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What if telling the difference doesn't matter at all because "good" and "bad" are just human terms that don't mean a thing in the Afterlife? Chew on that!


Anja

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If I catch someone while he's stabbing my daughter with a knife, some protection/survival instinct will surely make me protect her, and that could mean grabbing his knife and stabbing him if I had to, to avoid being killed myself. That's when I think I would be able to kill. Not in an act of revenge.

Hope that made it clearer what I meant. 

Anja

Alysia,

For some weird reason, the story of Atwater's experience reminded me of one of my own that happened about 10 years ago when I was still in retail. 

I was working as a merchandiser in a pharmacy.  Well, anyhow, I was a friend of the cosmetician, (I thought we were friends?) and I arrived one morning and greeted her in my usual friendly manner and she said to me, “I’ve thought and thought about you Jean and there is nothing, nothing good about you and from now on I won’t be speaking to you and I don’t want you speaking to me!”  Needless to say, I was a bit stunned  ???.  In my minds eye, I sniffed under my arms but didn’t smell a thing? Also, I was used to being attacked after overcoming the experience of divorce.    I responded with, I can’t make you talk to me but I can continue speaking with you.  To prove this, I made sure that I said, “Good Morning” every day and, “Good Night” every evening.  Of course this incensed her even more because this is the opposite of what she wanted as I knew that it would. I also knew in my heart, I was coming from a place of fear and hostility  as opposed to one of love.  This went on for a few months till the manager called me on it and suggested I stop.  I responded that I would consider his suggestion and I did stop because I wanted to see what would happen next. 

Nothing changed; no talk existed except when I waited, one time, till she was working with customers at her counter and I went up to her and asked her, “What time is it?”   She, being the polite southern lady I counted on, responded to me in front of others rather than being impolite.  But this only brought me a hollow victory.  Actually the broken relationship kept bothering me more and more, as did feeling of hostility, both ways, whenever we were in the store together. 

I became desperate to do something so I decided ask myself, “Do I want to win in this situation or did I want peace?”  You’ll recognize the question.  I answered with, “I want peace.  So I decided one night to place the intention of meeting her, higher self to higher self. We did and needless to say the conversation resulted in us both wanting peace.  The very next morning when I arrived at work, I was greeted with, “Hi Jean”.  I said hi back as if there was no 4-month break in the relationship and we continued with a speaking working relationship. I did feel peace and the miracle of knowing that it was possible to heal a relationship on the non-physical level. True story!   

Love, Jean

Alysia,

In answer to, “I’m still a little curious about why your co-worker would ostracize you without cause to your understanding…” my thinking at the time was that she was working on a jealousy issues as I was married, had my own business down the street, blaa, blaa, blaa, but my knowing or suspecting that to be at the core still didn’t help me to settle the active conflict.  I needed help, more than my intellect seemed to offer.  Meeting on another level did the trick with the results creating a healing.  I’m just sorry that I was a little slow on the uptake.  Four months, REEEALY!!! 

But back to the topic of the rape and murder of the little girl.  I am reminded of a workshop on forgiveness given by G. Jampolsky and D. Cirincione at the Unity Church in Naples Florida in the ‘90’s.  During the afternoon, he introduced the audience to a couple who had their only child raped and brutally murdered by a stranger.  As a result of this couples trauma, they finally decided that they wanted to find peace and healing instead of continuing their cycle of pain.  To make a long story short, they went to the prison with the intent of really getting to know their daughter’s killer.  Over time, they became his mentor which resulted in the sought after peace of mind for all concerned.  Talk about miracles!  All because this couple was open to a change of mind and a change of heart.  Remember, it only takes one instant to change your mind on even the most horrendous of occurrences in our physical world  .

Someday we’ll get the point of our realization that our power lies in our ability to go within and draw from that source the steps that we need to outwardly take to create miracles on a regular basis or get out of their way so they can happen.  Someday we will no longer allow fear to run us or blindly continue to look towards outside authorities to tell us how to live our lives.  Maybe, “Sooome day there’s even gunna’  be horseless carriages, horseless carriages, sooomeday…”  Wadda ya think?

