A different view comes about in many ways, but is always a gift and onethat is meant to be used. My door is meant to be opened and walkedthrough or it is useless. An expanded view of someone else reveals newviews of both them and us and makes a substantial difference in thequality of our lives.

A subject that deserves clarity is the concept of matter versus spirit. Theworldview is that we are material, and someday we will be spiritual. Theprocess of how this happens doesnt matter as much as the idea that weare one thing now, but someday we will become another.

This view or perception acts like the wall in my office. It doesnt allow usto see what is on the other side. It hides from view the outcome ofknowing the Truth that God is Spirit and we are the image and likeness ofGod.

When we define God as the man in the sky (a glorious example of this isseen in the movie The Invention of Lying) we are not talking about theGod that is Spirit. The man in the sky god is created from the view thatwe are material, or human, and that god is a glorified version ofourselves, made in our own image.

Its our choice really which view of God we wish to accept and live with asour reality. For me, I choose the open door view and the idea that God isspiritual and infinite Love. Within this view we are also spiritual, now and

always and not just in the future when we have worked through ourhumanness.

But to get to this cha-ching moment of clarity about ourselves and Godwe have to practice, just like you have to drop the quarters in the slotmachine to win.

One way I practice is during my morning walks. As I walk I remind myselfas often as possible that, Everything I am seeing is not material it isspiritual and since God is Spirit and One then everything I am seeing is

God.

This contemplative practice of shifting perceptions results in my seeingthings I never saw before, or seeing them in an entirely new light. It isthis view that sets us free.

With this view, the world shifts to match our perception. We have moredirect experiences that prove that our lives are the action of God. Wefind that we no longer need to or desire to control what appears asmaterial. We let go and see the infinite power and abundance that is theTruth of the essence of ourselves and God.

The door in my office needs to be used. The view is beautiful, but thedoor is useless as a door unless I open it and walk through.

To experience those cha-ching moments takes the continual action ofputting new ideas and perceptions into the machine of our daily lives andthen enjoying with gratitude the cha-ching moment of clarity that opensup a new view of big r Reality.


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Lets celebrate these moments, and then take that clarity and expand onit until one day we know and experience in every moment that gloriousnew view of ourselves, each other, and God.


24/39

The Bee And The Hummingbird

We were sitting on our deck under the table umbrella on a beautifulsummer morning. A bee flew past and then up into the point of theumbrella, and there he stayed. He buzzed around the top looking for away out. As he tired he would rest on the fabric. Rested, he would onceagain try to get out through the top of the umbrella, which wasimpossible.

Of course, we could easily see that if he would simply back up or flydown he would see that he wasnt actually trapped at all, he could fly outin any direction. But, he didnt. He had trapped himself. As we watched, ahummingbird flew under the umbrella straight at the bee. It hovered rightby him, almost poking him with his beak, and then turned and showedhim the way out from beneath the umbrella.

Did the bee follow? No. He continued to struggle with the top of theumbrella until Del took the umbrella off the post, turned it upside down,and the bee flew up and away.

How often do we do this in our life? We fly into a situation and then tryto get out of it in a direction that will never work. If we would pause, orback up, or look around we would see there is always a different way out.Sometimes a friendly hummingbird will come right up to us and try toget our attention so we can follow her to freedom.

In the song, Me andBobby McGee, there is the phrase; Freedoms justanother word for nothing left to lose. There are two ways to look at thissentence. One is that once everything is gone there is nothing left tolose, or once you realize that you have nothing that can be lost you are

free.

In the movie, Star Wars, Jedi Master Yodi tells Anakin that, The fear ofloss is the path to the dark side. Afraid of losing something, we trade inour freedom for something with which we are familiar. In the case of thebee, the top of the umbrella became very familiar because he was usedto flying up to get away. But this familiarity and his unwillingness to letgo of how he thought it should be, placed him in his own personalprison.

We all put ourselves in a personal prison. Just like the bee, it is the prisonof our own thinking. When we think we need something, or wantsomething we are bound to it. Not by the thing itself, but by our thinkingthat we need it and dont yet have it. The only thing that ever needs to befixed is our perception.

It is our point of view that is always the trap, and at the same time it isalways the open door. When we choose, and then stay with, a point ofview that all we have is what we can gather around us and own, that

work provides income, that companionship provides love, and that theloss of anything means we no longer have it, we are trapped within ourown personal prison.

