After a somewhat heated political debate with a brother of mine, we ended it, agreeing to disagree.But it left me feeling anxious and restless.I grabbed a cup of tea on the following cold and rainy day and sat to write.I asked Spirit first….“How do I handle conflict?” I turned my eyes to the window where the rain was spitting on the glass and the trees on the river were dancing in the power of the wind.“Even in a storm, the wind, the rain, the trees have no conflict,” I thought in silence.“Even if they could argue there is not another point of view to ponder, is there?”
My asking was answered by a Voice in the stillness of my mind.
“They could see and use the difference between them, if they wanted.But they remain silent, for they know that true Power has no opposing argument or force. They know their differences are not power but only a wish for power.”
But what do you mean that power has no opposite?Power opposes all other forces.Its opposite would be called ‘weak’ would it not?
“How could power have an opposite? Weakness is the absence of power, not its opposite. Power has no opposite just as the Creator’s Power, the Spirit you hear, has no opposite. There are however, many who think they can oppose Spirit and because of this, find themselves in daily conflict.If you ask to hear Spirit in each circumstance you are in, you will have none.”
So, the trees and the rain, the wind ….don’t conflict because they know they cannot win?
“If they could speak, they would tell you there is no such thing as ‘winning.’You have placed value on an imaginary power you call ‘winning’ to make you feel you are the master of your world and of your brother. If they could speak, the trees, the rain and the wind would tell you that everything in Power’s grasp is equal in what it offers, equal in strength and equal in purpose. Wisdom, an insight that is found when you give up your need for power, would use this equality to sustain a state of Peace.”
But what exactly do you mean by saying that ‘winning’ is an imaginary power?Don’t we all exceed at different things and thereby win at doing those?
“No more than the rain has won power over the wind, or the tree wins over the earth.The rain falls when the clouds have need of emptying themselves. The wind comes to help dry the rain and lift it back up when the clouds see need to shade the earth. The trees drink the rain when their roots grow dry and thirsty and the Sun dries the earth when the rain has lingered. Soon, the wind and the rain and the earth all have need for the cycle to begin once more, to sustain life ~ Life that begins with the Sun and has no end. As you can surely see, the wind, the rain, the earth are not the opposite of the Sun’s Power but only extend its Purpose ~ the movement of Life. So, ask yourself, what is there to argue among your selves if you, just like all the elements of life, have the same purpose of extending the power of a mutual Source?”
“So, what I think you are saying is that all that we find to argue about is an attempt to win, but there is no winning when we understand our equality? Just as the wind and rain need one another equally, yet have no power without the Sun?”
“There is only one Power.It is yours only when you extend it.”
So, we are equal in all ways in this Power? It does not depend upon our ‘goodness’ or our ‘rightness?”
“The rain falls on everyone and everything, because there is nothing and no one that is not deserving of it!And what you call conflict, such as the debates and the different philosophical and political views on how to heal the world, are not a representation of real Power or Truth.ONLY Truth can heal this world because only truth is right and good! There is nothing opposite to Truth ~ so how could there ever be conflict about it? Your joining with your brother in the purpose of Peace is the extending of the only Power there is!It works like the cycle of dependence seen in the rain and wind and earth, using the power of the Sun.The wind’s power would be wasted without the earth to feel it! The rain would have no purpose but for the trees to drink it up.The trees, no dancing branches without the wind.Their roots planted firmly would wither and die with no Sun to warm the earth. As the branches reach for the Light, reach for me and you will find you have abundance of Joy to extend for all of Eternity, whether your Being is in a body, the wind, the rain or the trees.”
I felt a weight lifted off my heart, feeling a sense of peace that the argument we had was not harmful; it was simply without meaning.There is no opposite to Power, so why try to find it elsewhere? I thought to myself, “Spirit, You always bring an abundance of Love and Gratitude to my heart. I can see more clearly now, that the thought that I could win or he could win, really is a futile wish that power could be divided into opposing camps, sometimes belonging to me, and sometimes to my brother. It is the same as wishing that the wind could be the rain, the trees could halt the wind, and the earth could take the place of the Sun. I am quite content now to be a part of the Sun if you remain the Light by which I understand all things.
“Light, like Power, has no opposite. So, when you do choose to see, it is only on account of the Light. Rejoice and join with each other in this Light and you will find that Peace is Eternally Yours. How loved you are!For you are My Child around which all Life revolves!”
