My life was drastically altered by many a series of events. But none has brought me closer to understanding what life is all about than a book: A Course In Miracles.
It’s just a book. One book. And like all other good books, it has a lot to say. But this one says things that I believe are about as close to empirical truth as a person can see in black and white.
It talks about reality, and the nature of man. It delves into our humanness and our weaknesses and our strengths. It gives great details, fantastic guidelines to remind us of who we are and how we can live our best lives.
It says that we are sons and daughters of God. It uses very Christian-based verbage about the “Great Source”, the “Creator”, but The Course makes no qualms, the source is Divine no matter what you call it.
I’ve been reading it now for about 10 years, and it never fails to remind me of what I need to remember. These days, I read it mostly in bathroom – romantic, I know. But it’s there and it’s a better option than flipping through pages of a magazine full of things I can’t afford to buy.
And so I sit and I pee and I learn and remember. And as I urinate it tells me this:
The truth is true. Nothing else matters, nothing else is real, and everything beside it is not there. Let Me make the one distinction for you that you cannot make, but need to learn. Your faith in nothing is deceiving you. Offer your fath to Me, and I will place it gently in the holy place where it belongs. You will find no deception there, but only the simple truth. And you will love it because you will understand it.
Taken out of context, it can seem a bit crazy and off the cuff. One must read this book beginning to end t, for it to make any relatable sense to anyone who hasn’t.
But it’s one of my mainstays. My house wasn’t really a home until I bought a new copy of The Course.
I had a nice paperbacked copy years ago, well-worn and dog-eared. I gave it to a handsome young Jehovahs Witness who came knocking on my door one Sunday. It was fall and it was cold. I was slow-cooking a roast beef and the house was warm with the scent of meat and garlic. I invited him in.
I remember clearly having Bob Marley playing, drinking a beer. He was maybe 18 or 19, shivering. We sat at the kitchen counter for about an hour, I made him hot tea and we discussed life and god and his travels.
I think he wanted to stay for dinner, but he looked at his watch and mentioned his elders would be looking for him. He eyed my beer jealously and asked me what I believed in. So, I grabbed up my Course and pushed it across the counter to him. I told him to take it, read it. Enjoy it. Lord knows it wouldn’t contradict anything his faith had taught him…. but it may show him how to see it from a whole other angle.
It was raining by the time he left, he wasn’t dressed for the weather, but he left smiling, holding up the book to shield his head from the raindrops. He thanked me.
I wonder whatever became of that book – and that boy.
But it’s a miracle, this life. All of it. And we can choose to make it pleasant or we can choose to make it difficult. And that book should be 10 times thicker than it is, for all it says.
It was a gift, and I’d like to continue to give it. And that’s the miracle.
Posted by harriedmystic on November 5, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Sometimes, a few well timed words make all the difference in the world. In passing a miracle on, you too become a miracle. Thank you for sharing your beautiful story.