I felt that my words had been heard and affirmed by an all encompassing Love that allowed me to participate in the the joy of connecting to another human being in a concrete way.

I've always understood myself to be a spiritual being and this is one of many encounters with people and nature that has brought me joy and an assurance of someone or something greater than this universe.

It's a tough time now but that is transient and fleeting in the larger picture.

I'm posting one of my favorite passages from ACIM.

"Chapter Twenty Six: The Transition

X. For They Have Come

⁷⁷ Think but how holy you must be from whom the Voice for God calls lovingly unto your brother, that you may awake in him the Voice that answers to your call! And think how holy he must be when in him sleeps your own salvation with his freedom joined! However much you wish he be condemned, God is in him. And never will you know He is in you as well, while you attack His chosen home and battle with His host. Regard him gently. Look with loving eyes on him who carries Christ within him, that you may behold His glory and rejoice that Heaven is not separate from you.

⁷⁸ Is it too much to ask a little trust for him who carries Christ to you, that you may be forgiven all your sins and left without a single one you cherish still? Forget not that a shadow held between your brother and yourself obscures the face of Christ and memory of God. And would you trade Them for an ancient hate? The ground whereon you stand is holy ground because of Them Who, standing there with you, have blessed it with Their innocence and peace.

⁷⁹ The blood of hatred fades to let the grass grow green again and let the flowers be all white and sparkling in the summer sun. What was a place of death has now become a living temple in a world of light. Because of Them. It is Their Presence which has lifted holiness again to take its ancient place upon an ancient throne. Because of Them have miracles sprung up as grass and flowers on the barren ground which hate had scorched and rendered desolate. What hate has wrought have They undone. And now you stand on ground so holy Heaven leans to join with it and make it like itself. The shadow of an ancient hate has gone, and all the blight and withering have passed forever from the land where They have come.

⁸⁰ What is a hundred or a thousand years to Them, or tens of thousands? When They come, time's purpose is fulfilled. What never was passes to nothingness when They have come. What hatred claimed is given up to love, and freedom lights up every living thing and lifts it into Heaven, where the lights grow ever brighter as each one comes home. The incomplete is made complete again, and Heaven's joy has been increased because what is its own has been restored to it. The bloodied earth is cleansed, and the insane have shed their garments of insanity to join Them on the ground whereon you stand.

⁸¹ Heaven is grateful for this gift of what has been withheld so long. For They have come to gather in Their Own. What has been locked is opened; what was held apart from light is given up, that light may shine on it, and leave no space nor distance lingering between the light of Heaven and the world.

⁸² The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love. And They come quickly to the living temple, where a home for Them has been set up. There is no place in Heaven holier. And They have come to dwell within the temple offered them, to be Their resting-place as well as yours. What hatred has released to love becomes the brightest light in Heaven's radiance. And all the lights in Heaven brighter grow, in gratitude for what has been restored.

⁸³ Around you angels hover lovingly, to keep away all darkened thoughts of sin and keep the light where it has entered in. Your footprints lighten up the world, for where you walk forgiveness gladly goes with you. No one on earth but offers thanks to one who has restored his home and sheltered him from bitter winter and the freezing cold. And shall the Lord of Heaven and His Son give less in gratitude for so much more?

⁸⁴ Now is the temple of the Living God rebuilt as host again to Him by Whom it was created. Where He dwells, His Son dwells with Him, never separate. And They give thanks that They are welcome made at last. Where stood a cross stands now the risen Christ, and ancient scars are healed within His sight. An ancient miracle has come to bless and to replace an ancient enmity that came to kill. In gentle gratitude do God the Father and the Son return to what is Theirs and will forever be. Now is the Holy Spirit's purpose done. For They have come! For They have come at last!

Copyright (c) 2011 Course In Miracles Society. Reproduction, sharing and quoting from this material is encouraged. Where such reproduction involves commercial sale of more than ten percent of the total content of the Book in any media, written permission of the copyright holder is required"

Jo, ACIM is difficult to understand initially. Although the Course is said to have been channelled from Jesus to a Jewish psychologist, the point of the Course is that we are all Jesus/Buddha/Krishna/Mohammed etc, and the children of God. We just have to become fully aware of who we are.

Now this is one part that intersects with Buddhism, and is the hardest to comprehend. According to ACIM everything we are experiencing in this physical realm is an illusion. Meaning, not real. We are actually dreaming, but in fact are safe at home with God. Someday we will wake up and realize this. How long that takes depends on our addiction to the illusion.