This is a story of a child, with ancient knowledge and buried truth.That child is you.And you must only listen with your heart to hear the child’s story to remember who you are ~
Once upon a time, a little boy played in a sandbox, making castles, imagining lives that live in them, and biding his time in the innocence of imagination; an imagination granted by a Loving Father.
The Father, being Goodness Himself, could only give what is Good to his Blessed son so the child, with an endlessly delightful imagination, created only lovely, Good things.
The castles were tall and the Princesses, beautiful.The Prince, charming and heroic, and the land all around them, majestic.Hills met valleys where streams were born, while horses danced upon the slopes as the Blessed Son of the Perfect Mind, imagined.
The son, in comfortable bliss nodded off one day, and kept imagining, just as he did while awake, but with his eyes closed.
In his deepest and darkened sleep he imagined something could destroy his precious ability to create all Good things. This thing had no name, and it could not ‘do’ anything, but it could stop him from doing all things Good.
In this dream, at the break of dawn, the son came as always to sit upon the edge of his sandbox, but all the lovely thoughts and all the lovely events that he would imagine to happen, no longer streamed from his happy mind.The ‘thing’ had blocked his joy, because it had blocked his ability to remember the Loving Mind His Father gave to him!
And so, the Blessed Son sat, head in hands, and cried.He had never cried!And the tears that streamed fell into the sand, making a river.Staring down at the river through reddened eyes, he was overcome with the feeling of loss, not being able to recall what he usually did in this sandbox that gave him such Joy! This c aused him to cry more, and crying more tears, the rivers overflowed.
He watched as the raging river eroded the little village and all its pretty things came tumbling down.All the people he made, ran in fear. But, upon seeing this, the blessed, sleeping child of God yelled, ’Aha!My tears can change things!That’s what I do! I make things happen!I wonder if I can do it with myhands and my thoughts?”So, he began to look for things to do and yet his beautiful mind which used to create with his Father,Beautiful Things and Wonderful Events, could think them nor Create them, anymore.And the vague thought of once being able to, dwindled to a tiny Spark of Light in his Mind.
He only knew by evidence of the river, that he could make things with his body.And so, he began to make another village, next to this river.
Yet without his memory of only Good, he was left with only lonely thoughts, and felt needy and angry in much that he did.Because of this, the village had lonely people in it, afraid, with nothing to do, but be fearful that they too could be swept away by the sands, or the tears, or the winds that blew.
Soon, the Blessed Son decided his purpose must be just to survive every day, against this loneliness, and all other obstacles he imagined.And so, he imagined himself the King of his village where he would always win and be the hero and never fear.This, he thought, would give him Joy.
In his imaginary land, he fought others for survival of his Kingdom-hood, sometimes killing them.He allowed some of the people entrance to the land, and kept others out.He scorned people for not being like him, for he feared what was unfamiliar in this land he made.
All in all, the land he made was not Good, for the thing had blocked all memory of his ability to Create a land, Fair and Joyous to all.Feeling only lack and fear, all things were made to defend and secure.The thing feared the Blessed Son would remember his Powerful Kingdom as Co-Creator with the Father and ban him from existence!So he vowed always to keep the son in the dark, asleep.
The child did not know that in this land, made with eyes closed, the things he could do that were not Beautiful and Good, were really nothing at all
Nonetheless, the imaginary others had named those things which were not Beautiful and Good, ‘sin’ and devised ways to repent from it, not remembering that they could easily create Love, being the Creation of Love and never look upon, nor fear sin again!
These sins they believed in, made no impression upon the Father who could only see Perfection.These impressions of sin were upon the sand, swept easily away by the Breath of just One who would know of their illusive nature.
Instead, these things and thoughts called sin, such as greed and hatred, violence and indifference were used by the people in the land of castles and Princes, as a way to feel more powerful.Oftentimes, absence of sinful deeds seemed to give a person more power as well.Some wielded their sinless view of themselvesas an iron sword against the fallen, sinning people.
Where before, streaming Thoughts of Eternal Life fed the child’s land, the rivers were now made of tears and did not supply Joy nor Peace.Sin was their currency which they exchanged and counted, and sacrifice, their dues for a freedom they never attained.
All these things were nothingbut the way to make impenetrable, the veil that kept Awareness of Love at bay.If only the Blessed Child could remember and lift that veil of darkness!
In his nightmare, feeling beyond despair at a lonely life, he began crying again and this time, on his knees, with his little head in his tiny hands; ”I know there was something more to my life, once!Could something be blocking my awareness of who I am?Has it risen up to beat the Maker of me?This would mean the world I made of sin, is more powerful than my Maker’s world!Does it mean that I have chosen to remain in darkness forever, with nothing but this sand that runs through my hands? My world is able to be blown away by the fearful winds!If this is ‘Free Will’ I do not want it!’ he screamed.