If we choose the point of view that the things that we have gathered, theincome we receive, and the love that we have, are all an outcome andproof of the fact that we are the evidence and knowing of the One Godwhich is the Infinite Intelligence that Is all, than we are freed from ourprison. This point of view knows that where we are so is all that weneed.

There is a story about a boy in Sunday school. The teacher asked thechildren if they would be afraid i f they found themselves alone in themiddle of the ocean. All of them said, yes except one small boy. Hesaid, No I wouldnt be afraid. The Sunday school teacher asked him,Why not? He said, Because God would be there with me. TheSunday school teacher asked him, How do you know for sure He wouldbe there? The boy replied, Because I was there. This point of view isthe key to freedom. The small boy knew that where he was, God was,and therefore there was nothing to fear or to lose.

We all have a friendly hummingbird that has shown us the way out ofany trap that we have flown into. There are people in the past andpresent that dedicated their lives to show us the way to freedom. We justhave to become aware of them, watch where and how they got out, andfollow their example. It would be so much easier to follow them then towait until our whole world is turned upside down before we can be setfree.


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Mist-Perception

As we drove to work one morning we were celebrating the fact that it wasa beautiful sunny spring day. Suddenly it wasnt. Within seconds we weresurrounded by fog. We could barely see 20 feet in front of us. Carsslowed down, car lights flicked on, and everyone became very alert andcareful as they continued to drive. Within minutes we had driven out ofthe fog, and once again i t was a beautiful sunny spring day.

Isnt life like this? We are happily living a fulfilling and abundant life andthen suddenly our wealth, our health, our love, or our happiness seemsto disappear. What is the difference between hitting the fog on the roadand hitting the fog in our lives? Nothing except our point of view and stateof mind: and that is everything.

Heres what we dont think when we hit fog in the road. Yikes,everything in the world is gone. What shall I do to bring it back? It neveroccurs to us to think this way. We know for certain that the world as weknow it has simply been momentarily hidden. This point of view results in

a state of mind of caution, patience, and gratefulness. We take the actionof slowing down, turning on headlights, and carefully driving until we areout of the fog. We dont have the state of mind that we are responsible tobring the world back and the fear, panic, responsibility, and ego thataccompany this state of mind.

Fog in our lives does not change the fact that all we need is present now;it simply hides it from view. When we shine the light of a point of viewthat nothing is changed, that omnipresent Love is filling all space andomnipotent Mind is constantly providing for us, the fog lifts to reveal whathas never been lost. This is what makes spiritual perception appear toproduce practical results.

Years ago I was balancing my check book and discovered that I hadabout $200 less in my bank than I thought I had. Immediately I panicked.Fog had appeared so often in my life at that time that my state of mindwas oh no, not again and I was full of fear and a sense of responsibilityfor the mistake. I began to act from the ego thinking since I caused theproblem I must have to do something to fix it.

As I walked home from the bank my state of mind relaxed enough tomomentarily think from a spiritual point of view of omnipresent Love. As Idid so it occurred to me that I should check my statement again. When Idid, I discovered that the bank had credited a $200 deposit as only $2.00.The fog had lifted and revealed that nothing had changed.

Fog is a mist. In our life it is a mist that clouds over Truth. It reality it is amissed-perception. No matter what the need may appear to be: money,health, love, companionship, or simply feeling happy, we can know thatall that we need is present, always has been, always will be. Ourperception produces the world that we live in. It doesnt create it. Ourperception, our point of view, simply allows us to see only what webelieve to be reality.

As people all over the world appear to struggle with not enough, as wewonder where the rent money, tax money, health, love of our lives,companionship, hope, and peace will come from, we can continue todrive with our headlights of clarity on and maintain our awareness ofTruth, knowing that the fog will lift and the world will appear as it really

has been all along.


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Stuck, Inertia, And The Fire Within

We installed a wood burning stove in our living room which we use toheat our home. It works wonderfully well and it continues to provideguidance as well as warmth. This week it demonstrated to me thedifference between inertia and stuck and how to dissolve both.

I never had a wood burning stove before; I thought that it would be justlike a closed stove. However, a wood burning stove has an air tight glass

door on it so you can see the flames. You can also feel the heat the sameas a fireplace, but because of the seal on the door the heat is notdispersed up the chimney which makes it many times more efficient atheating.

