For the first day in probably several weeks, I decided not to go for a long run this morning and, as right as I felt about taking a break, I’ve realized how much I enjoy consistently spending time outdoors amid the beauty of the forest; and I was already looking forward to tomorrow before listening to what I believe to be a beautiful daily lesson in the Course in Miracles Workbook for Students. It reads, in part:

1. Why wait for Heaven? ²Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. ³The light is in them now. ⁴Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. ⁵Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. ⁶The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. ⁷It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. ⁸It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.

2. This light can not be lost. ²Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already, or was never there? ³It can so easily be looked upon that arguments which prove it is not there become ridiculous. ⁴Who can deny the presence of what he beholds in him? ⁵It is not difficult to look within, for there all vision starts. ⁶There is no sight, be it of dreams or from a truer Source, that is not but the shadow of the seen through inward vision. ⁷There perception starts, and there it ends. ⁸It has no source but this.

3. The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. ²It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever. ³What it gives must be eternal. ⁴It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. ⁵It brings renewal to all tired hearts, and lights all vision as it passes by. ⁶All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give, and you who have received. (ACIM, W-188.1:1–3:6)

It is so helpful to be reminded to look within in moments like this, and, with regard to my blog, I’ve also been feeling reminded persistently lately of the directive in the ACIM text to “be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.”

I do still feel it right to speak up about what feel is wrong with the world’s prevailing mass communications system, and I continue to feel hopeful someone, someday, will be willing to listen. But I am still not sure I am meant to be a political advocate. It seems to me that, perhaps more than ever, this could be a time for people, and Americans in particular, to come together. (At what other moment in history has corporate media worked to – simultaneously – destroy all three leading presidential candidates, presumably to install a leader more easily controlled?)

There seems to be so much mudslinging going on in public affairs today that I’ve been further pondering the ideas of motes and beams and how to discern between them. While I should probably note I have not yet read the whole first volume, I love how author Nouk Sanchez writes in End of Death regarding disguised feelings of guilt associated with the belief that anyone can really separate from God’s government and, outside of dreams, make decisions and mistakes – large or small: “Whatever it is that disturbs our peace, we’re doing it to ourself. We can gauge the degree of our own unrelinquished guilt by observing the level of emotional charge we feel in any loss of peace. If we didn’t possess this guilt, disguised, perhaps, as fear, anger, or sadness, we would be unable to perceive attack.” (I was, gratefully, raised in environments where the spiritualization of thought was encouraged continually; and it’s perhaps for this reason that I find this insight helpful, especially today and as intriguing thinkers like Ms. Sanchez and even popular scientist Donald Hoffman receive more attention in the public square.) Democracy being principally about working through relationships, after all, I find it further intriguing that, in A Course in Miracles, “the Holy Spirit’s temple is not a body, but a relationship.” (ACIM, T-20.VI.5:1) In this sense, what we term the temples of democracy, then, are infrastructure where sacred progress can conceivably be made; and, as I have argued at length before, I believe strongly that it will be correct for the modern versions of money changing to be ejected from them.

In any case, and with regard to dealing with these matters practically, I’m learning it’s so helpful try to return often to the question of how I am feeling about a situation, event, or person, before taking action. While we all have work to do so long as there seem to be so many problems still in need of resolution in the world, it makes so much more sense to invest actual emotional energy only in what God is doing. And I love pondering the idea that, once a beam, or negatively-charged emotion, is removed, it can serve a new purpose as a bridge others can also walk from less to more efficient ideas and solutions.