Some years ago, I traveled down into Mexico to study Spanish. I had taken an extended leave from my job allowing this opportunity. A lovely Mexican family hosted me. My departure date to return to America had arrived. I was standing in line for check-in at the Morelia airport. When I got up to the ticket counter, the representative asked for my passport.
^Featured Article No Order of Difficulty in Miracles By Lynn Kidd ome years ago, I traveled down into Mexico to study Spanish at a school named Baden Powell located in Morelia, capital of Michoacan. I had taken an extended leave from my job allowing this opportunity. A lovely Mexican family hosted me. My departure date to return to America had arrived. I was standing in line for check-in at the Morelia airport. When I got up to the ticket counter, the representative asked for my passport. I turned and reached for my small carry-on bag containing my purse. To my surprise, the carry-on bag was open and my purse was gone along with my passport, driver's license, and only credit card. I asked the representative — well, now what? The response was that I could try the American Embassy in Guadalajara, and see if they would issue an emergency passport. This was Friday morning, and the American embassy in Guadalajara ( a 5 hour car trip) would not be open again until Monday. I could not wait three days due to my work schedule. I knew this was a time to pause, turn within with a willingness to listen, and trust the Internal Guidance of Self (the God within). It is only in relationship with the God within that the way will become clear. (ACOL, D:Day3.36) I found a place in the airport where it was quiet with not many people around. Sitting there with my eyes closed, I began to feel relaxed and peaceful. I ask you only to pause, to give the mind a rest, to enter a realm foreign to the mind and yet beloved to the heart. (ACOL, Learning in the Time of Christ—Part One, paragraph 12) Suddenly, my eyes still closed, I heard a gentle male voice speaking English — “Are you okay?” I opened my eyes; a man was standing there. I told him what happened. When I told him the name of the school (Baden Powell), he just happened to know several people who worked there. He actually had phone numbers! This man had a suggestion — to call one of these folks he knew from the school, and see if the school could loan me some money. I could still fly within Mexico. The plan was to take a flight to Tijuana, a border town, and “walk the border.” I said okay. This man phoned one of the school workers whom he knew, and the school agreed to loan me money. He then drove me from the airport to the school. The school graciously gave me enough money to take a flight to Tijuana, and buy a ticket at the San Diego airport to fly back to the East Coast. So, I purchased a ticket to Tijuana and boarded the plane. It so happened that a nice friendly man sat next to me. A ‘guardian angel’ in disguise! We got to talking; he was Mexican (spoke English), and worked in Mexico and California. Alas, we landed at the Tijuana airport (3 miles from the border). I asked my new found mighty companion (‘guardian angel’) about a taxi. He said — “oh, no worries, I'm gonna call a friend of mine who's a taxi driver.” His taxi driver friend arrived and took us to the border crossing. We stood there for a few minutes. This mighty companion turned to me and said — "This is the plan. You go first. I'm right behind you. Leave all the Spanish to me." We walked up to the border crossing; as I approached the turnstile, a Border Patrol agent, of course, asked for my passport. As promised, my mighty companion was right behind me. He stepped up to my right and began speaking Spanish to the Border Patrol agent. All of a sudden, the turnstile opened, and the Border Patrol agent waved me through. Just like that — no questions asked! I crossed the border into California, and my mighty companion followed me across the border. As we were standing there, he pulled out his phone and called another taxi driver friend of his! After the call, he said to me — "my friend is going to take you to the San Diego airport.” And so, his taxicab friend took me to San Diego airport. I purchased a ticket for a red-eye flight to Dulles, and eventually made my way through security without identification. The interesting thing about it all — a month later a package from Mexico arrived in the mail. I opened it. It contained my lost purse! The passport, my credit card, driver's license were all there (except the cash was missing). There was a note saying that the purse was found at a passenger gate not being used and had been thrown down the tunnel. Security found it. All returned — minus the cash. Reflections — The crucial step was not to react, panic, nor try to force anything to happen. When not seeing clearly, the next action is - turn within to the Quiet Center, wherein lies the Stillness and Peace of Now. Being in the Infinite Mind of God (Spirit, Loving Source), a space of infinite possibilities. The Heart knows❣️ The witnesses appeared: the kind man at the airport; the gracious staff at the school; the mighty companion on the plane. This entire experience was a reflection that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. Turning within, feeling the peace — the internal shift from fear to love (entering the state of miracle-readiness). The Holy Instant never fails. Amazing Grace!! There is no order of difficulty in miracles Lynn Kidd is a retired registered nurse. She has a solid background in A Course in Miracles and has been an active participant in A Course of Love community for many years, facilitating online groups and producing video conversations and podcasts with ACOL readers (available on YouTube). Lynn was one of the facilitators at The Hague 2025 Global Gathering. She lives in Maryland. ^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-118-our-harrowing-time-of-healing/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Patricia-Pearce-2.jpg^The Embrace #118: Our Harrowing Time of Healing^Last week I returned from the Netherlands where I took part in an event in The Hague organized by Take Heart Publications. There about fifty people gathered from a dozen countries to join together around the theme of Co-Creating Our New Earth.