This means that you cant just throw wood on the fire. You have to openthe sealed door which of course then allows the oxygen to flood into thefire. Therefore, you have to pause before fully opening the door so thatthe fire does not build too quickly from that rush of air.

One day it had warmed up outside so I hadnt put any new wood on thefire during the afternoon. That evening as I prepared to build the fireagain it appeared that all that was left was a few very small embers.

On this same day I was thinking about the difference between inertiaand stuck.

Because it appeared that there was no fire I wasnt as cautious as usualwhen I opened the door, but the moment I did the fire literally explodedinto flame. That, I thought, is what becoming unstuck looks like.

Like those embers all it takes is the swift infusion of oxygen or in ourcase, Truth, and what has been silently and steadily burning within willburst into bloom. It doesnt take much.

On the other hand there is inertia. This can happen when we have let thefire go out completely. Then it takes a lot of small tinder, coaxing, and along build up before the fire begins to burn efficiently again. That is whatinertia looks like.

We often think of inertia as not moving. But, really inertia is either a stateof rest or of motion that is resistant to change. We see this in oureveryday life all the time. It is our habits. It is the way we have alwaysdone it, whether we are doing something or just standing still.

To change our state of being, like the fires, it takes an outside forceproportional to how ingrained the habit. How dead the fire is beforehanddetermines how much force, or fuel, is needed to start it burningefficiently again.

Approaching this from the right premise of spiritual perception, this wouldmean that it would take more awareness and discipline of thought tochange a bigger, or more ingrained, habit of thought then a smaller onewhen we are in the state of mind of inertia.

On the other hand, when we are stuck the desire and intent is alreadyburning. Then it takes just a small amount of outside force, orawareness of Truth flooding into our consciousness to propel us out ofstuck and into Life.

Of course these two ideas are intertwined. Both states of mind calledstuck and inertia are misunderstood perceptions of the True nature ofLife which have become habits of thinking and acting.

However, understanding the difference between the two may help relievethe frustration we sometimes feel when we have been steady students ofTruth and yet it feels as if the fire of our life has not yet begun to burnefficiently.

There is great comfort and relief in knowing that the Infinite Principle

never experiences inertia, or stuck, or is even aware of ourmisperception. It is always operating in the harmony and perfection ofgraceful unfolding.

This means that as we add the fuel of awareness and perception anddiligently tend to the fire within, what appears as stuck or inertia willdissolve into nothingness. Either state does not exist in the perfection ofthe Truth of Being. As the mist dissolves we will experience our current


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highest awareness of Love Loving Itself in practical ways far beyond ourhuman design and planning.

Open the door of your fire within and let in the Truth of who you are. itdoesnt make any difference whether this action explodes your life intobloom, or if you have to diligently build the fire. Sooner or later the il lusionor stuck or inertia will dissolve and the infinite abundance that is youwill stand revealed.


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Prisoners of Perception

We are all the prisoners of our own perceptions. Here are 3 short storiesabout the results of being locked up by worry, doubt and fear and thenan alternative ending for each.

1. I walked around the counter at the airport to get a straw for my drinkand found a woman frantically mopping up her spilled coffee. She wasusing the flimsy tissue paper that was used for wrapping pastries so the

mopping up process wasnt working well. I reached for the napkins andstarted helping. She looked up in surprise that I had found the napkinssaying that she had looked for them but didnt see them. Her commentwas I couldnt see for looking.

She was right. She couldnt see for looking. Why not? Because herstate of mind blocked the view of the napkins that were in plain sight, itwas a state of mind of worry, rush, and fear.

2. There is an old story about the Devils yard sale. The Devil decided to

out of business (wouldnt that be nice?) so he held a yard sale to get ridof his old tools. As one woman walked around the yard she saw manytools that appeared to be in great condition; tools that were labeleddoubt, bad times, sadness etc. However, one tool stood out becauseit was so old and beat up and yet carried a large price tag. It was labeleddiscouragement. Why, she asked, Is this tool so beat up and soexpensive? The devil replied, Because this is the one tool I always use.It works best because no one suspects its me.

Its true we rarely do suspect that discouragement is a tool that TheDevil uses. Entertaining reasonable doubt, a cousin of discouragement,

seems like such a wise thing to do. But the point of view that remains indiscouragement is a prison within which we are incapable of takingaction. After all, with a state of mind of discouragement, we are neversure if we are doing or saying or being the right thing.