A tiny rustling of truth whispered in his mind;
“There is only one world. And there could be no Will, but God’s. The only real choice you have, Blessed Child, is to awaken from your dream of darkness and remember, your Will is joined with His!”
Hearing distant thoughts racing through His dreaming child’s mind, God walked down from a cloud on a dark and rainy day and saw His Son beneath the blackened sky, crying at the edge of the sand box, on his knees.
All the lovely little people and castles were crushed.When the Father walked from the cloud, He lifted the heavy darkness that had kept the Golden Rays of Creating from His child’s memory.
When He did this, the Blessed Son heard His Father speak as He said, “Son!Why do you weep?”
One peek up through the wet eyes of the child at his Father and he leapt up!
‘My Father~ I remember!I remember Love!We are Love!We create more of it, and more of it, forever! That is what I do!
The Blessed Son remembered all there was to remember and all there was to do;Create Love with Love!
In such delight, with his innocent eyes opened wide, he began again making even more extraordinary castles, with intricate trim of gold and seas that flowed to rivers and trees that gave shelter to the kind and lovely people that sang and danced upon the Land of the Blessed Child, in the Happy Dream of God's Mind.
And so, you see, the moral of my story….
With our eyes closed in the world of the ego’s dream we can see only darkness; and the ‘thing’ that blocks our Awareness, is really no-thing at all!
When we open our eyes, we recall our Purpose here; to Create Love with our Father.Here, the world we see is Blessed by Him, and suffers no sin. For who could be the witness to sin if we are all co-creators with Love Itself? What could be feared, and who would fear it?
Blessed Child, born of a Perfect Mind..... Remember Love ~and it will be your only Purpose.
God Doesn't See Us
A couple, headed to their favorite pond to go fishing on a warm spring day,feeling so inspired by the beauty of the day,took up a conversation about God.
The woman began…
“It’s not that I don’t believe in God.It’s that I don’t think God believes in us.”
“How could God not believe in us? If you admit there is a God, you are agreeing that God made us. Right?”Said the man to his dear lover.
“Let me rephrase that then. I don’t believe that God is aware of us.” She smiled promptly at him.
“So you don’t believe that the very one who made us, sees us?”
“No I don’t." “I am totally at a loss for words. I mean, you, of all people…. who pray, meditate, do yoga, write about Jesus and Buddha and God are telling me now that you don’t believe He knows we exist.”
"That’s right.And I have good reason.”
“How about you give me one!”
“Because God would not make anything that could make a mistake, and we are mistaken.”
“It’s called ‘free will’….haven’t you ever heard of that, Ms. Spirituality?”
“Of course, and I don’t believe for one second that we have a will that can do anything to beat God’s will.” “So you do believe in God and that He has a Will?”
“I told you I didn’t have a problem with God.It’s with us where the problem lies.”
”Yes, I remember.So, you don’t think we have free will?”
“To answer that, can I ask you a question?”
“Go for it.”
“Is God omni prescient...is He all knowing?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, we agree so far.So, if we have free will and God is all knowing then God made us, fully knowing we would choose not to believe in Him, right?
“Well, I suppose .”
Smiling, lovingly, she said, “Well, we can’t have an ‘I suppose’ in this discussion.I mean, if God knows ALL, that means ALL, not some of it being unknown by God, right?”
“Okay. I will agree to that.”
“Okay, so, if our free will gives us a choice to believe or not in God, then He made us fully knowing we were going to go to Hell, or if you don’t call it Hell, some form of existence or non existence, apart from God. So, in your reasoning, God made us for the sole purpose of going to Hell or being thrown into oblivion without Him.”
“Hmmm. Well, let’s say, for the sake of argument, you’re on the right track.So, what do you think is the truth then?I mean, if God doesn’t know about us, who are we?”
“We are a mistake.”
”But a mistake is impossible….didn’t you just tell me that?”
“Exactly!It is impossible.So, we don’t exist…at least not as a mistake.’
“But we do exist. I see you, you see me.Where else can we be, but here?”
“In an idea. But your ‘body’ which is ‘here’ is an error in an idea.”
“Whose idea?”
“The first ‘thought’ of God. Let’s call God’s thought, His Son.So, God’s son had an idea! And it was to be separate from God.”