^Featured Article Our Harrowing Time of Healing By Patricia Pearce ast week I returned from the Netherlands where I took part in an event in The Hague organized by Take Heart Publications. There about fifty people gathered from a dozen countries to join together around the theme of Co-Creating Our New Earth. The intention of our event wasn’t to architect a New Earth or even discuss what it might look like. Instead we gathered to experience it as a present Reality within and among us by recognizing one another as the Divine Love that we are and coming to know ourselves more fully as that Love. The New Earth isn’t a brainchild of the thinking mind or the result of its strategies. Rather, the New Earth is an emergent phenomenon which manifests the Love that arises naturally from the knowing of the Heart. Our days in The Hague included times of dance and movement, immersive sound baths, meditation, and heart-centered dialogueOne Polish man, when asked why he had come, said that when we gather together we connect heart to heart, and that when we go our separate ways that connection endures. “We are creating a grid of Light,” he said. Our Time of Healing While I was there and for several days after my return I engaged in a news fast because I wanted to allow myself to be totally immersed in the experience we were creating togetherLike any fast, this one brought clarity that can be difficult to sustain while daily ingesting the drama and trauma of the news headlines. And the clarity is this: Despite appearances, we are in the midst of a time of great healing. This is not a new awareness for me, but it came into sharper focus as I abstained from the fear-based drama of the news and allowed myself to be immersed in the energy of the loving community we were creatingWhat we see playing out on the world stage right now is the eruption of all the patterns and beliefs that the mind has been generating and sustaining for millennia while dreaming its dream of separateness. These beliefs and patterns are gushing forth like a geyser that has broken through the crust of our denial—patterns of fear, judgment, blame, contempt, specialness, domination, attack, vilification, deception. The wider context of this eruption is the awakening of consciousness on Earth to the truth that Reality is an interconnected whole, that separateness was never anything but an illusory idea in the mind, that only Love is Real and anything other than Love is the mind’s fabricated storyAs this awareness dawns, all of our illusory legacy beliefs are bursting forth in vivid display—not because they are establishing their dominion over the world (after all, these beliefs have been governing the world for millennia) but rather to be brought to the Light so that they can be transmuted through Love. And how does that transmutation occur? It occurs every time we witness those same legacy patterns showing up in our own minds and, rather than denying or condemning them, we meet them with an open Heart, with compassion and LoveAs we do that, we drain away the energy of judgment that has perpetuated them and without which they cannot endure. We allow them to soften and release within us, and, because there is no separateness, we thereby contribute to the healing of the whole. This is what allows the New Earth to take shape within us and begin to be manifested through us. As harrowing as this moment seems, this is the time of our great healing Patricia Pearce is a writer, speaker, spiritual teacher, and board member of the Center for Contemporary Mysticism. Her two books, Beyond Jesus: My Spiritual Odyssey and No One in I Land: A Parable of Awakening, and her blog posts can be found through her website, http://www.patriciapearce.com/. She lives with her spouse in Philadelphia. ^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-117-my-heart-is-still-beating-mama/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Sarah-Zimmerman-2-1.jpg^The Embrace #117: My Heart is Still Beating, Mama^Love never dies. Bodies may pass, be left to rest. But Love never dies. A few years ago, in 2020, I experienced a miscarriage. It was one of the most heart wrenching times of my life, yet it turned out to be one of the most magical, loving, heart-opening experiences ever.
^Featured Article My Heart Is Still Beating, Mama By Sarah Zimmerman ove never dies. Bodies may pass, be left to rest. But Love never dies. A few years ago, in 2020, I experienced a miscarriage. It was one of the most heart wrenching times of my life, yet it turned out to be one of the most magical, loving, heart-opening experiences ever. More so than I could have ever dreamed of. Love works in mysterious ways. The miscarriage taught me of a great Love I had never experienced before. From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I felt a satiating Love, a connection like no other. The beating of his heart felt with so much Love. Even my uterus was in the shape of a heart. He was surrounded with Love. He was Love. He is Love. The bond between two souls can never be forgotten, can never die. Although he chose not to be born at the time, I carry his Love with me always. And as the last ultrasound with my heart-shaped uterus showed no physical heartbeat, his Love remained. Letting nature take its course, I chose not to take the recommended pills to expel the fetus. I let nature take its course, listening to my own inner wisdom to do so, and disregarding advice from those around me, including the so-called professionals. Still feeling my baby’s Love even though there was no heartbeat. It took well over two months for the release to happen, and all the while I felt his Love and knew he was still with me and is always with me, a guiding Light in my life, an opening to a whole new meaning of Love and the eternal world that exists within us. Although I did not get to see him or hold him, I know he is always with me now and forevermore. His Love is unconditional. Right from the start, I felt it. I felt it light me up. I felt alive. I felt his strength, as I still do to this day. An awaked soul, an Angel of God that came to my womb to help me awaken and remember who I am, to help me remember who we all are: Love. And as I sit here and write, the words, "My heart is still beating, Mama" resound in my heart. After a short period of grief, a short period which felt like forever, I heard the words loud and clear, “My heart is still