Love to all  , Jean      

Alysia,

You make me work.  You remember that I decided years ago to have our three sons raised by their father after the divorce as the honorable choice for me to make since I was not in the position to financially raise them and that their father would be a part of their upbringing whereas his was not in the case of his parents divorce.  Well, another part of me was very hurt and angry and, as a result, I carried this anger with me for a long while.  Also previous to the divorce, in May of 1981, my husband started dating a woman, with my support; it was called an “Open Marriage” arrangement at that time.  To make a long story short, he chooses her over me and we divorced in 1984.  I knew at the time that the whole exercise was a risk yet couldn’t believe that he would choose someone else over “wonderful” me and the mother of his children.  But he did, we divorced, and I moved back to my home state 3,000 miles away.  I was devastated but I fell in love again, moved to a tropical island, and opened up a pet shop with my new husband and had visits with my wonderful sons. 

But I started thinking about that day in the future when I’ll have to be with those  people at one of my son’s weddings. How can I be forgiving in my heart towards them and bring peace into the whole situation for all of our benefits including my sons?  The last thing I wanted for my sons’ is to have a mother who couldn’t move past her own hurts to be able to celebrate with them on their special occasion.  It was then that I latched onto ACIM in desperation to learn forgiveness before one of them married.  The first test came with my oldest sons wedding, I failed.  The second test came with his best friends wedding and I failed again.  I became more determined to find a better way and to stop defending my ego at the expense of my sons and their father and stepmother and to find peace.  Then something happened and I started to remember what I had learned from Monroe and Moen about the bigger picture. As a result, the following letter was composed with love to my primary adversary, the other woman on the date recorded below: 

August 1 2002

Dear Barbara,

Please accept my apology for my conduct at Ken’s wedding and Mike’s.  I have since realized that I regret snubbing you at that time and if I could take it back, I would.  The funny thing is-is that I worked with the Course in Miracles for a number of years previous to the wedding to prepare myself not to do the very thing I did.  If I had it to do over again, I hope that I would be able to thank you for caring for the boys and giving them your very best in the second half of their childhood.   

If you’ve read this far, in the spirit of love and peace, I would like to share a story that’s been running through my mind for a few years.  As I approach my 60’s and being such an introspective-reader type, I have a tendency to want to make sense of my experience through books, my best friends.  This story kind of evolved after studying Monroe’s Ultimate Journey.  Anyhow, this is how it goes.  Three individuals sitting around a table, which includes their advisors, are planning their next sojourn on the physical planet, Earth.  They know that their purpose must include working together to learn about cooperation and love.  They pick the time, the place, family situation and their sexes.  The first one says I’ll be the male this time, the second one says no, you had it last time, I’ll be the male.  Needless to say they go back and forth a number of times and finally decide according to what they need to learn/accomplish.  They cover the pros and cons of all the other choices, which need to be made to maximize the experience till someone in the group says now it’s time to discuss your charge lings, in other words, the little ones.  Now the little ones, as our advisors remind us, are some of our best teachers in the life experience, so we want to do good by them.  The now decided male pops up saying, “Since electing this time and place in earth’s history allows me to make the medium necessary to finance the operation I’ll do just that.”  “Ok,” one of the females says, and adds “I’ll bear them and nurture them for their first decade on the physical plane”.  “Then I’ll need to proceed onto other areas of my journey.”  The third one pipes up, “that fits great with my plan, and I’ll take over to guide them through, to the best of my ability, the second decade of their childhood.”  And all was accomplished according to plan and some major things were achieved (Ken, D.J. and Matt are beautiful) with minimal damage.

Enough of that, I’m starting to ramble, so I just want to say again how sorry I am for the way I acted and I wish you well.  Furthermore, in the future, should we meet, I promise to extend a hug instead of a snub and maybe you’ll extend one back.

