Lilies as good as fireworks!
“I know everybody’s in a bad mood about the country. But the more time you spend in the hardest places, the more amazed you become. There’s some movement arising that is suspicious of consumerism but is not socialist. It’s suspicious of impersonal state systems but is not libertarian. It believes in the small moments of connection.” David Brooks, New York Times columnist.
In the U.S.A., it is the “July 4th Weekend.” Independence Day. A celebration of having broken away from tyranny and gained the freedom to start anew. Spotting this editorial in my local Pioneer Press newspaper, I was inspired by two things: labels not fitting, and moments of connection bringing hope and amazement.
With the exit of Britain from the European Union, the political and social implications of separation versus union are being widely discussed. In A Course of Love, the personal, spiritual and universal effects of separation versus union are highlighted.
We’re looking for a new freedom now and, with A Course of Love, have begun to cast aside the old labels that were used for it, as well as the means of our approach. As we come to the end of the first book of this course, there’s an implication that we’ve realized we can only “come to 
know” through relationship.
If you can only come to know your Self through relationship, you can only come to know God through relationship. Christ is the holy relationship that exists between all and God, providing the bridge that spans the very concept of between and provides for the connection of unity. Thus your relationship with Christ always was and always will be. Your task here is to come to know that relationship once again. C:27.8
This is why this Course has not concentrated on your thinking. Again you are bidden to turn to your heart for the truth that is hidden there yet waiting to be revealed. Your heart knows of unity and knows not any desire to be alone and separate. Your heart understands relationship as its source of being. You are not separate from your Source. C:27.12
The quote below strikes me today like the “unalienable rights” delineated in the Declaration of Independence. In A Course of Love, this “right” is the inner yearning that leads to choosing anew, and the under-standing that connection rather than isolation or alienation is integral to the choice. All are chosen. Each and all face the now or later choice, and find eventually, that the choice for knowing Self, and knowing God is the same.
The choice that lies before you now concerns what it is you would come to know. The question asked throughout this Course is if you are willing to make the choice to come to know your Self and God now. This is the same as being asked if you are willing to be the chosen of God. This is the same question that has been asked throughout the existence of time. Some have chosen to come to know themselves and God directly. Others have chosen to come to know themselves and God indirectly. These are the only two choices, the choices between truth and illusion, fear and love, unity and separation, now and later. What you must understand is that all choices will lead to knowledge of Self and God, as no choices are offered that are not such. All are chosen and so it could not be otherwise. But at the same time, it must be seen that your choice matters in time, even if all will make the same choice eventually. T4:1.11
In Day 15 of The Dialogues, Jesus says that you may enter a time of walking alone. (D:Day15.27) The manifestations of union and separation do not always take the same form. Connection allows for individuation and a union that exists without becoming a ruling body or ruling the body of humanity. Our choice isn’t concerned with one religion, or way, or country over another. Those are the external manifestations.
The choice is an inner choice, a choice for the connection that reveals the truth of who we are in unity and relationship.
Jesus asks us to turn to our hearts to find the connection that has always existed between Self and God, and then to embrace that relationship with all, as God is so clearly in each and all. Jesus tells us that in this way, each of us will find truth, love, and unity. . . . now rather than later.
Cole, I appreciate your expressions of gratitude for A Course of Love more than I say. I feel it too. All the time. I love it that you use the word deepening. That feels like the experience of the heart, always deepening. I am excited for you beginning your first journey through this course!
Dear Mari. Looks like I found a way to reach you directly. i would like to thank you and Jesus of course from the Bottom of my heart for this incredible course. I have only purchased acol some 2 weeks ago and haven’t even read the whole book but my 26 years of working with Acim (and Right use of Will a very feeling oriented practice ) have been integrated and redirected from mind to Heart in an instant. And what began is deepening every day beyond what I could ever imagine. I’m in awe and in profound gratitude and similar to Mark above as yet unable to fully express in words but my feeling is extending widely and sweet nectar flooding my body. Heaven is is no longer an image in my mind but s daily reality thank u million Cole
I have found that place of union, yet have not a clue as to how to express my experience in words. I can however express my eternal gratitude to Mari for being the conduit for ACOL’s sppearance in the earth.
Thank you, Mark. Not all of us can express in words or maybe better said, “want to” express in words. But I trust that somehow our very lives become expressions of what we now are.
I have found that place of union, yet have not a clue as to have to express my experience in words. I can however express my eternal gratitude to Mari for being the conduit for ACOL’s sppearance in the earth.
Mari, I like your quote from David Brooks. I have followed him for years and been impressed recently by a profound transformation in his writings that speaks of a spiritual deepening and transformation. Recently his whole column in the NYTimes OpEd page was based on a Richard Rohr writing, he gave credit to Rohr several times in the column. The One Voice in the many is becoming so apparent to me and I find it exciting.
I resonate with your closing. I can’t believe that I still get thrilled about this message which comes to us over and over throughout the Course. This morning I read in Dialogues, Day 22.11. “Remember only the feeling that a place of union exists in which you know God, in which you know love, in which you know of joy without sorrow, and life everlasting. This is the great unknown that you can make known.” Doesn’t that give your heart a lift (no matter what is happening in our hurting world now), just reading those words again?
Paula, I’m glad to hear about David Brooks and Richard Rohr (one of my favorites too–both of them really). I only see Brooks when he appears in my local paper, but in that way, I too have followed him for years. It is always a thrill to see “our” themes reflected in what is called the “main stream.” And yes, the words you quote continue to give me a feeling of exaltation!