beating, Mama.” I felt a love like no other. In that instant, the grief diminished and the veils between Heaven and Earth lifted. And I knew in that moment that he is always with me and always will be. Love never dies. Bodies may pass, be left to rest. But Love never dies. I am eternally grateful for the experience which led me to Truth, to Love, and to a world beyond that which we see. A world where Love never dies. A world where there is only Love. “My Heart is Still Beating, Mama. My Heart is Always Beating.” Jett Michael To this day, I still communicate with Jett amongst many others whom have “passed.” And I encourage anyone who may be experiencing grief over the passing of a loved one to take a few deep breaths, sit in the silence of your heart, and listen. And in this silence, you will hear. You will hear the voice of your loved one. Listen, for they have a message for you waiting upon your reception of it. I share this on June 16th, a day that is very special to me, as this was the estimated due date Sarah Zimmerman's heritage is love, and with it, joy. On this beautiful place we call Earth, she lives in Saskatchewan, Canada, with her two children and five fur family members. She is a co-creator and publisher at Embraced in Love Publications, which she recently founded as per a 2 a.m. thought when she heard the angels whisper “Embraced in Love Publications.” You can read more about Sarah and the works of love manifested through her at https://embracedinlove.com. ^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-116-crisis-of-being-human/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Pamela-Kribbe-1.jpg^The Embrace #116: Crisis of Being Human^Dear friends, I am Jeshua, a brother and kindred spirit. I call on you to believe in who you are and in what you bring to Earth at this time. There is a fire within you – a calling, an inspiration. You are called in a certain way, but that call does not come from outside you; that fire, that inspiration, comes from inside you.
^Featured Article Crisis in Being Human A message from Jeshua channeled by Pamela Kribbe ear friends, I am Jeshua, a brother and kindred spirit. I call on you to believe in who you are and in what you bring to Earth at this time. There is a fire within you – a calling, an inspiration. You are called in a certain way, but that call does not come from outside you; that fire, that inspiration, comes from inside you. There is, or there can be, a collaboration between you as an earthly personality and a greater or higher energy that supports you, that guides you on your way. Much is possible if you rely on that all-encompassing, higher universal energy that wants to penetrate, in this day and age, into the collective thinking of humanity. The collective thought processes find themselves in a cul-de-sac. Its limitations are becoming more and more visible, and in many areas, there is a crisis. It is apparent in environmental disasters, climate, poverty, wars, and political struggle, but beneath those crises lies the cause of all this: a crisis in the human being. The greater this crisis becomes, and the more humanity collectively runs into walls, then, paradoxically, the more an opening is created to other possibilities. There is a loving universal energy present in and around the field of the Earth. It wants to flow in, but that flow does not happen in some magical way, but in and through the individual person, especially through their hearts. When one’s heart is open and awakened, then the door is open to receive this power of love that transcends the earthly person. As soon as that love flows in and through humans, miracles can arise in the sense of special, unexpected events and effects. You can not understand this with your mind; the crucial step happens through trusting with your heart, through rising above yourself. I would like to invite you to first connect with your solar plexus, the area around your stomach. There, you might say, is the seat of your earthly personality and your personal will. You need your will to function here on Earth, to act. However, this center is often overshadowed by over-thinking, influenced as that is by fear, survival patterns, and restrictive views from society and cultural traditions. Focus on that center in your solar plexus, and allow your breath to flow there. Imagine that this center is being engulfed by clear running water. Feel the stress that is there loosening, flowing, and draining away because of that water. Imagine that you can swim and float on that water; that you can let go of the many ideas and thoughts in your head and just float for a moment on that clear, gentle, healing water. Feel that there is now peace in your solar plexus. You are now floating on that water. Above you, you see the Sun shining on you, a source of light that wants to tell you something. Through those rays of sunlight something wants to come to you: a message that can present itself as a feeling or as an invitation. Feel those rays of sunlight on you as you quietly float, and absorb those rays into your body’s cells. See how the sunlight is reflected and multiplied by the water. That Sun is your heart. The light that comes from your heart center shines on your solar plexus. The more calm you feel, as you lie there in the water, the easier it is for the sunlight to penetrate into you and to warm the water. What message does this sunlight bring to you? What kind of feeling does it evoke in you? What I am really asking of you with this question is to let go of control a little more. The solar plexus is the source – at least in your world – of the energy of control: of wanting to control things, of wanting to give direction, of moving toward a goal. This energy has a function, and can be useful, but only if its goal results from a greater consciousness that comes from your heart. Your heart knows what your goal is, what the purpose of your soul here is on Earth, and it is not the short-term goals of this world, or that of your upbringing. You do not really need to know your overarching life goal with your mind, but you can feel it with your heart. Which is why I am asking you to take in this sunlight and feel what it wants to say to you at this point in your life. If you really feel what is in that light, it will often mean that you can trust, that you can let go, that you can go along on the flow of love and gentleness that wants