Higherwillingness

✨Greetings Mighty Companions✨ There’s nothing like a romantic dramedy to explore an essential spiritual question… Where does one find true stability? Where does it reside? In what? Perhaps we recognize that our stability cannot reside with our own sense of control in our lives... A COURSE IN MIRACLES points us toward real stability by saying, "Only a constant purpose can endow events with stable meaning. ²But it must accord one meaning to them all.” [CE T-30.VIII.3-4] Our featured movie to kick off Summer is called: No Reservations. It’s a great little flick to show how all happenings in our lives always have the same purpose for the Spirit: to bring us into an awareness of the present by helping us to trust our brother. When we are stuck in the past, day after day, in our routine, we’re on autopilot, lost in a dream… When somehow our false sense of control is disillusioned, we still cannot make sense of our lives. But if we open ever so slightly to joining with what is beyond our littleness, then Spirit reveals itself in miraculous ways which lift our hearts. Miracles reflect the willingness to communicate from a clear and more loving ground of awareness. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Kate, head chef at a fancy high end restaurant. She has tensions with her boss who has insisted that she attend therapy, but Kate doesn’t know why. She runs a tight ship and almost all her customers love her, paying top dollar. She aims to please but is heavily defended against customer complaints, aggressively spitting fire and fury if someone criticizes her dishes. She has become so deeply identified with the role of head chef, she's forgotten what it’s all for. For Kate… well… no one seems to knows better than Kate, so she does it herself. She runs everything to the point of perfectionism. She seems to be headed toward burn out. But everything changes when her sister dies suddenly in a car accident on the way to have dinner with Kate. Which makes Kate the legal guardian of her niece Zoe, (who doesn’t really like her sophisticated cooking.) Enter Nick, (Aaron Eckhart) an Italian sous-chef with a love of opera. Kate dislikes Nick because he’s spontaneous and unpredictable. Zoe loves Nick’s more refreshing way with things and his yummy Italian food. Kate is presented with an opportunity to trust and collaborate with her new sous-chef, or distrust and compete against him. Nick brings exuberance into Kate’s very serious kitchen (as well as Kate and Zoe’s personal life), which threatens the calculated way Kate does things. But Kate needs more than a little opera and charm from Nick. She needs a miracle to raise Zoe in a new town after her mother’s sudden death. Kate must navigate the waters of huge change: becoming a mom by default, losing her sister, and trusting something bigger than herself in her personal life and career. So let’s take a journey into loosening our grip, and opening our hearts. This is a love story that will help us see through the rules and limits by which the ego attempts to establish control. And what might we find instead? Can we admit when we're mistaken and find out? In service to God’s loving plan for everything, Brian and Alexandra💞

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

Wouldn’t you like to strengthen the capacity to have a great day, and stay in the flow of Spirit all throughout the day? ✨This is exactly what we are all here to learn.✨ It's our happy birthright. This is why we are so inspired when we let the Spirit use time for us. Everything gets simpler and easier. Impossible situations are resolved. Chaos becomes UNbelievable. God’s loving plan becomes more discernible. Practically speaking, everybody makes mistakes that’s why practice must be deliberate, until it becomes automatic thus forming a habit of sanity. The more intuitive we become, the less we attempt to control or figure out the world. The flow of Spirit’s guidance is so strong that our lives can become an expression of our deepest prayer. Let’s join in developing trust in a very practical way— anytime we make a decision or feel we need to figure something out. This class is intended to strengthen our intuitive capacity so life unfolds naturally and easily come what may.

