Yesterday’s lesson could cause us distress and sadness if we do not follow up with today’s lesson.  It is good to hang in there with these lessons even when they feel frightening, depressing, or confusing.  If we are changing our entire system of logic towards one that leads to peace and wellness, it is only to be expected that our current mental platform would be resistant to such changes.

When we keep engaging in the next day’s lesson despite confusion or discomfort, we locate a conviction to persevere that is exactly what the Course is trying to teach us.  It is our will that makes the change.  Our passion to change, our determination.  Our drive, willingness, commitment, and passion to believe in the concept of a larger, higher, loving power beyond our own is the most essential ingredient in the healing process.  Self improvement is not about maintaining consistent behavior to be “good.”  Self improvement is a deepening of trust between all the conflicting parts of ourselves.  And those conflicting parts are all upset because they seek security where none can ever be gained.  

Beyond this world, there is real and lasting security.  But you do not have to die to get there.  If real is that which lasts and does not ever fade, it stands to reason that the eternal realm of peace is here now, within and all around you.  What you are looking at is not as it seems.  Beyond what you see there is a depth of astronomical beauty and grace.

It is uncomfortable to think that the world we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell is not real.  What’s more, we are being asked to put aside these highly convincing arguments for realness and turn our attention towards an invisible concept knowable only if we choose to let our imaginations entertain the notion.  It is shaky ground, but only when standing in the perspective of the world that wants to convince us of its realness.  When we are so completely immersed in a perspective, the only way to shift that perspective is with the imagination.  And that takes a conviction to do so.  

But what are we aiming to shift to?  It is easy to lose sight of a world that is aimed at making everything very complicated.  The shift we are aiming for is to locate an experiential knowing of a larger, higher, loving power beyond our own perspective.  Connecting to a higher power empowers every aspect of every activity we ever do.  A spiritual practice (the repeated engagement in thoughts and activities which lead to relaxation and compassion.)

If the world we see is not a world we want, logic follows that there is a world beyond this one that we do want.  Why does this follow? Because if there is nothing beyond this world, and this world is based on destruction, we would have been destroyed long ago and reduced to nothing. We would not be reading these words or doing anything at all because this destructive world would have destroyed existence long ago.  It has been working so hard to do that for so long, and yet, life goes on.  How can this be?  

The answer is found in the very first lines of A Course In Miracles: “Nothing real can be lost.  Nothing unreal exists.”Real is the world we want.  And real is not going anywhere. We can not lose what is real. Nothing can destroy that which is Real.  Beyond whatever problem you face, rest assured, all is well.

This world we currently see is all about pain and suffering.  Pain energy generates more pain.  Peace energy creates more peace.  What is like unto itself makes more of itself.  If you want peace, release actions that cause pain and move into actions that bring peace.  Depending on how out of control your life has become, your effort to offer peace may be a tiny candle in a snowstorm.  But just keep lighting the candle again and again.  That act alone will lead to peace, even if you are not able to make big changes in your circumstances.  

We can not fully understand why we are where we are in life.  But wherever we are, A Course In Miracles wants us to consider that we are in the perfect place to make the most effective change and influence those around us in a productive way.  Where we are is the perfect place to begin learning the skills of peaceful responding.

We can not allow ourselves to conclude that this world is worthless.  That would be a very painful pursuit that ego logic would highly encourage us to believe.  We are not being asked to give up this unreal world in exchange for nothing.  Healing and improvement NEVER require or ask us for sacrifices.  The movement towards wellness is always a deeper experience of ease and empowerment.  If we feel more clear, more grounded, and more stable, we are on the right path.  It does not matter what other people think of your actions.  They can not ever grasp the balance you are navigating from within.  They can not know what is best for you.  If anger and shouting flow out of you and you destroy a relationship, the only next step for you to take is to not shame or condemn yourself for a movement that overwhelmed you.  If a relationship breaks, the bond was not lasting and therefore not real.  What is real between you and the other person is enduring even if circumstances are such that you will never meet again.