to flow into the Earth and certainly through your heart. In general, the Earth or rather humanity, is in a state of consciousness that has been turned away from the soul, away from the rhythms and laws of the soul. You do a lot and you think a lot, and in many of you, the solar plexus, the third chakra, is therefore overloaded, with too much to do. What matters is the connection between heart and solar plexus, actually between within and without, between inner knowing and outer manifestation. The more you dare to surrender to the energy of your heart – even though unimaginable things happen which you can not grasp with your mind – the more you end up in a stream that magically affects you, because then you effortlessly attract what is needed and appropriate in your life at that moment. The magic lies in your confidence to really dare entrust yourself to this higher flow that is very real and tangible, and very realistic. To illustrate, I would like you to think of something or someone with whom you are struggling, or have a problem. For example, you can choose a specific person from whom you feel energetically that there is much going on between you. Or it can be a work situation, or a living situation; something that concerns you and that you think about often. Imagine that you see that problem, that situation, or that person in front of you, but now as a bundle of energy. Look at the energy of that person or situation and sense your feelings about it. What is the predominant feeling in you? Then see if this feeling is in accordance with reality, and do this by consulting your soul. Go with your attention and center yourself in your heart, and become calm. When you do this, you are taking a step backward, as it were, by looking at this problem and the energy that affects you from a greater distance – and then seeing what the solution is for you. What is the right course of action for you that makes the energy freer and more accessible? Do not think about how the other person can get better or how the situation outside you can get better. No, focus on yourself and on what you can do to elevate the whole situation, with its exchange of energy, to make it freer, so that everything flows more smoothly. Summon your soul and feel how powerful you are. When you are anchored in the higher consciousness inside yourself, you are no longer dependent on the world outside you, on all its rules and laws, and the people outside you. You are anchored in another stream, a universal stream, that is ultimately much more powerful than all the material, societal laws on Earth. Be your own light. I salute you all from the bottom of my heart. I am connected to this world – I am connected to you. I am one with you. Originally published on August 10, 2025 at https://www Pamela Kribbe (1968) is a writer and therapist located in the Netherlands. She obtained her PhD in the philosophy of science in 1997, after having studied philosophy at the universities of Leiden, Nijmegen and Harvard (US). She offers workshops, readings and retreats worldwide which focus on inner growth, Christ consciousness and the transition from ego based to heart based awareness. Her most well known books are The Jeshua Channelings and The Forbidden Female Speaks. Her website is https://www.jeshua.net/ ^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-115-oneness-through-relational-mysticism/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Muffy-Weaver.jpg^The Embrace #115: Oneness through Relational Mysticism^Many great teachers tell us that we are all one—we are not separate from the Earth we walk upon, the trees that shade us, or from one another. We belong to each other and to all of nature. How can we live and breathe and know the reality of these words in the depths of our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls?
^Featured Article Oneness through Relational Mysticism By Muffy Weaver ou are here to make one another known and in so doing to know oneness. (A Course of Love, D:Day15.15) To return to love is to return to your true Christ identity. It is a matter of oneness. (Choose Only Love, BkV:15.V.12) Interbeing is the understanding that nothing exists separately from anything else. We are all interconnected. (Thich Nhat Hanh) Nature is through us, not around us. And society is also not all the other people. I’m surrounded by society. I’m also society. So society is through us. (Thomas Huebl) Many great teachers tell us that we are all one—we are not separate from the Earth we walk upon, the trees that shade us, or from one another. We belong to each other and to all of nature. How can we live and breathe and know the reality of these words in the depths of our bodies, hearts, minds, and souls? Our conditioning is shaped by the Western paradigm of hyper-individualism, with its emphasis on materialism, competition, and individualism. How do we deconstruct that ideology? Healing happens through connection. We become more of who we really are in the presence of others—people, and animals, and all of life. Human existence is fundamentally relational. Healthy relationships are vital for well-being. The collective and individual are interdependent. You are to create in community, in dialogue, in commitment and togetherness. You are to be the living Covenant of the New. (ACOL, D:5.16) In what A Course of Love calls “dialogue” there is the experience that our kinship, our wholeness, and our union is known through relationship. Thomas Huebl describes a deeply participatory practice he calls “relational mysticism.” It is a profoundly immersive, embodied, and co-creative impulse in which we are led by our love of humanity and our belongingness to care for one another and for the world—both its beauty and its heartbreaks. Thomas Huebl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who integrates the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. As cultural mystics we build the capacity to witness fragmentation and hurt in order to heal our individual, ancestral, and collective trauma. Each time one becomes more aware of, and receptive to what was a previously unconscious aspect of oneself, that fragmented piece of yourself is invited back into the fold and you become more whole. Your conscious wholeness impacts our collective wholeness. Choose Only Love expresses it this way: To fully express yourself is the only way to know yourself as God knows