"1 All things work together for good. ²There are no exceptions, except in the ego’s judgment. ³The ego resents everything it does not control. ⁴Control is a central factor in what the ego permits into consciousness, and one to which it devotes its maximum vigilance. ⁵This is not the way a balanced mind holds together. ⁶Its control is unconscious." [CE T-4.VII.1] “Don’t cry over spilt milk” is a common English idiom that meansdon’t waste your time feeling sorry or upset about something that has already happened and can’t be changed. It is often used to advise someone to move on from a past mistake or misfortune and not dwell on what could have been done differently. In Mr Destiny our hero is given a healing drink called the "Spilt Milk". It has the effect of bringing the mind into gratitude for the way our lives appear in this very moment. Will we drink it? Mr. Destiny features Jim Belushi, Michael Caine, and Linda Hamilton. Our friends at MWGE.org have a great synopsis of this little gem of a movie, calling it an awakening classic. Here’s what they say: "The central problem of the world could be characterized as the belief that things would be better if circumstances in life, or events of the past were different. Larry Burrows believes his life would have turned out better if he had hit a home run instead of striking out during his high school baseball team’s state championship game. A spiritual guide named Mike, (in the form of a bartender) appears to help Larry see the truth beyond his wishful thinking. We shall come to learn to be grateful for everything in life and to trust that indeed all things work together for good and that all events, situations, and circumstances have a singular purpose behind them. We can choose to be happy and grateful regardless of circumstances, for our state of mind is always a decision. As Mike tells Larry, “I make the suggestions; you make the decisions.” So let’s take a journey of self discovery and drink a cocktail of Spilt Milk with Larry... and learn about decision making from the perspective of a Holy Spirit Bartender named Mike.... And perhaps we'll understand why we can’t really know what our lives are for, while we struggle to control the outcomes for what we think is best. Mr. Destiny will bring you closer to acknowledging one real relationship with your own Inner Teacher. And it will help you to see that your mind is dreaming the world and is willing to wake up right now! "13 Praise be to your relationship with Him, and to no other. ²The truth lies here and nowhere else. ³You choose this or nothing." [CE T-16.VII.13:1-3] Holy Spirit, decide for God for us!! May it be so.🙏✨ Brian and Alexandra💞 Please note: Conscious movie watching is not primarily about entertainment. And it has nothing to do with movie critique. It’s about becoming proficient in mind watching and honest feeling. Expect ample time devoted to the teachings of ACIM in conjunction with the movie. We will pause the movie at some points to share ideas and bring light to the topics at hand. Please settle in before hand with minimal distractions. We accept and appreciate donations! This is a free gathering. We use all donations toward our mission of bringing peace. Venmo: Brian Theard @teachonlylove PayPal: miraclesarenatural@gmail.com

A Course In Miracles Movie Gathering with commentary with Brian and Alexandra S7,E25: Star Trek The Next Generation "All Good Things...." ✨Greetings Mighty Companions✨ This is going to be fun. This is a classic. Let’s open to the profound meaning of the resurrection as taught in A Course in Miracles, using the bombshell season 7 finale of Star Trek The Next Generation: "All Good Things…" What might Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise have to teach us about this holy instant and the collapse of linear time? Let’s lay everything on the line and take a leap of faith with Jean-Luc, as he inspires fearlessness and a trusting heart to face directly into an utterly impossible situation and find the answer. In this adventure, we find Captain Jean-Luc aboard the Enterprise bouncing between different times in his life, past, present and even future. And it seems much more real to him than a mere nighttime dream. In the future he’s a retired admiral, who has difficulty making sense of things under the spell of cognitive decline. In the past, we see he’s just become a Federation Captain, and his crew have just met him, although he clearly remembers already having lived that day. As he puts the pieces of the puzzle together, he realizes his predicament has been instigated by a mischievous all powerful being known as “Q”, who has a way of testing the human species by seeing if Jean-Luc and crew can actually learn something of real value… Oh... and as the script of Jean-Luc’s life is being rolled out in non linear fashion, there’s just one other little thing: a spatial anomaly appears in the neutral zone that threatens all human existence. If you are wondering how this movie can be practical for us, remember "that an extreme example is a particularly helpful learning device." [CE T-6.I.3:2] The miracle never fails and trust would settle every problem now. The Course says, "Very simply, the resurrection is the overcoming or surmounting of death. It is a reawakening or a rebirth; a change of mind about the meaning of the world." [CE M-28.1:1-2]. This is the inevitable goal of learning that we all come to accept for ourselves… Yet on the road to acceptance we first develop a sense of trust that grows ever stronger through all our relationships. Mustn’t we learn to see that every relationship, whatever the form, ultimately serves the same purpose of healing our mind? What other purpose would we really want? Developing trust not only precedes awakening but guides every step we take toward recognizing perfect equality with our brothers, and perfect union with Light. The take home value of this class will be seeing through the roles of leader and follower. And recognizing our inherent equality as Sons of God. The Sonship is one. We are all healed together, as we walk with Christ. This is our holy instant of release. In Living Light and Love, Brian and Alexandra💞

This lesson is extremely important. It is our final Giant Stride in the Workbook! I place the future in the hands of God. [CE W-194:1] The benefits of this idea are so liberating that if we catch a glimpse of them, we will do everything we can to use the idea endlessly and thereby cement it in our minds. Jesus says, If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. [CE W-194.6:1] Now are we saved indeed. ²For in God’s hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. ³If we forget, we will be gently reassured. ⁴If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love’s reflection. ⁵And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. ⁶No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend. [CE W-194.9]