“So, then we are a body?" “That’s not what I said, exactly.I said he just thought it, but it doesn’t make us become a body in God’s Reality.To do that, his very son would have to leave His Mind and God would never let that happen, so it didn’t happen!It can’t happen any more than if you were to dream of being in Egypt and wake up to find your body is sitting at the foot of the pyramids.”
“But where is this mind that dreams apart from God, if not in our brain?And where are we, if not in a body?”
“Where ever the Thought in Spirit, that makes ‘awareness’~that is where we truly are. But, in the meanwhile, we are what we are aware of, sort of like how it is when we dream. Still, we are always only what we truly are, in God’s Mind, and can never be anything but part of God.So, that’s why God can’t see us.He could never see what He is as something separate from Himself.”
“So, now you are saying we are God by saying God can’t see us separately.I’ve heard it all!”
“Yes, in a way, we are.We are part of God, but not the other way around. He is not ‘in’ us, as in our ‘body’ or ‘brain’ because those things are not part of God and never can be!But who we truly are, is part of God, always.”
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, my dear, what do you suppose we are? ….or should I ask, where the hell are we?”
“Don’t bother asking.Ask instead, where are we going!" “Ok, where are we going?”
“Hopefully, Home, and into a place where we remember who we are and find that God didn’t notice we went missing!”
“So, let me get this straight. You are saying that the ‘awareness’ that is you and me, not our a body…..is really already with God since we can’t have a will stronger than God’s, right?
“Yes, so far, so good.”
“And the goal, or ‘where we are going,’ I presume, is to become aware of this relationship again, right?”
“Even better….maybe it is to remember but remain aware of all things.Perhaps we can remain aware of our bodies, of the earth, of all that is our dream, and yet know it is ‘but a dream’ like the song says and be wonderfully joyful and without a worry!” And so she sang,
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily….life is but a dream.”
“So, let me get this straight before we start rowing here! We think we are here on earth, and have to earn our way to Heaven.Then, we realize that we aren’t really here in the first place, but only think we are, and have pretty much doomed ourselves to a state of ‘hell’ by thinking we could be separate from God.Then, we realize there could be no hell if there is a God, so we must be safe and sound with Him, after all!So, whatever and where ever we are, as long as we know this, we can enjoy our lives in a body ~ and perhaps one day, find Heaven?Hmmm… I am beginning to see a benefit to your thoughts on this; life is good no matter what!.”
”But do you agree with them?”
“Your ideas make more sense than any other ideas I have heard. But what is the point?”
“The point is, we are what we are looking for! So, we are one with God’s Will, not separate from it. That means we can create as God creates.’
“You lost me there.I can’t even get through the day without a small wish for this or that, but it doesn’t just appear for me.I am sure we can’t create.”
“God doesn’t create 'things!' He’s a Spirit and so are you!" “So, what does He create?”
“If God is Spirit, we are Spirit.Material things are not of Spirit.So, we have to ask each other, what intangible ’thing’has power in our life, if anything?
“Love.”
“Yes! I agree.God is Love, right? Love must be what He creates with.He creates goodness and Light from this Love.”
“So, ….what can we do with this creative ability that we have decided must be Love.I still can’t create, can I?”
"Perhaps you can, but do not know it. If we are Spirit, then all we create would not be tangible.It would be a ‘feeling’ or an experience of ‘knowing.’You know what I mean?”
“Well, I’ve experienced Love and knowing, I think.But it fades....just as do the tangibles.”
“Yes, but only because we reach for those tangibles instead of the Love ~ and so the Love fades into the background. We value the tangibles more, and so, that is what we see around us; just like in a dream, we see what we are thinking of, and it is as real as we think it!”
“But I thought you said we couldn’t create things.”
“We don’t! We make concrete things.”
“What’s the difference?”
“There is a difference.Making things fills a need we have.We have ’made’ this world and everything in it, by our very need for things.But Creation extends what is.And to God, all that is, is Love.
“So, man makes, Spirit Creates.Is that what you are contending?”
“Yes and not only that. We then project our own meaning onto these things! Take money for instance.It is totally meaningless, and yet it rules the world.It’s a huge illusion of meaning where there is none!”
“Yes, I see your point there.And we fear being without it more than being without love in most cases!”
“Yes, that is true!But even those of us who think we can ‘live on love alone’ must not believe it, entirely.So with that doubt in hand,we go immediately back into the world of things…wanting them, using them, needing them to survive, and living to attain them!But think on it ~ if we are Spirit, in truth, then we don’t have to live this way but only think we do.This world we made could be transformed by this ability to create with Love and value it above all else.”