you eternally. For this to be a reality here and now we must retrace our way of being. This means that we must begin by lovingly recognizing and accepting all feelings, desires, and needs, respecting and honoring all that arises, and remaining in the silence of the heart. In this silence, where we observe without judgment, we lovingly look forward to the universe giving the answer to our desires. (BkI:8.VI.1) And again, The key is to feel. Why? Because it is through your emotions and feelings that the process of transformation is taking place and means to complete it. (BkIV:17.IV.5) Joanna Macy, who at 96 is, as of this writing, in hospice at her home, is a spiritual giant, environmental activist, author and scholar of Buddhism and deep ecology. She coined the term “The Great Turning” in reference to these times. She writes: “The biggest gift you can give is to be absolutely present, and when you're worrying about whether you're hopeful, or hopeless, or pessimistic, or optimistic, who cares? The main thing is that you're showing up, that you're here and that you're finding ever more capacity to love this world because it will not be healed without that. That was what is going to unleash our intelligence and our ingenuity and our solidarity for the healing of our world. You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. In order to release fears that arise they must be exposed to the light and lucidity of compassionate awareness. Staying connected to our vulnerability is very important because it will keep our heart open. Individual healing is magnified when we share our vulnerabilities, emotions, and experiences in the presence of others. Embodied, present-moment witnessing enhances the healing process.” In time, with practice, we come to feel in our bones our oneness with all life. For many of us this is easier to experience in nature. We come to recognize that we are not separate from nature. It is no longer “I am on the planet” but “I am part of the planet.” As Thich Nhat Hanh says so eloquently, The sun has entered me. The sun has entered me together with the cloud and the river. I myself have entered the river, and I have entered the sun with the cloud and the river. And in time, with practice, we come to know that the suffering in other parts of the world—including the devastation taking place in Gaza, the daily bombardment of Ukraine—is also taking place inside each one of us. Again, Thich Nhat Hanh: If you suffer, I suffer. If you are not safe, I am not safe. There is no way for me to be truly happy if you are suffering. Joanna Macy writes: “We are capable of suffering with our world, and that is the true meaning of compassion. It enables us to recognize our profound interconnectedness with all beings. Don't ever apologize for crying for the trees burning in the Amazon or over the waters polluted from mines in the Rockies. Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. “Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams Muffy Weaver is a lover of many spiritual traditions, Eastern, Western, and Earth-based. She is a mother, grandmother, and the founder of a small eco-spiritual community, Wild Grace Community, and for 44 years the spouse of Glenn Hovemann, co-publisher of Take Heart Publications. ^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-114-doing-by-being/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Sebastian-Blaksley-1.jpg^The Embrace #114: Doing by Being: A New Activism^I grew up thinking that things should be achieved with effort and dedication. I learned in the past that merit and striving had an intrinsic capacity to add value to my actions. “If I do it with sacrifice, somehow it will be worth more.”
^Featured Article Doing by Being: A New Activism By Sebastian Blaksley grew up thinking that things should be achieved with effort and dedication. I learned in the past that merit and striving had an intrinsic capacity to add value to my actions. "If I do it with sacrifice, somehow it will be worth more." I set goals, developed action plans, executed them, and then evaluated whether they were effective or not. If they were not, I would redirect things with new activities born from a continuous process of struggle, action, and searching. This learning was so deeply rooted in me that it had become a pattern. As such, it not only influenced the sphere of my practical life: work, profession, education, and so on, but it also set the pulse for my spiritual life. “I have to do things to make this world a better place,” “I must strive to be an ever-better person, to elevate myself in virtue,” and many similar ideas. In short, we all learn this as children, some more, some less. To a certain extent, this way of thinking sets the rhythm of the hours in our lives, especially in these so-called “modern” times. Often hectic times. And the more so, the more valued they are in certain areas. With this, I learned ideas such as, “important people are always busy” and many others derived from this pattern of behavior, so deeply rooted in our minds and hearts. And yet, one day while I was in prayer, our Divine Mother appeared, and everything changed for me. At that time, my heart burned with the desire to “do things” to elevate myself, to unite myself with Christ. To heal. To live fully and make my life work fully. To be happy. In short, those things we all seek in one way or another. But that day, the following dialogue took place within me. “My son, you ask yourself, What to do? Nothing. What to desire? Nothing. What to think? Nothing. What to seek? Nothing.” And my soul pondered: “What will remain for me, then, when I have nothing?” And the sweet voice from Heaven answered: “It will remain All.” After that, it told me: “Let yourself be loved.” As a result of that experience, an edifice of great truths manifested within me. I immediately knew there was another path: that of Doing by Being. One that is governed by the Law of Not Doing. This profound understanding changed me. I began to experience the following with greater clarity: When we remain in the stillness of the heart, in union with our true being of pure love, in oneness with the Source that is unshakable peace, we return to our original state, that of being limpid channels of divine power. We connect our humanity with the ever-creative power of spirit, the unbending force that creates the universe and sustains it eternally. An unparalleled