I’d 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.

When a piece of charcoal burns, what is around it will also ignite, but only if it has the right composition. If what surrounds a glowing coal is made of wood, paper or phosphorus, it will certainly catch the flames.

Very early in the revelation of Choose Only Love, Jesus tells us that he wants to show us a sure path to happiness and fulfillment. This, in his words, consists of “loving all that arises” in our present human lives.

In the fall of 2022, I had just finished the spiritual adventure novel that I spent 10 years writing. I had a wonderful agent who was sending the finished manuscript to publishers, and we were both optimistic that a publishing house would acquire it.

Old resentments make us feel bitter, and bitterness can make the most beautiful people appear ugly. Resentment toward others is the opposite of forgiveness. It blocks the free flow of Divine Love in all directions.

Years ago I was amidst a group of people surrounding a person who was a bearer of great light. Throngs of people surrounded her. I spent personal time with her opening homes for new mothers and their babies who had AIDS.

Many years ago I had a dream that shed light on the awakening process that is taking place on this planet. Since it has been such a touchstone for me in this time of collective turbulence and fear, I’d like to share it with you.

Recently I participated in a one-day mini-retreat at Wild Grace Community. We were each asked to make a little presentation. It occurred to me to explore the “power of love,” which Jesus mentions in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love (four times in each) but uses 36 times in the seven-volume Choose Only Love.

At first we could only see his back, but something seemed strange as the elderly man smoothed out and re-arranged the San Francisco T-shirts on their hangers. Adding to the puzzle, the man didn’t acknowledge or greet us, but instead walked to the refrigerator magnets and began to feel them with his hands.