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| Resting my Sunburned Feet |
For the month of May we will be exploring the theme “Spiritual Guidance and Personal Responsibility.” This theme contains two of the most important principles of the Science of Mind. First, that we believe every person can be a revealer of truth. To me that means that we can, and do, directly connect with Source and It can, and does, guide and direct us. Secondly, that our experiences do not come to us , but rather come through us.
Each one of us has an inner guidance system. This system is always guiding us. It always knows what is our highest and best good. Sometimes it speaks quietly so that you have to be still to hear it and at other times it screams so loudly that we can not ignore it.
Over time I have come to be thankful for and expectant of Its guidance. There were many years that I didn’t believe in It and could not hear It. On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I had a private two-hour ride to the resort from the airport. I was guided to ask my driver for Spanish lessons. He was delighted to teach me. It made my trip fly by and gave Roberto, my driver, an opportunity to be in service. Guidance can be a simple idea like that or a feeling of “not going in the right direction.” By the way, I also ignored my personal guidance to get out of the sun in Coasta Rica. Hence, sore, swollen, sunburned feet!
The second part is personal responsibility. In the past, I felt that personal responsibility was heavy and unpleasant. The words felt heavy and burdensome. But after studying the Science of Mind, I had a new idea about it. I realized that if everything came through my consciousness and absolutely no other way, then in order to change my life, I simply needed to change my deep beliefs. What a sense of joy and freedom it has given me! I am not a victim any longer. I accept everything in my life exactly as it is and as it is not. “I once was blind, but now I see.”
Shakespeare penned these words in the play Julius Caesar, spoken by Cassius, one of the men opposed to Julius Caesar becoming a monarch:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in ourselves.”
If one thinks he is doomed to a certain life, he will be. If he thinks that he is going to prosper happily, he will. Nothing outside ourselves ever creates our experience. Rather it is the choices we make from our deep beliefs that will make life be whatever it is. We learn to notice our results and circumstances with compassion and love. The idea of personal responsibility always inspires me. I know that if my consciousness created a result that is less than satisfying, then shifting my consciousness by changing my mind and heart, can change it into something I do want. Yes, it is my fault but I am not to blame.