power, which does by being. What it does is accomplished in unison—not with actions, but with presence. Not through acts arising from mental elaboration, but from the creative strength of love. Creation does that by being. Just being what it is. This is how I understood more deeply what some wise men said when they proclaimed that God does nothing; He-She simply is. This knowledge became evident to me. Certainly, when we are united with inner peace, we are guided by the Spirit. It accomplishes everything within us. We live in a state of Grace, like children in the arms of a mother. That is, surrendered, devoted to love. By this renunciation of being our own creators, we let love guide our existence, the Consciousness that inhabits us, gives life, and takes care of us entirely. It does what needs to be accomplished in our individual and collective lives in harmony with the universal plan of remaining in fullness, now and forever. This, of course, concerns everything. Not just personal life. I knew then that there was "another way." Another way of living. One that includes the fulfillment of the true desires of my heart, in their entirety. This encompasses the sincere desire to live in a better world, to ensure that current and future generations can enjoy peace and harmony, the desire for fulfillment for everyone and everything in creation. I also understood that I was not created to love, but to be loved, and thus to be love. This led me to the profound knowledge that my function in this world is doing by being. That is, to allow. To let the work of love be accomplished in me and through me. To open myself to receiving divine abundance and not to predefine what should be done or how. Here we can find the answer to a new activism, one that has a concrete impact on the world of human forms and actions. One whose source is the Spirit, and is born in inner silence, in the peace of the soul. In coherence and integrity. As a result, a manifestation will emerge that will flood the Earth with a love that has no beginning or end. This is because we externalize what we believe we are. Walking this path, things are renewed in the Grace of truth, not by what we accomplish following the thinking mind, but by what manifests from Infinite Consciousness to the world of form through us. I feel that A Course in Miracles (ACIM), A Course of Love (ACOL), Choose Only Love (CHOL), and The Age of the Heart (ATH), as other revelations, invite us to this path. They do so, for example, when they speak of “I need do nothing” (ACIM, T-18.VII), “The Way of Mary” (ACOL, D:Day19), “Conscious Non-Planning” (ACOL, C:17), “The Way of Being” (CHOL, Book VII), and “Total Abandonment in Love” (ATH, Ch. 11). This new activism is one of contemplation, of pure devotion and deep trust Sebastián Blaksley, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a scribe described by Jesus as “a pencil in the hand of God.” To date he has received the seven-volume Choose Only Love, The Age of the Heart, Resurrection Consciousness, and the three-volume series Truly Beloved: Love Letters. He is also publisher of Un Curso de Amor, the Spanish edition of A Course of Love. ^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-113-the-essential-dark/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Patricia-Pearce-2.jpg^The Embrace #113: The Essential Dark^My Dad’s passion was photography, and his favorite subject matter was ugly courthouses, thunderclouds, scenic landscapes, and Art Deco architecture. Whenever we were on vacation he would always have two cameras hanging around his neck.
^Featured Article The Essential Dark By Patricia Pearce y Dad’s passion was photography, and his favorite subject matter was ugly courthouses, thunderclouds, scenic landscapes, and Art Deco architecture. Whenever we were on vacation he would always have two cameras hanging around his neck: one for prints, the other for slides—and a camera bag full of film and assorted lenses slung over his shoulder. In our basement, in a room that doubled as the laundry room, he had his darkroom. It was a magical place, and I loved to watch him making his prints there in the soft red glow of the safelight that hung high up on the wall. I would watch as he carefully positioned a negative in the enlarger and then for a few seconds flashed the enlarger’s light through it, casting the image onto the photo paper on the platform below. I can still see how he would cup his hands under the enlarger’s lens, leaving just a slit between them, so he could sweep more light onto areas of the image that were a bit underexposed. It always looked like he was creating with moonlight. The Need for the Negative All of this has been coming to my mind recently. Maybe my Dad’s spirit has been visiting me to remind me about the process of creating with light, and that an essential step is having a good negative to work with. Because in this collective moment, boy do we have a good negative to work with. Here’s the thing. The only Reality is Love, and for many of us the aperture of our awareness has been opened sufficiently to know that. We can clearly see that Love is universal, that nothing is or ever could exist apart from it, and that everything is a whole, a unity, a vast web of reciprocity. And yet, what we see playing out on our national stage at the moment is Love’s exact opposite. Grievance. Division. Greed. Blame. Attack. Revenge. Domination. Exclusion. All the concepts and patterns that take shape when the mind believes its fictitious story of separateness. This inversion of Love has seemingly now become all-powerful, commandeering and plundering our commons to satisfy its own ego drives. Even though all of this is factually occurring in our collective dream, it helps to remember that none of it is real. Rather, it is an enactment of a falsehood, a fantasy in the mind which, having no basis in Reality, cannot endure. Many of us recognize that we are in the midst of a collective awakening to the reality of Love and the truth of Oneness. So how is it that we find ourselves in the midst of such a glaring display of reality’s opposite? Well, my Dad would say it’s all about the need for the negative. Love’s Exposure A photographer (literally “one who writes with light”) doesn’t freak out when she develops her film and discovers that the image she photographed has been rendered in its inverse. She doesn’t try to destroy the