Jean

She wrote back, I went to my second sons wedding in 2003, I felt the love (PUL) as we hugged, then she died the following year May 2004 of cancer.  I was able to comfort my sons in their grief for they loved her very much.  All three are very loving men. I still think about her and hope we are connecting or will be, on that other level at times.

That was a close one for me and it only  took 22 years from beginning to end to realize that I have the data but I need to start going within more to remember to use it for the making of miracles through the healing of my relationships with others.  My next chore involves my daughter-in-law and I.  That’s still a stumper for me and I can’t tell whose ego, hers or mine, that’s causing the holdup from allowing PUL to happen? I’m still a bit to close to that one but I am catching on and any day now I expect it will come about.

This is my take on miracles so far, besides the ones that are happening around me daily when I remember to expect them.  Learning to trust that I will remember and that I have a lot of cues from within to do so when I am ready to choose a response. Learning that I can look at things in a different way then the way my so-called instincts dictate, especially if I am viewing them negatively and with hostility.  Learning that I do not have to have a knee-jerk response of anger and revenge at not being chosen for what I consider a prize.  I can change my mind about anything and choose again to make love happen. 

Love to all, and thanks Alysia for making me work.

Jean
         

 

Hi Freebird,

Maybe this little childrens story will shed some extra light onto this new perspective of the little girl arranging her own murder. its by Neal Donald Walsch.


THE LITTLE SOUL IN THE SUN

Once upon no time, there was a Little Soul who said to God, "I know who I am!"

And God said, "That's wonderful! Who are you?"

And the Little Soul shouted, "I'm the Light!"

God smiled a big smile. "That's right!" God exclaimed. "You are the Light."

The Little Soul was so happy, for it had figured out what all the souls in the Kingdom were there to figure out.

"Wow," said the Little Soul, "this is really cool!"

But soon, knowing who it was was not enough. The Little Soul felt stirrings inside, and now wanted to be who it was. And so the Little Soul went back to God (which is not a bad idea for all souls who want to be Who They Really Are) and said,

"Hi, God! Now that I know Who I am, is it okay for me to be it?"

And God said, "You mean you want to be Who You Already Are?"

"Well," replied the Little Soul," it's one thing to know Who I Am, and another thing altogether to actually be it. I want to feel what it's like to be the Light!"

"But you already are the Light," God repeated, smiling again.

"Yes, but I want to see what that feels like!" cried the Little Soul.

"Well," said God with a chuckle, "I suppose I should have known. You always were the adventuresome one."

Then God's expression changed. "There's only one thing..."

"What?" asked the Little Soul.

"Well, there is nothing else but the Light. You see, I created nothing but what you are; and so, there is no easy way for you to experience yourself as Who You Are, since there is nothing that you are not."

"Huh?" said the Little Soul, who was now a little confused.

"Think of it this way," said God. "You are like a candle in the Sun. Oh, you're there all right. Along with a million, ka-gillion other candles who make up the Sun. And the sun would not be the Sun without you. Nay, it would be a sun without one of its candles...and that would not be the Sun at all; for it would not shine as brightly. Yet, how to know yourself as the Light when you are amidst the Light -that is the question."

"Well," the Little Soul perked up, "you're God. Think of something!"

Once more God smiled. "I already have," God said. "Since you cannot see yourself as the Light when you are in the Light, we'll surround you with darkness."

"What's darkness?" the Little Soul asked.

God replied, "It is that which you are not."

"Will I be afraid of the dark?" cried the Little Soul.

"Only if you choose to be," God answered. "There is nothing, really, to be afraid of, unless you decide that there is. You see, we are making it all up. We are pretending."

"Oh," said the Little Soul, and felt better already.

Then God explained that, in order to experience anything at all, the exact opposite of it will appear.

"It is a great gift," God said, "because without it, you could not know what anything is like. You could not know Warm without Cold, Up without Down, Fast without Slow. You could not know Left without Right, Here without There, Now without Then."

