The "Miracles" Happening During "A Course in Miracles" - First Quarter
For the past several years, my strongest desire has been to "router-root" out my life. An entire "life transformation." Not just a cosmetics or wardrobe makeover. Not a new job or new relationship. My core desire has been an entire, from-the-inside out transformation.
Everything that I've done over the past several years has been part of the same transformational process.
This has been nonlinear. Highly nonlinear. I can't write out some sort of "strategic plan." This transformation-from-within has been coming about very organically, and mostly - what I'm doing is "listening in." I try to clear the superficial "crud" from the surface of my mind, and let whatever is burbling up come through.
Some might call this meditation.
I call it "cleaning house" - which occurs on more levels than one.
The biggest overt step that I've taken has been to start A Course in Miracles . I began several months ago, and yes - the "miracles" have been happening.
There are "daily exercises" associated with A Course in Miracles. (Many people simply refer to this as ACIM.) Right now, I'm on "Workbook Lesson" Number 105 ("God's Peace and Joy are Mine.") This means that I've been at this - officially - for a little over a quarter of a year.
What "miracles," you might ask?
It's different for every person.
My friend Artie has dealt with three major challenges in terms of people who've been very special in his life. Although he already had a great deal of spiritual maturity and insight before he began the Course, he and I both agree that there is no way that he could have handled this past year had he not been doing ACIM.
Artie reports that someone in his ACIM group has had a very challenging high-level executive job, with a major company. This man's bosses recently gave him an additional task - a very complex and difficult one. He credits ACIM with being able to get these very difficult work-related challenges back on track. He still doesn't leave the office "on time," but even with all that's going on, he leaves the office earlier than before.
Over the past three months, I've observed the following:
- Month 1: I had a few days in which my energy level was sufficient to let me "surge" a couple of times. For example, I usually get up very early. (4:30 AM is my norm.) This means that if I'm to have any functionality in the evening at all, I need a nap in the late afternoon. But a few times, I had to "push." I'd start at 4:30, and work straight through, and then have a meeting or some commitment in the evening. I managed to do the meetings - and be awake, alert, and functional. (That's the real miracle.) This happened only a couple of times - but enough for me to notice.
- Month 2: Somehow, I seemed to be able to "get things done" with less mental "churn" getting in the way. You know how our minds kick up "stuff" when we have to do a task that we don't particularly like? Well, I found that I was able to simply "get to things" a bit more directly. This included the things that I did't like. (This was in January, and I got a whole lot of drudgery background work done for marketing. And as a result, sales, bloghits, and a number of other measures went up significantly.)
- Month 3: The real transformation started. I had an overwhelming desire to "clean house." And yes, I'd been working on getting "the house" back to rights for almost a year. (Since a few months before publishing Unveiling.) Also, for many of us, the "spring cleaning" surge starts around February. But this year, mine was accompanied by an "inner storm." My body needed to move; to do gross motor tasks that involved bending, lifting, moving heavy things, etc. And I did a whole lot of that. As a result, the house is now "officially" clean. (There are still isolated pockets of resistance, but will get to them over time.) This includes a great deal of paperwork clean-up as well, and that's the real "paper tiger."
Now I'm in Month 4. The "miracle" that's underway? All my life what I've really wanted to do has been to create art. And instead, I've pushed myself into various intellectual and corporate roles. Right now, though, I'm cleaning and reorganizing my art room. I'm desiging a clothing collection on the theme of "orchids." I've actually DONE some sketches (in the last month) - more than I've done in years.
More "reports from the front lines" to come. Especially - any word of progress on my "Orchids: Tame and Wild" collection!
