Issue #111
What’s New in Dec 2024
Featured Article
Paint a New Picture
By Mari Perron with Jesus
I would bet more than a few of you remember The Great Recession. It had been a rough couple of years before we even landed there. My dad’s health started to decline in 2006. At the same time, my pregnant daughter had moved home. Two weeks after my dad died, in early 2007, she delivered my first grandson, Henry, and there was great poignancy in that time too, although it helped that I could hold him and walk with him and cry over him as much as I needed to.
We had closed the coffee shop (in more debt than when we started) and were just getting by when the recession hit. We almost filed for bankruptcy – twice. Many of my friends were in trouble as much as we were. My “ACOL reading friends” were wondering, as was I, where the abundance was. It’s hard not to do that, when you’re hurting.
I speak here of some of this and the “awful job” I’ve taken out of necessity. I was writing with no expectation that Jesus would answer. Maybe he came again because I started with, “I need help.”
His answer? Paint a New Picture
My dearest friend and collaborator, feel your heart, and the heaviness of your chest, all the strain running through your body, head to foot.
You desire more than anything to be in that place that will not require you to compromise yourself after a lifetime of compromising, but alas, you haven’t yet landed there, and you are upset about this…about the compromises you feel forced into making because you don’t get a break in this time you label one of collapse.
And so, you and your little band of friends, who are not so few as you imagine, and among which I am one, are, you might say, early painters of the new picture. How can you paint this new picture from a place of health/wealth/success that looks like the picture that has been being painted for generations?
Your next question might be how any attention to the new can be given while you’re consumed by meeting the bare minimum needs of your physical life? You might ask if I am meaning that you become content and even happy with your low station in life. If I am saying that no help is coming. You must remain indigent, reliant on others, and still somehow stand above the fray.
And I will tell you – Paint the new picture. Paint the picture without worry about those on whom you rely, for those on whom you rely are not those you think they are. Paint the picture and you will experience the freedom of it, a freedom without compromise. Paint the picture, and the old picture will begin to fade…
Oh, Jesus, I get you, and I don’t. Is this really the way it must be? Another idea, a direction that is direction only, another thing that can only be “gotten” at some level that none of us know much about?
You each know far more than you think you do. Quit thinking.
This does not feel as if it takes any burden from us, even if it’s a blessing. My body feels heavy with another idea of significance that is so unclear. I am happy that you have given me no feeling of being way off track. I really am. But I want more. Is there no more you can give, and I don’t mean in the old way (much), only in the way of lightening the load so that we can begin.
You see, you do mean to ask for help in the old way, the way that has miracles of load-lightening events coming to you from the heavens. The old rescuer ideas.
Instead invite me into your work, into the painting of this new picture, into deeper friendship and collaboration so that old lines aren’t redrawn. You have said so many times that you don’t know what the new way is, only what it isn’t. This is enough to guide you…
Beware of wanting the old ways, that’s all I’m saying. If you want the freedom of the new, if you want liberation for yourself and the generation coming behind you, if you want release from tyranny and to be no one’s child, or slave to any task master, then you are going to have to do things in a new way. You’re going to have to come to see yourself as creators.
This is the beginning. Paint the new picture. Embrace the partnership. Follow your gut. Paint the picture of such freedom that no compromise is possible.
Is this just a fancy way of saying change your ideas and you’ll change your life? It kind of sounds like that, but you know me, and that I’m not much into that, but will feel I must be off on a new mission if you want me to be.
You have got to knock off that old way of thinking. I am no should sayer. I am not your Father. I will never tell you that you must anything. Do not give those qualities to me and don’t desire them from anyone else. Don’t you see that what has arisen has arisen from this very kind of desire? What “must” I do to be happier, healthier, wealthier? Isn’t this the common question? With the common emphasis on “tell me what to do.” Then someone tells you what you should do and the whole cycle repeats itself… the cycle of wrong and right ways, of experts and seekers, of should sayers and rebels.
You have asked. I am your friend. I know you intimately. I know your friends intimately. The whole stringy, straggly, bunch of you are so close – so close to my heart – so close to finding your own way, so close to true altruism of spirit, to the kind of giving of yourselves, giving yourselves over to vision that the world needs.
What is freely given is not this thing of gift as you perceive of it, not a bestowing on one of one gift and on one of another, not so much a thing of destiny or of one being an artist and one a writer and on and on. Those all are parts of life that are there and yet looked at inaccurately, particularly in the idea of bestowing.
Gifts or talents are not there in form, but only in experience.
When you come to me, when you ask, you reveal yourself to me in your own way. You tell me of what’s concerning you as you see it. I may see it quite differently.
Like any friend, you honor me with your story, and by sharing matters of your heart. Like any friend, brother or sister, I have every inclination to help and not to hurt. All friends ponder the difference of what advice they can give, or what assistance, or how much truth they can tell to fit the circumstance of their friend. You have worried that you’re not good about this and that you overstep your bounds at times.