The first statement in ACIM is the following:

"Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God."

I could go on and on, but it does certainly take time to study this particular path.

Divine, I completely understand what you're saying. In fact, the Course does say that while we are here, it is nearly impossible to deny our existence, and we shouldn't. It also calls for all to love, respect and help others. There are some who have committed the atrocities you mentioned, but if they are in a community of Course students, more advanced students will gently explain their error.

So, there is the physical realm we exist in, and the spiritual goal of reunion with God, or gaining the awareness that we are already with God. The goal is peace. I know the Course has brought me much peace in the midst of living in an often evil and cruel world. My husband and I are human and animal rights activists. Most people I know who follow the Course are also.

The Course is a complicated and sometimes seemingly contradictory system of thought. That's why study groups exist to discuss it. For those reasons I hesitated to bring it up here.

Ladies been keeping up with posts but today has been muddled head and hard to make coherent thoughts. Looking forward to joining in on a meaningful level tomorrow. Keep up the brain stimulation discussions.

pupmom, when my grandmother was dying, she said "I promise if I can get back and ghost you, I will." And then shortly after that she died and the next day a hummingbird came to my kitchen window, lit upon the sill, and sang its little guts out for about 10 or 15 minutes.... and gradually the hair went up on the back of my neck.

I came across this poem recently-- and though I am an atheist, something about the conception of God that this poem embodies was so accessible and beautiful and UN doctrinaire that it made me cry.

Comfort Animal

BY JOY LADIN From the sequence "Shekhinah Speaks"

Comfort, comfort my people ...
—Isaiah 40:1

A voice says, "Your punishment has ended."

You never listen to that voice. You really suck

at being comforted.

Another voice says, "Cry."

That voice always gets your attention,

keeps you thinking

about withered flowers and withering grass

and all the ways you're like them.

Hard to argue with that.

Death tramples you, an un-housebroken pet

trailing prints and broken stems,

pooping anxiety, PTSD, depression.

It's better to be animal than vegetable

but best of all is to be spirit

flying first or maybe business class

with your emotional support animal, your body,

curled in your lap, soaring with you

above the sense of loss you've mistaken

for the closest to God you can get.

You want to cry? Cry about that.

Who do you think created

the animals to whom you turn for comfort,

dogs, miniature horses, monkeys, ferrets,

hungers you know how to feed,

fears you know how to quiet?

I form them, fur them,

it's my warmth radiating from their bodies,

my love that answers

the love you lavish upon them.

Your deserts and desolations

are highways I travel,

smoothing your broken places,

arranging stars and constellations

to light your wilderness.

Sometimes I play the shepherd;

sometimes I play the lamb;

sometimes I appear as death,

which makes it hard to remember

that I am the one who assembled your atoms,

who crowned your dust with consciousness.

I take you everywhere,

which is why, wherever you go, I'm there,

keeping you hydrated, stroking your hair,

laughing when you chase your tail,

gathering you to my invisible breasts

more tenderly than any mother.

You're right—you never asked for this. I'm the reason

your valleys are being lifted up,

the source of your life laid bare.

Mine is the voice that decrees—

that begs—your anguish to end.

When you suffer, I suffer.

Comfort me

by being comforted.

I can't help but wonder at human beings in awe of women as virgins and then mothers and revering and perverting that mystery from the beginning of time. There is still no complete understanding of reproduction and those that claim that knowledge are not being truthful with themselves and others. Sometimes the wisest answer is I don't know. I think humanity has trouble expressing this amazing human reproduction that can inspire love , lust, and a new human being in their likeness. POWERFUL!

My comment on God or gods allowing or promoting oppression comes down, for me, that there is a benevolent being greater than ourselves that has created, brought into existence, baked it into a cake-whatever language that a person can admit. Human nature assures that good and bad belief systems will form. Just mentioning good and bad opens a new can of worms.

My life's journey has brought me to this one comparison. I cannot blame God for the rampant evil and unjust acts of humanity no more than I can blame a parent for the acts of an adult child. We rarely look to the bad parent and thank them for the good their children do. Instead, we marvel that they overcame bad parenting. The long and the short-creatures with free will who effect others with their decisions-DELIMNA!!!!

As someone once said; how does that effect the price of eggs in China?