negative, nor does she despair that it is evidence that her subject matter has been overcome by the “forces of darkness.” In fact, the starker the contrast the better, because she knows that only a sharp negative will produce a clear photo. All she needs to do now is shine light through it. It dawned on me the other day that the reason we find ourselves in this moment of Love’s inversion isn’t because our awakening is stalling out, or that Love is on the wane. Quite the opposite. It is because consciousness has seen the reality of Love so vividly that, like the film exposed to the light, it has created the sharp negative it needs to make the reality of Love visible in this world of form. The Darkroom Work We are in the darkroom now, and we are all participants in this play of Light that is bringing the reality of Love into form on this physical plane. Some of us are providing the negative; others are shining the Light. Both are needed. The negative is in place now, and it’s our turn to allow the Light of Love to shine through us in every moment. To meet every stranger with kindness. To hold every trauma in tenderness. To shower every circumstance with generosity. To bathe every space with beauty. To dissolve every fear with joy. We are able to do this because we have seen these same “negative” patterns in ourselves, and rather than trying to banish or do battle with them we have illuminated them with Love. In the process we have abandoned the idea of judgment and withdrawn our belief that any of these inversions of Love are who we truly are. Joining together we amplify our Light. As we allow the Light of Love to shine through us into this “negative moment,” we come to know ourselves AS that Light. We come to know our true Self, our divine Self, as Love. All the while we are creating a representation of a reality that will take our breath away, a masterpiece unlike anything we have ever seen^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-112-cocreating-our-new-earth/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Rodrigo-Cayres-2.jpg^The Embrace #112: Co-Creating Our New Earth^World peace? A new era of cooperation among all nations? The eradication of poverty? Millions of us have had such hopes and aspirations only to be pulled back to “reality” on hearing the latest news of ongoing warfare, souring relations between countries, or the rise in homelessness and poverty.
^Featured Article Co-Creating Our New Earth By Rodrigo Cayres orld peace? A new era of cooperation among all nations? The eradication of poverty? Millions of us have had such hopes and aspirations only to be pulled back to “reality” on hearing the latest news of ongoing warfare, souring relations between countries, or the rise in homelessness and poverty. And we are right to believe that those issues will never be resolved. A healthy dose of skepticism over the prospect of seeing an end in sight to those issues is needed so we can open up to a new thought. Rather than focusing on fixing the old, we are ready to consider something truly new. For 1,500 years, brilliant and well-meaning people proposed innumerous solutions to fix unending issues with the geocentric system, until a new thought was contemplated by the likes of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton: Earth is not the center of the universe, and the planets revolve around the sun. In view of all this, it’s not necessary to feel depressed or despondent. I hear Jesus saying, “Be encouraged rather than discouraged” that we are ready to accept that the current model of the world is unfixable. What to do when we find ourselves in a situation beyond repair? Start anew. Or when we cannot fix what was done? Create anew. Or as Jesus would tell us, “paint a new picture.” The current world has to “disappear” so that a new world can arise, just as a caterpillar must disappear before the butterfly can emerge. Beyond the disappearance of the old world lies the birth of a new Heaven on Earth. The current world's issues cannot be resolved because such a world’s foundations are the sands of specialness, fear, and the illusion of separation. It’s centered on the personal self—the body-mind that seems to give us an identity. The New Earth’s foundations are the rocks of oneness, love, and the awareness of a shared being. But it would be unhelpful to think that a New Earth can be created by a few leaders, or that it requires careful planning for outer changes. Here we need to stay grounded in causes rather than attempt to work with effects. As Jesus put it in The Age of the Heart, “People will stop waging war, not as a result of a series of agreements or treaties, but as a natural manifestation of the new universal consciousness… This need not wait. It is something that you, yourself, must manifest in the world now.” (The Age of the Heart, Ch.11: A New Heart) Wouldn’t it be a waste of energy to try to change what appears on a screen where the images are projected by a data projector? We need to change the data, the inner contents, before we can see real changes reflected on the screen. “The thought system of the truth realizes that the external world is but a reflection of the internal world.” (A Course of Love, T3:18.10) We go within to find the causes of what we see in the world. It’s time to look with loving awareness into our own inner conflicts, self-judgment, the shame and guilt we feel about certain incidents in the past, the lack of communication between mind and heart, the disconnect between the human and the divine in us, the restlessness of mind, the addiction to thinking and doing, the sense of unworthiness and inadequacy, the imbalance between the masculine and feminine energies within us, and so on. “The power of love is the cause and effect that will change the world by returning you, and all your brothers and sisters, to who they are in truth. This cannot be done from without but must be done from within. It is the transformation that is caused within that will affect the world without.” (A Course of Love, D:Day10.33) The emerging New Earth is no utopia. But thinking that a change of political parties, world leaders, or the collapse of a dictatorial regime is going to bring about world peace is utopian. Current methods of dealing with world issues do not work because they only deal with symptoms without addressing their cause. “The arising of a new heaven and by implication a