✨Greetings Mighty Companions✨ Are you ready to give up the suffering associated with fear based decision making and negative self talk? Then this is your movie. It’s called Violet, and it’s an absolutely brilliant film written and directed by Justine Bateman. This is some of the most insightful directing and practical story telling you'll find in recent years, depicting the healing of our thoughts and emotions in a raw, honest and artistic way. Olivia Munn stars as Violet, our main character who's "a keep it together” kinda gal, and don’t admit what really going on. Her family history is messy, with an angry older brother and a contemptuous aunt, who are more interested in guilt tripping her than anything else. Her childhood is basically a memory of trauma. You wouldn’t know it but she’s barely hanging on inside. We then get a clear window into Violet’s life as she begins going through a major transformation, which involves risking sharing her feelings, making amends, and trusting her friends Red and Lila in a deeper way. She miraculously discovers she can do the opposite of the negative voice in her head. And that’s a game changer. And as she chooses to step out of her internal prison, her outer life takes shape in a surprising new light. We’ve all noticed how fear based thinking adversely affects our outlook and choices if we listen to it. In this psychologically keen exposé we’ll see that learning to choose against negative internal dialogue fosters an incredible sense of relief in our lives. But how do we weed through our traumatic experiences? As Violet will teach us, her path opens up from her desire to be free! When the desire for freedom overpowers our addiction to suffering, then freedom finds us and paves our way forward. In this class we’ll explore the idea from lesson 193: "All things are lessons God would have me learn”. And we’ll get into several juicy ACIM themes. ✨The development of trust and transparency in relationships ✨ ✨Refusing to fuel special relationships in family and at work.✨ ✨Letting go of people pleasing, duty and obligation.✨ ✨Seeing through the ego’s tyranny and wish for death.✨ Wow!! Truth is a frequency of love and forgiveness. Lies are painful to perpetuate. The take home value of this class will inspire you to see through your worst fears. And how would you feel to let that burden go, and step forward on a bright path to freedom? Let’s find out. In freedom and healing Brian and Alexandra💞

A big leaping Giant Stride lesson this week! All things are lessons God would have me learn. [CE W-193:1] We will attempt today to overcome a thousand seeming obstacles to peace in just one day. Let mercy come to you more quickly. Do not try to hold it off another day, another minute, or another instant. Time was made for this. Use it today for what its purpose is. Morning and night devote what time you can to serve its proper aim, and do not let the time be less than meets your deepest need. Let's use time wisely, Alexandra and Brian miraclesarenatural@gmail.com

Our lesson today, I will step back and let Him lead the way… is the prerequisite for miracles. 2 The world is an illusion. ²Those who choose to come to it are seeking for a place where they can be illusions and avoid their own reality. ³Yet when they find their own reality is even here, then they step back and let it lead the way. ⁴What other choice is really theirs to make? [CE W-155.2:1-4] ³You walk this path as others walk, nor do you seem to be distinct from them, although you are indeed. ⁴Thus can you serve them while you serve yourself, and set their footsteps on the way which God has opened up to you, and them through you. [CE W-155.5:3-4] =========== 6 This is the way salvation works. ²As you step back, the Light in you steps forward and encompasses the world. ³It heralds not the end of sin in punishment and death. ⁴In lightness and in laughter is sin gone, because its quaint absurdity is seen. ⁵It is a foolish thought, a silly dream, not frightening—ridiculous perhaps, but who would waste an instant in approach to God Himself for such a senseless whim? 7 Yet you have wasted many, many years on just this foolish thought. [CE W-156.6-7] ============ 6 Fear is always a sign of strain, which arises whenever the will to do conflicts with what you do. ²This situation arises in two major ways: 1) ³You can will to do conflicting things, either simultaneously or successively. ⁴This produces conflicting behavior, which would be tolerable to the self (though not necessarily to others) except for the fact that the part of the will that wants something else is outraged. 2) ⁵You can behave as you think you should, without entirely willing to do so. ⁶This produces consistent behavior, but entails great strain within the self. 7 If you think about it, you will realize that in both cases the will and the behavior are out of accord, resulting in a situation in which you are doing what you do not will. [CE T-2.IX.6-7] ============= Sacrifice: …²Many have chosen to renounce the world while still believing its reality, and they have suffered from a sense of loss and have not been released accordingly. Deprivation: …³Others have chosen nothing but the world, and they have suffered from a sense of loss still deeper, which they have not understood. [CE W-155.4:2-3] ========================= 12 We walk to God. ²Pause and reflect on this. ³Could any way be holier, or more deserving of your effort, of your love, and of your full intent? ⁴What way could give you more than everything, or offer less and still content the holy Son of God? ⁵We walk to God. ⁶The truth that walks before us now is one with Him, and leads us to where He has always been. ⁷What way but this could be a path that we would choose instead? [CE W-155.12] =========== “Who walks with me?” ²This question should be asked a thousand times a day, till certainty has ended doubting and established peace. L. 156