Love is forever.  Nothing can break a bond of love.  We just may not have any further business with that person in day-to-day interactions.  The relationship we have with them in our hearts is more real than any physical encounter.  How do you hold in your heart a person you loved but lost?  Are you angry?  Do you hope they get what’s coming to them?  Can you remember the bond of contentment you both shared and let that be all you need to remember?

It is not for us to understand people.  Their actions are motivated by so many different factors and those factors, such as culture, family loyalties, religious loyalties, and masculine or feminine loyalties, are so much larger than we could ever comprehend.  People are like the weather.  They come and go and change and change and change again.  People are forces of nature.  Not resources for our interests.  We encounter people at our peril!  But the adventures we have with them are opportunities to choose joy rather than pain.  

This world can not offer you peace.  Being in this world hurts because it is unstable.  Everything about it is going to eventually vanish into some other expression.  But we are not being asked to learn how to detach and need nothing from this world.  We are being asked to ride the waves to the shoreline.  Be part of this experience willingly, knowing that every engagement is a path towards the world we do want.  Getting off the path in the hopes that we will get to our destination is not the way.  Engage.  Experience, learn, and trust that all things lead to the world we want because the world we want is all there really ever is.  

Wanting has no end.  We will always want.  Every desire we have is a desire for peace, joy, love, creativity, spontaneity, excitement, clarity, adventure, and wonder.  We will always want these things because such things never get old.  Joy wants more joy.  

Why would we be resistant to being given exactly what we want forever?  Is it hard to believe it is possible to be consistently happy?  The anxiety and wariness of too much wellness is the pain logic that A Course In Miracles is gently shifting day by day.  Pain logic would have us believe that a world founded on love and peace would be boring.  Pain logic will do everything in its power to convince you that you want pain and that pain is good for you.  But the fact that it hurts speaks for itself.  There is nothing boring about wellness.  Do not let the ego convince you that wellness is boring.  Wellness is the definition of interesting.  Wellness is joy, pleasure, empowerment, and creativity Itself.  Only pain logic would find wellness unwanted.  Do not be fooled.

The possibilities of creative expression are astounding beyond comprehension when we put down a fixation with the meaningless and turn towards building a life founded in true Grace.  There is a lot more we could be doing than circling round and round staring at our feet.  Look up, look up.  There is another world beyond this one.   

Wellness occurs when we are connected to a larger Source of Grace.  This larger Source is a state of true communication and knowing.  Communication and knowing are actually eternal states of awareness that we can access at any time.  We need only sit quietly and turn to look for it within.  Wellness is an eternal state within us because Wellness is what created us.  Creation communes with Its creations at all times because there is no time in eternal creation. Under all the turmoil of hurt feelings, misunderstandings, betrayals, and vengeance we are all in a state of knowing together.  What do we know? All is well.  Beyond this world, there is a world where all is well.  

Every hour today, pause and take a moment to exchange this world of pain for the world of wellness.  Exchange the world you do not want for the world you do want.  Even if you can not see that world yet, say to each painful experience, “This is not the world I want.  I can find a world beyond this one before me that I do want.”

Choose to not value nothingness.  The argument you are in with that person is of such little consequence in relation to the rest of your life.  Release a need to take action.  Lean back into a larger movement and let yourself be carried through any current conflict.  Let a higher source in.  It will tell you when to take action and when to wait.  Listening to this direction makes all actions much easier to perform.  They perform themselves, through you and do not ever compromise your dignity or values.

The fight you are in with this person or that situation does not hold the peace you really want.  Turn away from the experience of loss and sorrow as you would turn away from smoke at a fireplace.  You do not want it.  Let the wind take it away.  Focus on the heat, the real value. There is no need to fear losing things you do not want.  Let that relationship go.  Or let go of whatever they did or whatever you did. Its importance is smaller than a grain of sand next to the sun.  Whatever is real between you and another person has not been lost.  In every encounter, say to yourself, there is more to this than what I am able to see.  Let me connect to that which is beyond this and be guided by that larger source rather than by my own limited perception.