3. Del and I were in a room full of people listening to how to get on radioand TV shows. In the front of the room was a panel of key people towhom only a few people in the audience were going to be able to pitchtheir idea. Within moments a room full of seemingly intelligent and stable

grownups erupted as they made every effort to be noticed. Calling out,me, me, me, and jumping up and down was a favorite method of gettingattention.

What motivated this behavior? A state of mind a perceptioncalledfear. Fear that there wasnt enough; fear that they wouldnt have achance, fear that this was the only way to accomplish their goals.

In the prison of our own perceptions, we cant see for looking, doubt

seems innocent, and fear motivates our actions. Each of us has our ownpersonal prison created out of all that we have been taught and acceptedabout the worldview. Perception does rule! What we believe to be reality

magnifies. Lets all break out of prisonnow!What if we knew, even if just for a moment, without doubt, that instead ofbeing material beings striving for perfection we are really Spiritual beingsalready perfect? Even if we dont fully understand this, even if it doesntmake sense, even if we arent sure its true, what if we imagined that itwas? What if we chose a Spiritual Perception? What then?

Heres how a Spiritual Perception might have been used to alter each ofthe three stories.

1. As the woman spilled her coffee and began thinking from a SpiritualPerception her thoughts might have run something like this: I know thateverything is already created, therefore what I need is here for me rightnow.

Result: A dissolved worry state of mind, and what was needed would

have been immediately seen by her instead of being blocked by herperception.

2. Here are two ways to keep doubt from putting us in prison. One:become aware that the voice suggesting discouragement is not ours(remember its the Devils tool), and Two: that God does not know orsend negative things or thoughts. A Spiritual Perception that God isomnipresent, omniscience, and omnipotent Love eliminates thepossibility that there is anything other than Love and Good.


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Result: Dissolved doubt and discouragement, as faith and understandinglead the way instead. In our life this might appear as knowing what to do,feeling the weight of the world lift, or previously unseen opportunitiesappearing right in front of us. There are countless ways that Spiritualabundance is revealed to us after the blindfolds of sense perception areremoved.

3. Most of the people in the seminar room were acting out of theworldview, the earth game, that there is not enough, which produces a

me first and only attitude. If each person had been thinking from aSpiritual Perception the room would have been calm, poised, supportiveof everyone and uplifting. In this Spiritual point of view everyone wouldhave known that they were not in charge of the outcome, that what theyneeded was already provided, and that no one is ever left out.

Result: The appropriate action would have automatically taken place asinspiration or Angel Ideas guiding each participant to the fulfillment oftheir purpose.

With a Spiritual Perception, not only would the wardens of worry, doubtand fear dissolve, but also the prison itself.

Perception rules. Prove it for yourself. Try magnifying only Good Godand pay attention to the results. Be grateful for every brief glimpse ofTruth no matter how small. Gratitude is the oil that loosens every stuckprison door.

Coming from a Spiritual Perception, the woman with the coffee wouldhave seen what she needed right in front of her, in this case napkins, theDevils tool of discouragement would become useless, and fear would not

motivate our actions.

Choosing to think and act from a Spiritual Perception we would, ...walktransparent like some holy thing. * We would transform the worldview,releasing everyone from the prison of sense perception into the freedomof Spiritual Perception. I am ready for a prison break will you join me?

* Mary Baker EddyMisc. Writings

Si h i b li ifi h h


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Choose Your Perception

In the world of marketing one is supposed to come up with a catchphrase or USP (unique selling proposition), so many, many, years ago Icondensed all that I was trying to say into this phrase: What WePerceive To Be Reality Magnifies.

Years later, I am still using it because it is the clearest way to explainwhat appears as reality is not. Perception is reality. But, whose

perception? This is much different than what is meant by the saying,What we focus upon creates reality, which implies that we are creatorsor at least co-creators. Its easier than that, because perception is reality.

On the TV program 60 Minutes a General spoke about war as aperception. While a financial planner I knew very well that the stockmarket is an agreed upon perception. The worldview that governs somuch of our lives, is an agreed upon perception. Everything that the fivesenses tells us is a perception. Not a real thing, a perception. But thisperception blocks from view what is Reality.