"And so," God concluded, "when you are surrounded with darkness, do not shake your fist and raise your voice and curse the darkness. Rather be a Light unto the darkness, and don't be mad about it. Then you will know Who You Really Are, and all others will know, too. Let your Light shine so that everyone will know how special you are!"

"You mean it's okay to let others see how special I am?" asked the Little Soul.

"Of course!" God chuckled. "It's very okay! But remember, 'special' does not mean 'better.' Everybody is special, each in their own way! Yet many others have forgotten that. They will see that it is okay for them to be special only when you see that it is okay for you to be special."

"Wow," said the Little Soul, dancing and skipping and laughing and jumping with joy. "I can be as special as I want to be!"

"Yes, and you can start right now," said God, who was dancing and skipping and laughing right along with the Little Soul.

"What part of special do you want to be?"

"What part of special?" the Little Soul repeated. "I don't understand."

"Well," God explained, "being the Light is being special, and being special has a lot of parts to it. It is special to be kind. It is special to be gentle. It is special to be creative. It is special to be patient. Can you think of any other ways it is special to be?"

The Little Soul sat quietly for a moment. "I can think of lots of ways to be special!" the Little Soul then exclaimed. "It is special to be helpful. It is special to be sharing. It is special to be friendly. It is special to be considerate of others!"

"Yes!" God agreed, "and you can be all of those things, or any part of special you wish to be, at any moment. That's what it means to be the Light."

"I know what I want to be, I know what I want to be!" the Little Soul announced with great excitement. "I want to be the part of special called 'forgiving'. Isn't it special to be forgiving?"

"Oh, yes," God assured the Little Soul. "That is very special."

"Okay," said the Little Soul. "That's what I want to be. I want to be forgiving. I want to experience myself as that."

"Good," said God, "but there's one thing you should know."

The Little Soul was becoming a bit impatient now. It always seemed as though there were some complication.

"What is it?" the Little Soul sighed.

"There is no one to forgive."

"No one?" The Little Soul could hardly believe what had been said.

"No one!" God repeated. "Everything I have made is perfect. There is not a single soul in all creation less perfect than you. Look around you."

It was then that the Little Soul realized a large crowd had gathered. Souls had come from far and wide ~ from all over the Kingdom ~ for the word had gone forth that the Little Soul was having this extraordinary conversation with God, and everyone wanted to hear what they were saying. Looking at the countless other souls gathered there, the Little Soul had to agree. None appeared less wonderful, less magnificent, or less perfect than the Little Soul itself. Such was the wonder of the souls gathered around, and so bright was their Light, that the Little Soul could scarcely gaze upon them.

"Who, then, to forgive?" asked God.

"Boy, this is going to be no fun at all!" grumbled the Little Soul. "I wanted to experience myself as One Who Forgives. I wanted to know what that part of special felt like."

And the Little Soul learned what it must feel like to be sad. But just then a Friendly Soul stepped forward from the crowd.

"Not to worry, Little Soul," the Friendly Soul said, "I will help you."

"You will?" the Little Soul brightened. "But what can you do?"

"Why, I can give you someone to forgive!"

"You can?"

"Certainly!" chirped the Friendly Soul. "I can come into your next lifetime and do something for you to forgive."

"But why? Why would you do that?" the Little Soul asked. "You, who are a Being of such utter perfection! You, who vibrate with such a speed that it creates a Light so bright that I can hardly gaze upon you! What could cause you to want to slow down your vibration to such a speed that your bright Light would become dark and dense? What could cause you ~ who are so light that you dance upon the stars and move through the Kingdom with the speed of your thought--to come into my life and make yourself so heavy that you could do this bad thing?"

"Simple," the Friendly Soul said. "I would do it because I love you."

The Little Soul seemed surprised at the answer.

"Don't be so amazed," said the Friendly Soul, "you have done the same thing for me. Don't you remember? Oh, we have danced together, you and I, many times. Through the eons and across all the ages have we danced. Across all time and in many places have we played together. You just don't remember."