When you do this and call this worry, you are only looking at it from an angle that doesn’t serve you well, because like all things you call “worry,” you then relegate it to a place where you both think of it too much and avoid the sort of alchemy of wisdom-making that is inherent within your internal desire. This is akin to this thorny issue you are putting before me. You have asked for help. How much help do I give? This is thorny even for me, prickly for every relationship of love, as there is a balancing of freedom with what can be given in times of need.
There is the old saying “teach a person how to fish,” and this is not quite like that, but it has elements of it only because you have not fully embraced your freedom and your power, which is why I tell you to Paint the Picture and to trust that I will be beside you, aiding you in ways that make it easier for you, but without treading on your freedom while it is so nascent within you. I see intercession as a way of putting a buffer between you and your struggles rather than ridding you of them.
Oh, please, please, come back from wherever you’ve gone if you can. I miss you, I’m awaiting you, I’m holding my breath for your return, I’ll do whatever little I can to help you, but what can I do but ask, plead, beg, that you please, please turn away from whatever dark notions of yourself have made you cold and like stone to me, and open your heart again to the love that I want so desperately to give and to feel again coming from you, because you are not, not lost, not this stone, those cold eyes aren’t yours, whatever you’re in the grips of isn’t you.
So, what happens when you are asked a thing as hard and as simple as opening your heart to love, or letting a vision you already possess flow through you into expression? What happens is that you wrestle to the ground your own fears, you dismantle your walls, you rise like a feather on the wind – or you don’t.
Note: This exchange between Mari and Jesus happened in 2009.
Mari Perron is the first receiver of A Course of Love. The words came to her as thoughts she did not think, and for three years between 1998 and 2001 she typed in her computer the three volumes that comprise ACOL. She is also the writer of The Given Self, The Grace Trilogy, and of her dialogues with Mother Mary: Mirari, Memoria, and the upcoming Metanoia. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Hi. I’m new to the group and sort of sat here on the side-lines thinking I haven’t earned the’right’ yet to comment or share – and then I realised how silly it is to think I shouldn’t share!! That’s our whole purpose of being. The idea that I’m not allowed to join in is my old patterns showing up. So, I just wanted to share with you that (for me) there’s a wonderful reason that this was posted today. I’m 61 years of age and have, obviously by now, been down many paths in my search for ‘home’. Whilst searching over the years I’ve had instances of what I suppose could be called ‘psychic’ experiences – or, at least, that’s the way I have previously thought of them. And I didn’t like it. It was scary to me and I constantly pushed it away. Since embarking on ACOL small examples of these ‘experiences’ have been re-occurring and that’s been ok. I started using the heart space as the ‘point of entry’ for Unity and that has proved to be an absolute game-changer for me. Such feelings of love, safety, being ‘Home’ but then I started ‘seeing’ images when I would close my eyes at night to go to sleep. Nothing scary, just lights and various images but I didn’t like it. I was afraid that I was opening myself up to something ‘outside’ of me that seems benign but might turn out to be something scary and outside of my control – so many thoughts and worries about it. Then, a couple of weeks or so ago, I closed my eyes and this most vivid sort of a ‘disc’ appeared before me in the brightest colours imagineable and I couldn’t quite ‘catch’ it but I thought Mickey Mouse was in the centre of it!! Again, it wasn’t scary but I thought ‘oh no, I don’t want to start going down this rabbit hole’ and I felt sure it was to do with focusing on the ‘heart’ centre that was opening up something ‘weird’ inside me. I’ve studied Qi Gong (Chi Gong) on and off over the years and it teaches about the three energy centres – lower (down in the gut, behind the naval), middle (heart centre) and higher (head centre). I didn’t reach even intermediary stage with Qi Gong but did find it very helpful and quite amazing. However, at that relative beginner level, they stress the importance of keeping the attention focused on the lower dan tian (energy centre) in order to remain ‘grounded’ and to not stray into the heart or head centres until you have that ‘grounding’. Based on that advice, I was thinking that by using the ‘Heart’ as the point of focus I was unleashing some sort of ‘awareness’ that I’m not equipped or prepared for and so I stopped focusing on my Heart and abruptly lost my ‘connection’ that I’d been aware of and sort of basking in. I was really saddened by this but I didn’t feel I could risk going back to it because I didn’t want to ‘see’ these images any more. Yesterday, as you know, was Christmas Day. My husband gave me a little sack of ‘stocking filler’ presents. I was blown away when I opened one of them and it was a bright pink child’s watch with Minnie Mouse in the centre of it!! Not as bright and psychedelic as the ‘disc’ I’d seen in my ‘vision’, and it was Minnie not Mickey but nevertheless it was quite obvious that the ‘vision’ was a representation of the gift that was heading my way. Anyway, (to get to the point!!). The message I take from ‘Paint A New Picture’ is that it’s safe to go back to resting in that Heart centre entry point and that I am safe. I am the one who has been telling myself that this ‘unusual’ form of communication is unsafe. I am the one who has been shunning the sharing from my Self, out of fear. This message has reinforced in me the message in ACOL – ‘I am safe and nothing I do or do not do can threaten my safety’. So, I’m going back to resting in the Heart centre as my ‘point of entry’ painting the new picture of knowing that I am safe. I’m so grateful that this was posted here today. Thank you so much. Much love to everyone.x
Next to enjoying the moral support given in A Course of Love, I also enjoy receiving it in the 12 short daily reminders given in this book:
“Your Indelible Worth”
https://theheartsway.org/books-media/
❤️
Oh, Miss Mari, we have all been where you were and the feelings of inadequacy are sometime dormant just waiting to sabotage our relationship with Jesus within us.