Giant Strides, Week 8 of 11, ACIM Lesson 135, If I defend myself I am attacked, 2/24/24 Confusion of mind with the body results in a sense of vulnerability and weakness. 8 The body is in need of no defense. [CE W-135.8:1] 9 The “self” that needs protection is not real. [CE W-135.9:1] 10 Defend the body and you have attacked your mind. ²For you have seen in it the faults, the weaknesses, the limits, and the lacks from which you think the body must be saved. ³You will not see the mind as separate from bodily conditions. ⁴And you will impose upon the body all the pain that comes from the conception of the mind as limited and fragile, and apart from other minds and separate from its Source. [CE W-135.10] 11 These are the thoughts in need of healing, and the body will respond with health when they have been corrected and replaced with truth. ²This is the body’s only real defense. [CE W-135.11:1-2] 2 A healed mind does not plan. ²It carries out the plans which it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own. [CE W-135.12:1-2] 13 A healed mind is relieved from the belief that it must plan, although it cannot know the outcome that is best, the means by which it is achieved, or how to recognize the problem that the plan is made to solve. ²It must misuse the body in its plans until it recognizes this is so. ³But when it has accepted this as true, then is it healed, and lets the body go. [CE W-135.13]

Giant stride Lesson 130: It is impossible to see two worlds. Perception is consistent with my desire. 2 Yet who can really hate and love at once? ²Who can desire what he does not want to have reality? ³And who can choose to see a world of which he is afraid? ⁴Fear must make blind, for this its weapon is: that which you fear to see you cannot see. ⁵Love and perception thus go hand in hand, but fear obscures in darkness what is there. [CE W-130.2] ³The separated mind cannot maintain the separation except by dissociating. [CE T-4.VIII.13:3] 1. We dissociated from Love of God choosing the world time instead. 2.We dissociated from the intensity of our wish for separation (think hatred and terror) in order to make separation seem tolerable. The ego tries to sell the idea that if you follow it, you can minimize fear and maximize love within a world of separation. It wants you to can think you can adjust to separation and and be happy. ²Minimizing fear, but not its undoing, is the ego’s constant effort, and is indeed a skill at which it is very ingenious. ³How can it preach separation without upholding it through fear, and would you listen if you recognized that this is what it is doing? [CE T-11.V.9:2-3] 11 Accept a little part of hell as real, and you have damned your eyes and cursed your sight, and what you will behold is hell indeed. [CE W-130.11:1] Interested in studying with us? Email Alexandra & Brian at miraclesarenatural@gmail.com

