I’m traveling to California tomorrow to visit with the people at Take Heart Publications who enable the sharing of A Course of Love in form and spirit. There is a spirit to ACOL that takes some getting used to. It’s an adventurous spirit. A spirit that says “the new is yet to be created.” I was reading Day 1 of The Dialogues this morning because there is an ACOL group that meets among the friends that are part of, or near to, Take Heart. What a kick it is to be able to join them as they happen to be about to share Day 1.

Part of my trip will be about the ACIM Conference that will take place next April. Part of it will be details that will be far less interesting. One aspect will be a review of how we’ve been proceeding thus far, and another envisioning where we’re going. In each detail, memory and idea, remembering that “the new is yet to be created” is essential. We are about the business of creation of the new. Maybe because I was thinking of the various forms this meeting with my publisher will take, I saw this passage in Day 1 about the astronaut newly. It goes like this:

Not accepting me would be like training to be an astronaut and, at the moment of take-off, refusing the requirement of the spacecraft as the way to reach outer space. This would be akin to non-acceptance of the way that has been given to bring your desire to fruition. The spacecraft could be seen as a response to your desire. So too can I.

This would be like saying, “If I am an astronaut, I can reach outer space without a space craft. I have been trained, I understand the truth about outer space, I believe in my abilities; but I do not accept the spacecraft as necessary. D:Day1.9-10

What this spoke of to me today is “the physical.” So often the physical gets forgotten. The physical and the actions of the physical. It gets forgotten that there are some things that enable the journey, or the manifestation, like there are some things that enable the publication of a book. Each of us want our spacecraft (of whatever manner), to take us where we want to go, and yet if you were to ponder a few situations, I’d bet you’d find times of wanting to disregard it too. Accepting the spacecraft requires us to be humble and to accept the reality of form.  I hadn’t looked at it this way before, as this quote is actually a commentary on accepting Jesus. But today, I felt appreciation for Jesus using the metaphor of accepting what we need to reach the “outer” spaces, whether we’re simply sharing who we are (which isn’t always so simple), or whether we’re sharing a great work like A Course of Love with the world.

Another inspiring aspect of Day 1, that similarly fits together with the above and the new turn I’ve taken with it, is one of the many diversions that Jesus takes into the “creation story.” Here, Jesus says our return to paradise, to our true selves and our true home, is written within us. “It only needs to be lived to become real.” He speaks of the story of creation as an unbroken chain of events and says, “You are living history. You are living what will tomorrow be history. You are living creation. You are living what will tomorrow be the story of creation. A chain of events is merely another way of saying cause and effect. The chain of events of creation include, thus far, the movement of being into form and the movement of being beyond form. What will be realized through the secret of succession is the elevation of form.” (D:Day1.25-26)

Story, which I love, seems to go in and out of favor in the spiritual field. I love this view of story too, its link to cause and effect and to creation. I live the creation story, you live the creation story, but we each live it differently, and have our distinct parts to play in the story’s movement beyond what was—to what will be. This is a powerful story we’re living.

 And so I gained my inspiration for the journey. I am living history. You and I are living what will tomorrow be history. Together, each of us, in our own ways, are filling in bits of the story, adding narrative, gassing up the vehicles, catching planes, dreaming our dreams into reality and going forth to create the new. This is the adventure of A Course of Love, an adventure in being who we are while still holding the potential for new exploration, and for new forms. Holding the tension of not knowing how it will be, and that what will be, while it is bigger than us individually or collectively, still calls to us and asks us to show up and do our part.

The pictures on this page are from my visit in 2014, at which time I signed the contract for the publication of the new combined volume of A Course of Love. What a lot has happened in less than two years! What a lot is still to come!