I’ve just returned from Miracles in the Mountains where I got The Elvis Cup.

Miracles in the Mountains was a conference that took place in Cañon City, Colorado.  It was beautiful, lovely, convened with precision by Kathy Scott Perry and graced by the presence of one hundred plus attendees and a half dozen or so speakers and practitioners.  I was very nervous about it.

Or maybe nervous isn’t the word.  I wanted to really speak my truth…and there is a way you can go through conniptions about that.  At least I can.  I had this adrenaline or something running through me.  Donny called it obsession.  When I phoned him to tell him I got a standing ovation he said, “How could you help but to?  You’ve been obsessed for months.”  That is almost literally true.

I got called by a song: Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”  The song wouldn’t let me go.  I reviewed ACOL with the question of what’s going on leading the way. To me, the results were startling.

So I’m in a gas station somewhere in Colorado, tired of drinking bad coffee out of paper cups and decide to buy a mug.  The mugs are all pretty garish: bright pink sparkly hearts, neon green confetti, that kind of thing.  I spot one with musical symbols on it, and think – that’s the one.  I was called by a song.  I go up to the counter and the woman behind it says, “Great mug.”  That’s when I realize it has Elvis on the other side of the simple black on white clefs.

It’s like a strange juxtaposition for the “after the conference” feelings that I’m having.  Sort of at lose ends.  Doing laundry, unpacking, checking emails.  So glad to be home.    Sure this is my place.  Running out to the cabin before sunrise. No need to go anywhere else, do anything else.  I’ve done it.  I’ve spoken my piece.

I’ve said, “This Course is about leaving the ego behind…and not just talking about it, but actually doing it.”  I reported on what I found as I reviewed ACOL with Marvin’s question at the forefront: that as the ego structure fails the systems and structures developed by the ego will fail.  I outlined the world-wide failure of systems and structures and said, “As we become new, so too does the world.”  I said “The only illusion is the ego’s world and we can embrace a sacred world again.”

I had to draw on some courage to do it because I truly didn’t know if I might be booed off the stage.  The reception was so gracious it was overwhelming.

I got countless hugs from people who whispered in my ear… “That’s how I feel.  I don’t believe the world is an illusion.  I don’t believe we need to keep worrying over the ego.”  There were tears and expressions of relief.  I honestly felt as if many, many folks had just been waiting for it to be said.  I don’t mean to break any confidences by reporting on this. It was the sweetest thing really.  After the big to-do, quiet murmurings.  Confidences. That’s exactly what they were.  “I feel as you do.  I’m glad you said something.”

It was something we couldn’t talk about. That’s why I had to say it.

I spoke of other things too.  What’s coming: the Way of Mary (receptive) that is beginning and the Way of Jesus (active) that is ending, and called on the feminine qualities, so much closer to our new knowing, to be honored and respected.  I spoke of the transformation in our way of knowing that comes over us, of A Course of Love being given outside of the ego’s framework … and how it takes us beyond it.

And now I’m home with my Elvis Cup, feeling as if I started something.  My contentment with being home is true, and so is this other feeling of something having begun.  Like a secret is out of the bag.  Like a spell – a hypnosis – has been broken and a new beginning can take root.

Like you turn and see the other side of the mug and you laugh, and you don’t care if it gives an impression you might not want to give.  You don’t have to look or act a certain way to be grounded in love or to trust in your own heart…you just have to know the love is there and that you’re not alone.

The great secret is out.  I am very, very grateful to all the whisperers. We aren’t alone in feeling there are lots more essential things to be talking about than the ego and the illusion, or in our conviction that it is time to embrace and be the New.