Our ACIM Movie Gathering for February is definitely an adventure! It’s also an unconventional love story filled with insight that’ll have you captivated and laughing. Let’s take a journey to the far reaches of Earth with Hector, and see how he discovers happiness. He’s driven, and willing to find the answer! This is an excellent film to dive into the teachings of ACIM and let your heart be opened wide. Hector (Simon Pegg) has his life put together in the most organized kind of way. But in fact he’s down right frustrated and needs help. He's a smart, successful psychiatrist in England, in a “perfect” relationship with a successful woman named Clara (Rosamund Pike). Except there’s just one thing… He’s not really happy at all!! He’s dissatisfied in his relationship. And he has unfinished business with a girlfriend from grad school. Even though his clients are lining up to see him, he’s doesn’t know what healing their problems would entail in truth. In a bold move, he decides to take a traveling sabbatical, to break out of his self made prison and open up to more spontaneity. When we are cut off from emotional responsibility, we feel all our relationships suffer. Hector is what the Course refers to as an “unhealed healer”. He’s hiding behind his role. Everyone knows what it’s like to feel like a fraud at one time or other, because that’s exactly what the ego is… a complete and utter fraud. At some point, our own hypocrisy starts to stink so bad, that we can no longer take it. This is a big blessing, and a turning point, helping us to take off our mask and be authentic. When we sincerely ask for happiness in our lives, we don’t suspect that laying aside the image of ourself could be relieving and uplifting. To the ego that sounds like a very bad idea. But the Spirit can use every situation to convince us that when we let go of our identity with the roles, they can be used in a miraculous way. That way is joyful, and is our inheritance; our destiny in each and every circumstance. Are we willing to give up control, and stop identifying as the roles we play? We have nothing to lose, except our suffering. The take home value of this class will be a tender open heart, and encouragement to end the compromises that seem to block us from genuine aliveness. Buckle up friends, this is gonna be fun! ✨✨✨⭐️✨✨✨ Quotes from 📘ACIM 📘 that came in during the movie and in our discussion time: 📘The Holy Spirit, seeing where you are but knowing you are elsewhere, begins His lesson in simplicity with the fundamental teaching that truth is true. ²This is the hardest lesson you will ever learn, and in the end the only one. ³Simplicity is very difficult for twisted minds. ⁴Consider all the distortions you have made of nothing; all the strange forms and feelings, and actions and reactions, that you have woven out of it. ⁵Nothing is so alien to you as the simple truth, and nothing are you less inclined to listen to. ⁶The contrast between what is true and what is not is perfectly apparent, yet you do not see it. ⁷The simple and the obvious are not apparent to those who would make palaces and royal robes of nothing, believing they are kings with golden crowns because of them. [CE T-14.II.3] https://acimce.app/:T-14.II.3 📘A miracle is never lost. ²It touches many people you may not even know, and sometimes produces undreamed-of changes in forces of which you are not even aware. [CE T-1.46.1] https://acimce.app/:T-1.46.1 📘The miracle, as an expression of true human charity, can only shorten it at best. ³It must be understood, however, that whenever you offer a miracle to another, you are shortening the suffering of both. ⁴This introduces a correction into the record, which corrects retroactively as well as progressively. [CE T-2.VIII.12:2-4] https://acimce.app/:T-2.VIII.12:2-4 Thank you for supporting these gatherings and our shared mission to live in peace and, naturally, share the peace. 🕊️🕊️🕊️ 😍Ways to donate: Venmo: Brian Theard @teachonlylove PayPal: miraclesarenatural@gmail.com (use “send to friend” method to avoid fees, this requires using a checking account not credit card) This is Brian Theard’s personal pay pal account. Zelle: Brian Theard, lifecaretherapy@gmail.com, 415.717.5065. Alexandra and Brian Theard 2305 Ashland St #104-209 Ashland, OR 97520 💖💚💖

Giant Strides, Week 6 of 11, Lesson 127, There is no love but God's... join us for this giant stride! Keynote, commentary, and reading, and exercise 127. There is no love but God’s. (Our largest stride of Giant strides) 6 Today we practice making free our minds 1.. of all the laws we think we must obey, 2.. of all the limits under which we live 3.. and all the changes which we think are part of human destiny. ²Today we take the largest single step this course requests in our advance towards its established goal. [CE W-127.6:2] What is our established Goal? Knowledge-Perception ⁶The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught.⁷It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance. [CE In.1:6-7] Direct Knowledge/Grace can’t be learned True Perception can be learned. Asking and opening to Grace can be learned. Seeing love reflected in perception (miracles), can be learned by forgiving all our attack thoughts. Teach only love for that is what you are. You can practice the mechanics of the holy instant, and will learn much from doing so. ⁶But its shining and glittering brilliance, which will literally blind you to this world by its own vision, you cannot supply. ⁷You do not understand the light by which you see. ⁸And yet here it is, all in this instant, complete, accomplished, and given wholly. [CE T-15.II.9:4-8] 🌟

🌟Theme🌟 A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive. ⁴For giving has become a source of fear, and so you would avoid the only means by which you can receive. (God’s joy and peace are mine) [CE W-105.3:3-4] 🌟108. To give and to receive are one in truth. "True light which makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. ²It is a state of mind which has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. ³And thus what is the same is seen as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not there. 3 This is the light which shows no opposites, and vision, being healed, has power to heal."[CE W-108.2-3] 🌟(A unified state of mind is truly giving because everyone is included in its love. ) 🌟Let’s get clear about irreconcilable opposites… The Holy Spirit contrasts opposites so as to make the choice between them obvious. Example: "The fact that truth and illusion cannot be reconciled, no matter how you try, what means you use, and where you see the problem, must be accepted if you would be saved." [CE W-96.2:1] 🌟Let’s get clear about opposites that aren’t really opposite…. The ego does not understand how to teach through genuine contrast and makes the mistake of seeing differences where there is none. Example: 108. To give and to receive are one in truth. "Vision depends upon today’s idea. ²The light is in it, for it reconciles all seeming opposites." [CE [W-108:1]...