new earth are not future events that are going to make us free. Nothing is going to make us free because only the present moment can make us free. A new heaven and a new earth are arising within you at this moment, and if they are not arising at this moment, they are no more than a thought in your head and therefore not arising at all.” (A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, Ch.10) Peace in the outer world is the effect of dwelling in inner peace. The New Earth starts from within by returning awareness to the shared being that gives us a real identity—an identity that is timeless and universal. This call to live from the truth of who we are goes to everyone, not just to a selected few. This is an invitation for us all to co-create our New Earth. Our true Self is naturally free from fear, as it does not know death, disease, or decay. Rather than a temporary feeling, love is then realized as the ongoing awareness of us all sharing a common source, which places us in the condition of siblings equally gifted with the opportunity to experience the formless Self, which is pure presence, in physicality as individual expressions, much in the same way that light is dispersed through a prism to express its individual colors. But make no mistake, ending inner conflicts and having greater awareness of love’s presence in us are not enough in and by themselves to create a New Earth. The need for sharing in unity and relationship with others whose awareness is expanding cannot be overemphasized. Hear these words of wisdom: “You may live a more peaceful and meaningful life, but you will not become the savior I ask you to be, or the architects of the new world of heaven on earth that I call you to create.” “When you fully realize that sharing is necessary you will have entered the dialogue. When you have fully surrendered to the fact that you can’t come to know on your own you will have entered the dialogue.” (A Course of Love, T3:14.1; D:Day15.1) “You are here to make one another known and in so doing to know oneness. . . .Realize how necessary dialogue is. Many resist this stage of development because they feel they have achieved inner knowing. . . .They have achieved a goal consistent with their concept of inner knowing and mistaken this as knowing the Self. Movement is necessary to know the Self. . . .The easiest way of all to slip from knowing to not knowing is through stagnating in a 'known' place. . . .Entering the dialogue keeps you in constant contact with the unknown and with unceasing coming to know.” (D:Day15.15-18) Thus inner peace, which surpasses all thinking, and love, which surpasses all feelings, are the root causes that will give rise to our New Earth. Together we are discovering how to recognize genuine peace and love, embody them in daily life, and stabilize or sustain this embodiment when faced with perceived challenges or opposing forces. “Alone we can do nothing, but together our wills fuse into something whose power is far beyond the power of its separate parts.” (A Course in Miracles – Original Edition, T-8.V.36) Sustaining awareness of love’s presence is not about rejecting or hiding what is yet to be returned to love. It’s about embracing all that we see in us now, including all our seeming imperfections, trauma, pain, anger, and the like. Being at peace even with conflict and embracing with compassionate awareness all aspects of our being human will bring forth the inner alchemy—the transmutation of loveless energies back into love. “Love is higher than opinion. If people love one another the most varied opinions can be reconciled – thus one of the most important tasks for humankind today and in the future is that we should learn to live together and understand one another. If this human fellowship is not achieved, all talk of development is empty.” (Rudolf Steiner) As John Lennon and Yoko Ono put it in Imagine, we hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-111-paint-a-new-picture/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Mari-Perron-3.jpg^The Embrace #111: Paint a New Picture^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.
^Featured Article Paint a New Picture By Mari Perron with Jesus 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^^^https://acourseoflove.org/the-embrace-110-burning-coal/^https://acourseoflove.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Raul-Carus-2.jpg^The Embrace #110: Burning Coal^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.
^Featured Article Burning Coal By Raúl M. Carús hen 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. On the contrary, if it is made of stone, metal or sand, it will remain unburnt. But no matter whether it burns or not, the charcoal will continue glowing. Don't worry about what's going on around you. Burn. Keep the flame of Love alive in you. For, although the people you meet will burn only if they are ready for it, it will be much easier for them to do so if they have a burning coal nearby. However, do not ask them to do the same. Don't force them to burn. Doing so would be exhausting and counterproductive. Anyone who tries to light a piece of stone wastes time and burns his fingers. Offer them your warmth without forcing them to accept it. Whether they catch fire or not depends solely on them. Take care only to be on fire, with simplicity and without arrogance. Do not try to set anyone on fire but yourself. You may think that rejection, anger, rigidity or violence make you strong and that understanding, closeness, tenderness or affection weaken you. But it is exactly the opposite: nothing makes you stronger than Love. So, what can I do if I am surrounded by unconsciousness? Burn. What if my father acts irresponsibly? Burn. What if my life turns to be extremely difficult? Burn. What if I have been robbed? Burn. And if I am slandered? Burn. What if I am stalked by death? Burn. What if madness assaults me? Burn. And if everything collapses? Burn. The best present you can give the world is your own awakening. So keep your coal burning and don't worry about anything else. The way to light the way is to shine a light and hold it high for whoever wants to follow. Should you agree with all this, do the following today: if you perceive hostility, return affection; if you notice aggression, return kindness; if you think you are being attacked, respond with appreciation; if you see darkness, shed light^^^