Cleaning up perception is not creating a new world. It is seeing the world,as it really is: completely and irresistibly, perfectly spiritual.

But, then what is spiritual? Is it a cleaned up material view, that attractswhat we want to us, and creates a more perfect life style? Is itmeasurable energy that can be manipulated and used to benefit us?

No, that is a material perception. Spiritual is not measurable. Spiritual isknown from within, and is not measurable by the human senses. It is notrelated to dogmas or human opinions. It is the 7 nouns of God in action,

Soul, Mind, Spirit, Love, Life, Principle, and Truth. It is the logic behind itall.

As we become aware of the thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and perceptions thatcolor the world we see, we get to choose whether we want to continuewith the limited, chaotic, often cruel, and never fixable perception of theworldview, or the elegant, logically, entirely loving, always supportive,One Intelligent Mind, Gods perception.

Since what we perceive to be reality magnifies, why not choose tomagnify what God sees and knows? That perception is the perfect one,containing all that is, holding every element of its idea called, world, man,universe, animals, plants, every blade of grass, every grain of sand asItself in action.

The proof that there is a God is that you and I, and all that we knowexists. All questions about why and how are distractions. If our intent is toknow as God knows, then forget the human questions; lets get down and

up to seeing as God sees.

Of course this involves discovering, uncovering, eliminating, dissolving,and letting go of all perceptions that block our sight to the One Perceiver.Assuming we are all willing to do this, since the intent is to see as Godsees, then the next step is to become aware of what we believe to bereality and see if it is in alignment with the Truth of One Cause andCreator.

This is not a judgment time; this is simply an awareness of the missed-perception that we have held dearly. This is what The Shift is all about.This is what Del calls dirt time. As we make that shift and awarenesscreeps in, lots of stuff appears that is not necessary to what we wantedto see.

Its like moving. As we take stuff out of closets and drawers and decide ifwe want to move it to the next place, we are amazed to find what wehave not paid attention to what has been collecting in our home.

Its the same with a state of mind. We hide past actions, hurts, andsorrows in boxes and drawers and closets in our mind. As we move from

the past state of mind to the next one we get to decide what to take withus.

When we move from a physical home we touch physical objects to makethe decision about what to keep. If we get caught up in why we have it,thinking that it cant be replaced, get mad at ourselves for not noticing itbefore, or any other form of judgment, then we can be stuck in thatmoving process forever. Its not necessary to do this.


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In the same way, as we exam our perceptions, ideas, and beliefs that wehave accumulated, it is not necessary to understand the why and how ofeach one. It is not necessary to beat ourselves up for the mistaken pointsof view that have lived in our thoughts. If we did this, we would nevermove. That point of view would be our mental home for a long time.

What we can do instead is choose whether the object in our home, or theperception in our thought, is how we want to live now. We can let go ofanything that isnt the highest understanding we currently have of the

perfection of Love.

As we clean our home, what has always been there becomes visible. Aswe clean our perception what has always been present becomes visible.

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear toman as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all thingsthru' narrow chinks of his cavern. William Blake

Lets stop trying to perceive what is real through the narrow chinks of our

cavern. Lets choose to see as God sees, Infinitely. Then there is no needfor a secret on how to create and achieve, because it will be clear to usthat all we need is already present and all that needs to be done, hasalready been completed, in Reality.


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Boundaries That Set You Free

Its not my job, thats what she would always say when someone wouldask for help with something outside the parameters of what sheperceived as her job description. Unbeknown to her we would all use thatphrase as a joke in the office whenever we didnt feel like doingsomething. We would laugh and do it anyway.

The movie March Of The Penguins documents the awe inspiring job

that penguins are willing to do for love. They literally walk outside of theircomfort zone for 9 months a year in order to provide for their child. It istheir job, and they do that job without regret or desire for it to be different.

But, they have boundaries. There are limits that they know they must notcross. Although they go without food for months, they know at somepoint they must abandon their job and retreat back to the sea if theboundary they have set is not met.

What is our job? Perhaps we too must step outside of our comfort zone

for love. But how far do we let that go? Do we let other people stay intheir comfort zone at the expense of our own ability to live?

It is boundaries that set us free. Inside the boundaries we are free to fullygive knowing that there is a limit. With no boundaries, or boundaries setout too far for us to survive, we are prisoners of not only our own desiresto either please or be pleased, but also the prisoners of anyone whoabuses our willingness to be boundary less.