Week 4, Giant Strides Lesson 94,110,162,237,260 I am as God Created me… ...a giant stride toward your release, and a milestone in learning the thought system which this course sets forth. [CE W-94.7:2] https://acimce.app/:W-94.7:2 In this one thought is all the past undone; ²the present saved to quietly extend into a timeless future. ³If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, ⁴no split between your mind and other minds, ⁵and only unity within your own.....5 The healing power of today’s idea is limitless. [CE W-110.4-5] 2 Here is the Word by which the Son became his Father’s happiness, His love, and His completion. ²Here creation is proclaimed, and honored as it is. ³There is no dream these words will not dispel, no thought of sin and no illusion that the dream contains that will not fade away before their might. ⁴They are the trumpet of awakening that sounds around the world. ⁵The dead awake in answer to its call. ⁶And those who live and hear this sound will never look on death. [CE W-162.2] https://acimce.app/:W-162.2

²God gives me only happiness. (major premise) ³He has given my function to me. (minor premise) ⁴Therefore my function must be happiness. (conclusion) [CE W-66.5:2-4] ⁴You will listen to madness or hear the truth. ⁵Try to make this choice as you think about the premises on which our conclusion rests. ⁶We can share in this conclusion, but in no other. ⁷For God Himself shares it with us. 11 Today’s idea is another giant stride in the perception of the same as the same, and the different as different. ²On one side stand all illusions. ³All truth stands on the other. ⁴Let us try today to realize that only the truth is true. [CE W-66.10-11] https://acimce.app/:W-66.10-11

Join Brian & Alexandra in this A COURSE IN MIRACLES movie gathering ✨🎥✨ We’ll be watching: ✨Midnight in Paris✨. Format: 4:30-4:35: Logistical announcements, 4:35-7:25: Keynote setup, featured movie with ACIM commentary and teachings. 7:25- 8:15pm: Group discussion, official end of gathering. Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), is a Hollywood screenwriter turned novelist. He and his fiancé Inez (Rachel McAdams) are in Paris on a vacation with her parents. None of them are really getting along well. What could possibly go wrong, when Inez runs into her college crush, while Gil steps into an antique Peugeot precisely at midnight, opening up a time portal to the 1920’s scene in Paris? What might Gil learn about himself and his relationship, from the famous artists and writers of that time? And what might ACIM teach us on this adventure with Gil? What makes this a delightful teaching movie is that we'll open with Gil to asking for guidance and following the heart, instead of compromising our lives according to what we think is best for us. Isn’t it typical ego thinking, to confuse following our heart with some form of defeating compromise? Thus in this tantalizing tale, we'll explore not selling out for what we think we should do, and open with Gil, to step toward what inspires us instead. But like Gil, inspiration for anyone of us means letting the past go, including our plans for how we insist our future should go. Isn’t that the key to what makes our relationships satisfying and intimate? Our “safe" ideas about the future are bound by fear, until we choose to follow our intuition and let a new pathway open before us. Our launching point for this class is wonderfully expressed in this quote from ACIM: "There is no problem in any situation that faith will not solve. ²There is no shift in any aspect of the problem but will make solution impossible…. Is it not possible that all your problems have been solved, but you have removed yourself from the solution?" [CE T-17.VII.4] The take home value of our class will be a budding recognition that: God would not have put the remedy for sickness where it cannot help. That is the way your mind has worked, but hardly His. He wants you to be healed, so He has kept the source of healing where the need for healing lies. [CE W-70.4:1-3] Let’s open our minds to the remedy and stop trying to escape from our difficulties! What a blessed way to take another giant stride together. May we all blossom into whole mind and shine like the sun, Brian & Alexandra✨💞✨🙏 Please note: Conscious movie watching is not primarily about entertainment. And it has nothing to do with movie critique. It’s about becoming proficient in mind watching and honest feeling. Expect ample time devoted to the teachings of ACIM in conjunction with the movie. We will pause the movie at some points to share ideas and bring light to the topics at hand. Please settle in before hand with minimal distractions. We accept and appreciate donations if you feel inspired! This is a free gathering. We use all donations toward our mission of bringing peace. Venmo: Brian Theard @teachonlylove PayPal: miraclesarenatural@gmail.com