This is such a poignant conversation with Jesus!! It gives us the willingness to be our true Selves. We reveal to ourSelves what Holy Spirit gives to us in our hearts as His Gift of wisdom and grace. I am thanking you from the bottom of my heart all that you have revealed to us from Jesus within us . It is nothing new to me, Miss Mari. Like I said we have all been in this place of chaos and clatter and our hearts are somehow changed beCAUSE of this. This gift of Chaos IS the gift of Christmas. It is the great Reminder that saves us from ourselves and makes ourSelves stronger and fearless and accepting of our holy feelings. I tell my students that all their feelings are holy and true. And to respect them as Jesus thru you told US.
I let them know that God always has our BACK. And todays lesson in ACIM IS THIS: “NO CALL TO GOD CAN BE UNHEARD
NOR LEFT UNANSWERED. AND OF THIS I CAN BE SURE: YOUR ANSWER IS THE ONE I REALLY WANT.
“ You Who remember what I really am alone remember what I really want. You speak for God, and so You speak for me. And what You give me comes from God Himself. Your Voice, my Father, then is mine as well, and all I want is what You offer me, in just the form You choose that it be mine. Let me remember all I do not know, and let my voice be still, remembering. But let me not forget Your Love and care, keeping Your promise to Your Son in my awareness always. Let me not forget myself is nothing, but my Self is all.”
I remind my kids, my students that forgiveness ACIM style is to accept (our responsibility in our creating this, real eyes-ing that I can change anything to be what I want. ) and then to release it from our clear pools and allow it to wend its way to God for safe keeping. These are our feelings and they are holy and precious and God respects that. We can respect it too. And LET THEM GO.
I must remind myself that I can stand in the circle of love or choose to stand in the circle of fear. And the one I am in is the one I see.
Jesus says in this prayer to us from this lesson that we want what God gives us in the FORM THAT HE PRESENTS US WITH.
This is our lifeline and ACOL blends in with this so very well. We are always asking basically to have the intimate awareness of the love surrounding us and light that shines beyond the chaos and clatter.
And we get what we see. We real eyes that God is Father and allows us to create as you have so beautifully revealed within the moving letter between you and J. And all your revelations within ACOL!!
It is so enjoyable and educational to see that we are all One in this earthly life and that we are eternalists, as well. This reality has struck me over and over again and I am still reeling from the power I have been given: I never had a beginning nor will I have an end. And the OTHERS WHO HAVE COME BEFORE US AND AFTERWARDS ARE ALL HERE TO HELP GUIDE US AS YOU HAVE TAUGHT ME IN ACOL. And I have come to depend on them. They talk to me and really reveal themselves to me always when I feel them near me and I allow them to help me make sense of what is really going on. And then CHANGE MY MIND. It is after all my own mind!! And I can do with it as I choose.
I so appreciate you and all your heart- felt guidance and feelings that allow me to sanction my OWN, Mari!!
You are the BEST!!!
I really love you and am sending you lots of light and love and deepest gratitude for just giving us YOUR PRECIOUS SELF.
In deepest gratitude to you, Mari!
Marky Mander
If this is from 2009, is there a reason to post it here, today?
Dear Cindy – I love your question, because I, perhaps like you, have an obsession with the new. I want to hear and feel and experience the most cutting edge, the latest insight, the pristine revelation, the as yet un-thought-about, undiscussed, unexplained expression of love. I cannot answer for why the editors were inspired to post this but a couple of reasons spring to mind.
Firstly, as in the time when Mari receive this, very many today are hugely troubled and confused by what is happening in the world, and maybe what is written here is even more relevant than it was then.
Secondly – it is Christmas! Reading these words felt like being given such an abundance of gifts I hardly know which to unwrap first. Maybe, like a child, I shall simply sit awhile playing with the wrapping, which feels almost palpably like the soft brilliance of love itself.
Going back to my obsession with the new – your question opened up for me the realization that I, my self, am the new, and therefore everything upon which I rest my attention appears in a new light. Thank you for that reminder. I wish you so much joy in this season of infinite potential