What is our job? Our job is to begin with the right premise of who we are.All action that stems from the correct premise yields a result that benefits

everyone.

The 10 commandments are boundaries that set limits in all areas andfullness of our lives. For example thou shalt not kill does not just meanto not kill a physical body. It also means we may not kill anothers spirit.This includes our own spirit. This includes not allowing another to kill ourspirit. This includes not allowing immorality to kill our sense of what isright and wrong. There are many meanings to thou shalt not kill.

Beginning with the right premise of One Love always present and alwaysacting as Principle, and as always intelligent Infinite Mind and we as theaction of this One, than the 10 commandments and the thou shalt notbecomes a statement of thou will not be able to. The humanboundaries will have vanished in the absolute knowing andunderstanding that all that exists is Infinite Love and that is the ultimateboundary. When we stay within these guidelines, within this boundary, weare free of all limitations.

In the mean time, boundaries we set for ourselves are a statement of thehighest understanding that we have in each moment of that infiniteIntelligent Principled Love. We must set them. We must live within them.We must not allow others, or ourselves for whatever reason, to displacethem.

It is often a misunderstanding of the requirements or desires of love thatkeep boundaries from being set or kept. The One Love requires us toLove as It does. Love loves Itself fully and completely without a need forapproval or anothers awareness of It to exist. It allows because it

knows nothing other than Love - nothing that is not Love to be present.Starting here, with this premise, our boundaries are not boundaries thatkeep out or remove Love, but boundaries that keep us In Love withoutlimitation or expiration.

The statement the woman in our office would make of, Its not my jobevolved from her unwillingness to step outside her comfort zone foranother. This boundary limited her ability to be more of an expression ofpure love in her life. It limited her ability to feel the exquisite sense of joythat comes from unselfishly helping another. She did not begin from OneLove that can never be exhausted, so she set boundaries that did not set

her free.

If she had set her boundaries from within an understanding of One Love,than that boundary would have set her free to help others, but not at theexpense of her own spirit. The penguins love is awe-inspiring in theirlove for their young, their mates and ultimately in their acting from theboundaries of Love that begins with Love only.


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At The Read and I want it now lifestyle And yes both forms of this worldview and its


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At The Ready

At the ready is a point of view that I love to embrace to the fullest. Itmeans that in our house, if you need a pencil, a knife, a piece of paper,or a light no matter what you need at any moment, my intent is to haveprovided it where you would expect it to be. No need to search for it. Youcan expect that it is at the ready.

One morning as I observed the squirrels, birds and trees in our yard I

realized that they have a built in expectation that what they need is atthe ready. While I watched, I tried to imagine what it would feel like to bea squirrel, bird or tree. As I did so, that peaceful at the ready feelingbecame my feeling. As that feeling seeped into my thinking, I realizedthat everything we need is also always at the ready. How could it beotherwise? The Principle of Love must always provide perfectly for allthose that live in Its home as I attempt to provide in mine.

The difference between me and the squirrels, birds and trees is that Ithink I have to be or do something in order for all that I need to be at theready. They dont. Provision in all its forms is just how it is, notsomething to acquire, understand or go to work for.

Heres the problem. The point of view of at the ready is not what wehave been trained to perceive as reality. We have been trained in theworldview. This worldview displays itself in two opposite forms, but withthe same basic error in the premise.

The first form is the point of view that there is not enough, in other words,lack. Its that perception that some have, and some dont. That work ofsome kind is required in order to receive, and that often in order to have

that work to provide well for us, it will mean we will have to compromisewhat we feel is the right way to live. This point of view has two differentresults: varying degrees of wealth or poverty. Wealth if we are good atthe game, poverty if we arent.

The second form is the point of view that we have a right to be wealthy,now. It is the privileged point of view. It is the perception that the worldowes us. This point of view also has two outcomes. It can appear in ourlives as either some form of laziness or personal debt. It is an, I want it

and I want it now lifestyle. And yes, both forms of this worldview and itsoutcome can be found in most of all of our lives.

We cant turn the point of view of lack into abundance, nor can we turnthe point of view of privilege into provision, although we can certainlyspend a huge part of our life attempting to do so. Both of these points ofview begin with t

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Art of Perception