"We have both been All Of It. We have been the Up and the Down of it, the Left and the Right of it. We have been the Here and the There of it, the Now and the Then of it. We have been the male and the female, the good and the bad; we have both been the victim and the villain of it."

"Thus have we come together, you and I, many times before; each bringing to the other the exact and perfect opportunity to Express and to Experience Who We Really Are. And so," the Friendly Soul explained further, "I will come into your next lifetime and be the 'bad one' this time. I will do something really terrible, and then you can experience yourself as the One Who Forgives."

"But what will you do?" the Little Soul asked, just a little nervously, "that will be so terrible?"

"Oh," replied the Friendly Soul with a twinkle, "we'll think of something."

Then the Friendly Soul seemed to turn serious, and said in a quiet voice, "You are right about one thing, you know."

"What is that?" the Little Soul wanted to know.

"I will have to slow down my vibration and become very heavy to do this not-so-nice thing. I will have to pretend to be something very unlike myself. And so, I have but one favor to ask of you in return."

"Oh, anything, anything!" cried the Little Soul, and began to dance and sing, "I get to be forgiving, I get to be forgiving!"

Then the Little Soul saw that the Friendly Soul was remaining very quiet.

"What is it?" the Little Soul asked. "What can I do for you? You are such an angel to be willing to do this for me!"

"Of course this Friendly Soul is an angel!" God interrupted. "Everyone is! Always remember: I have sent you nothing but angels."

And so the Little Soul wanted more than ever to grant the Friendly Soul's request. "What can I do for you?" the Little Soul asked again.

"In the moment that I strike you and smite you," the Friendly Soul replied, "in the moment that I do the worst to you that you could possible imagine ~ in that very moment..."

"Yes?" the Little Soul interrupted, "yes...?"

"Remember Who I Really Am."

"Oh, I will!" cried the Little Soul, "I promise! I will always remember you as I see you right here, right now!"

"Good," said the Friendly Soul, "because, you see, I will have been pretending so hard, I will have forgotten myself. And if you do not remember me as I really am, I may not be able to remember for a very long time. And if I forget Who I Am, you may even forget Who You Are, and we will both be lost. Then we will need another soul to come along and remind us both of Who We Are."

"No, we won't!" the Little Soul promised again. "I will remember you! And I will thank you for bringing me this gift ~ the chance to experience myself as Who I Am."

And so, the agreement was made. And the Little Soul went forth into a new lifetime, excited to be the Light, which was very special, and excited to be that part of special called Forgiveness.

And the Little Soul waited anxiously to be able to experience itself as Forgiveness, and to thank whatever other soul made it possible. And at all the moments in that new lifetime, whenever a new soul appeared on the scene, whether that new soul brought joy or sadness--and especially if it brought sadness--the Little Soul thought of what God had said.

"Always remember," God had smiled, "I have sent you nothing but angels."



-Neal Donald Walsch.

yes I thank you for the posting of Walsh also, it's exactly what A Course in Miracles teaches about remembering who we are here and learning to forgive, release and back to our basic oneness. Everybody I meet I try to find the angel within them. sometimes I wanted to believe so hard there was an angel at my door that I would place them above me and be rudely awakened that they had this human side which was not looking out for my welfare; only I could look out for myself. then I would get the opportunity to practice this thing called forgiveness. maybe with a dash of trust thrown in. mostly or firstly, I would need to forgive myself. if I did, forgiving the other was a natural consequence. we could start fresh then for if I found the angel at my door was me, then I found the angel within the other, but forgiveness causes the ego to crash land, after awhile you learn how to fall properly. for one thing the proper way to take a fall is to relax the muscles and roll with it, not stiffen up. always nice to find a good haystack if you're falling from the sky but not always possible. lol. ha ha! we are all star children guys; don't be taken in by what you see, be taken in by what you trust, your own self.

I'm going to save this story on me 'puter, the children coming into the earth now will understand it perfectly! I may need it, so thanks again.