Lesson 20

I am determined to see. ~ Lesson 20, ACIM

The first time I touched a course in miracles, this was as far as I got for weeks.

I choked.

Got into all the thinking. All the storytelling. Oy.

So simple though, it was actually a super simple declaration.

One that absolutely changed everything.

From the moment I fully took in this lesson, I can see how I oriented my entire life around this idea.

I was asking for the truth to be revealed.

To pull back the curtain on absolutely everything.

With zero concept of what I was asking for.

Or what it would activate within.

One of my absolute favorites.

My teacher of that time reminded us every time we met - “you just gotta be willing to be willing.”

She was right.

The willingness to consider something diametrically opposed to everything I soaked in up to that point.

The willingness to drop everything I thought made me me.

Accepting that invitation was the bravest and most liberating choice of this incarnation to date.

Lesson 19

I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts. ~ Lesson 19, ACIM

Since this one bears repeating often and loudly……

ENCORE!!!

What we buy into creates the world we see.

From the time we are born we make meaning of everything.

Our experiences, families communities all inform the stories we tell about the things that happen.

This creates a feedback loop within that shapes our reality in ways that become invisible to us as we grow up.

The external world then reflects this internal feedback loop and we call it reality.

The Course seeks to correct that loop by questioning its foundation.

The lessons offer opportunity to see differently than what we’ve been conditioned to.

See past the fog into the truth that exists beyond the illusion.

Lesson 18

I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing. ~ Lesson 18, ACIM

So, not only am I painting my world through the thoughts that I think which then become my experience, I am also impacting others, and simultaneously being impacted by them?

The Course is A path to wake up from this waking dream.

A way to divest from all that we have identified with.

An opportunity to see clearly, not only just for us, but for the whole world.

When we recognize this connection and that nothing is personal or private we begin to truly see things as they are.

We are never separate from the effects of how we be in any moment.

We are never separate from one another.

We are never not shifting, changing evolving.

Even when we’re standing still.

It’s not coincidence that the tides affect us.

Or that a butterfly flapping its wings is felt on the other side of the planet.

We are inextricably connected, even in our absence.

The key is to discovering and then learning to wield this power.

Will you choose fear?

Or love?

Lesson 17

I see no neutral things. ~ Lesson 17, ACIM

Expanding on the previous lesson, we see what we think about.

If I think about all the things worrying and stressing about, I see more of that.

And then I think I’m seeing more of that so I think more of that, the more I trick myself into thinking what I’m seeing is real.

On the flip side, when things are going great, I think about how great they are and then I see more to acknowledge as great.

And am then swept up in how amazing they are reacting in that elevated state.

When in truth, the above leads me to be completely externally dependent on things going a certain way to remain stable.

To see things as they actually are is to remain neutral to what is unfolding in front of my human eyes.

From there, I can actually experience the extraordinary beauty of this life.