“But all of us, I’m sure, have known Love.So, why hasn’t this happened yet?If it is so powerful, where is its power?"
“It’s sleeping in the mind of God’s Son! That’s where!If we would all value it more than the things, more than the world of darkness….we’d see a different world.”
"Why do you say a world of darkness? It’s not all darkness.”
“The point is, the world we see is not all goodness!And God had nothing to do with it if it is not all goodness, do you see?Just like God cannot be All Knowing if you can choose to truly be apart from His Mind, neither can He be part of a world that has any bad in it.This means we made it up, based on what we wanted.If we all want only Love, like our Creator does, then ‘peace on earth and goodwill toward men’ wouldn’t just be a Christmas carol.There could be no darkness if we only believed in God’s will and that is because there would be no one left to ‘make’ a world of things if no one believed in it above and beyond God’s World. Our Will would be one with our Creator again, and who would want this world instead?”
“Well, at first I thought you were nuts, only now to wonder if the rest of the world is nuts.”
“Don’t doubt it; it is!Waking up, is to waken to the power of love and to see so clearly, the false reality of the world we have made!The sleeping son has made a meaningless world!”
“So, what do you propose we do?”
“I think we need to stop doing what we are doing. We do nothing but agree to stop putting faith in a world that does not put love first.”
“And just how do we do that, little Miss Know-it-all Optimist?"
“Let’s take an example of love being put second to something….like an argument with each other.If we wanted to put love first, we’d agree to disagree, without arguing, right?We’d forgive each other the point, and the need to make the point. We’d turn the other cheek.We just put love first and put no belief or trust in the world of competition or winning,anger, or attack!”
“You are sort of simplifying things...don't ya think?”
"Well….isn’t it about time we listen to the greatest minds of all time, whose message was very simple, such as the ones you mentioned earlier!? Why don’t we DO what they say and see if it works in every aspect of life?”
"So, you are saying forgiving others will lead us to God’s world and we will let go of this false one?”
“I’m saying if everyone did this, who wouldbe left to ‘forgive’?And if there is no one left to forgive, the world is forgiven….and POOF ~ it’s gone.And we are Home once more.”
“You know there will be a lot of resistance to these ideas!After all, evidently no one listened to Jesus and yet a whole religion was made out of him!Where and how do you propose we start helping others to see this?”
"We can start anywhere, any time. Come, let’s go fishing, and talk some more! I’m hungry, and if it is true we can live onlove, then let’s let love find us a fish or two!”
They turned from the walkway and onto the well worn dirt path that led to the river.They knew their boat would be there as it always was, tied to the big oak tree but this time, someone else was sitting in it, out fairly far into the water.As they got closer they could see a figure of man in their boat, who had begun to row back to shore upon seeing them.
The woman turned to her partner; “It seems we have our chance to begin forgiving, dear!”
The man got out of the boat, as he reached the shore they began to walk toward him; he didn’t seem the least bit concerned; rather, he seemed eager to speak to them.He carried a net with several fish in it.
As they drew nearer, they were struck by his black, shoulder length hair and his smiling eyes.Prepared to speak kindly to him about using their boat, they found they could not speak at all as the man dressed in worn linens reached both arms outward and said,
‘Follow me, and I will make fishers of men out of you.”
Jesus, 101
He disagreed with war,
Teaching peace instead.
He left behind his family
In every pasture, laid his bed.
He didn’t judge by wrong or right,
But spoke most often, of our Light.
He showed acceptance to all he met
But called a spade a spade ~
‘Hypocrites and liars,’ said he
The Priests and Pharisees made.
He said, best not to pray in public,
It is our Thoughts with God that are Real,
To never doubt the Love within,
However lost we feel.
He said he was not of this world,
But in it, he would remain,
For the elders would soon bury
The Truth he came to say.
His words point to the Truth
That you are the Light, not the dark,
That he is the one who figured it out,
And was killed to destroy the Spark.
But the Spark is alive and well!
And speaks to you from this page ~
There is no Light outside of you,
And the world is but a stage.
Take heed from his teaching,
That you are the Living One,
By his living through you,
The Comforter, you become.
Diane L. Perretto
A lonely man, his empty childhood church, a crucifix on the wall and a conversation with Jesus.... make for an interesting journey one winter day....
Click on link below to read my short story "Jesus 101....a conversation with Jesus."
I hope you enjoy my stories, and share them with others. Often times we are comforted by clarity, and the purpose of my writing is to help do just that. Without clairty, Vision is not possible.
