Yesterday my heart melted so much, that the overflow spilled from my eyes, as warm salty tears. You know that I personally believe that we all are equal parts of a loving Spiritual mind, created by a Beloved Creator, who created us that way. The outside packaging in the 3-D world differs. We choose to experiment with this world as a dream (or possibly a nightmare) but we will wake up. We can do no real harm. We are Love.

 

I teach pre-school for Special Education students. At the pre-school level the handicaps are all mixed up together. Kids learn by hands on experience, so we do all kinds of projects. We’re Worm Farmers for one. Since the beginning of the year, we have been raising earthworms. Just like “Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer”, a book that we read from time to time. Google “worm farming” for a great project for your kids. We just bought a solid blue 16” by 20” or so plastic container from Wal-Mart, and drilled a few little holes in the bottom and top. I shredded the kids old IEPs, and they dipped them in water, squeezed it, and lined the bottom. We put in some good loamy soil, and gently added the worms. We then sprinkled them with a little more soil, and grass cuttings and old leaves, and some coffee grinds for them to eat. We made water like rain with our hands, and then let them rest.  Being the “worm feeder” is one of our class jobs. We feed them grass, coffee grinds, and once in awhile some lunch that the kids didn’t eat. Recycling is our service learning project theme this year, so it is perfect!

 

Yesterday we were using up some leftover paint, painting an ugly cement wall that had never been painted. The custodial staff gave us the paint, two ratty old brushes, 2 roller trays, and a pole to make the roller TALL!. I did buy some new roller covers, and I had the rollers and everything else. So Tom Sawyer, move over. We had so much fun painting that wall, just like farmers have to take care of their farms. One of my teaching assistants and I had the kids as they rotated in small groups. We were lucky that our lawn groomer was finished mowing the school yard, so that no grass got into the wall.

 

I chose to skip recess, and go over the parts that the kids missed, and roll the difficult places, like around a bush, etc. About 5 minutes into recess, three of my kids come over to paint some more. MORE FUN THAN RECESS??? Awesome. I guess I’d like to feel that I was grown up too, if I was 4 or 5. So as they’re getting into their smocks, one of them said something about “We fed the worms.” “Oh, you fed the worms?” I replied. “Yes, we had to.” I responded with “Good job, or good thinking”, or one of the phrases meant to help reinforce good work, and good thinking, and we happily painted some more. After lunch I checked with my co-teacher, and she thought I had told them to feed the worms. Nope, they did it on their own!

 

It wasn’t until school was over, and the brushes were cleaned, that I decided to check the worms. And there was the worm farm with freshly mowed grass, so evenly distributed that no adult could have done it better. It was then, as it is now, that my heart just swelled for these little guys, who are so full of love, caring, and adventure. I see you!

I just was awakened by a rude alarm clock, even if it was playing some lovely Hawaiian music. It interrupted a dream in which I had just been contacted by someone who wanted to sponsor this blog, and who had sent me an expanding file folder with their favorite pieces in it. Oddly, I hadn’t written any of them yet, so I figured I’d better spend more time with this. “A Cuppa Light” began 2 ½ years ago well before I began teaching, and had to get up at 5:45 in the morning, returning around 7 pm at night; well before we knew my mother had cancer, and I’d be using all my vacations to caretake. So the blogging has gone down, but daily readership has gone up.

 

I carefully believe in dreams. I don’t believe that everything that happens in a dream comes true, or one is to pursue. However, since dreams come from the mind, and our minds are connected to Spirit, sometimes Spirit can bypass our egos by sending us dreams. But sometimes our subconscious ego mind can filter those dreams beyond recognition. This is when they are symbolic and mean something that we have to find. The best way to work a dream is to ask the Holy Spirit what the relevance is for us. Things will then stand out.

 

What stood out for me was that there were moving pictures on some of the pages, like Harry Potter photographs. Since I just got an IPhone that takes videos, that area may be opening up for me. I’m still low tech, but rising. I’ll have to see what technologies are available to me through my web site builder. Secondly, the last slot in the folder seemed to be of my wonderful husband Joshua.  Guess I’ll be including more bits on him. He is a drug and anger management counselor, and also a student of “A Course in Miracles” now for over 30 years. He definitely is worth listening to, but being a counselor, one has to ask first.

 

So I get that I need to write more frequently, and jazz up these pages with media. I accept the challenge, but this morning I may be late for work, so I’m sending lots of love to you directly through our connected Spirit. Feel free to grab a hug any time.

I don't believe so, son, I really don't. This "hell" concept is way over publicized. Our Beloved Creator created us as Himself: Loving eternal Spirit. There is no need for hell. The word "hell" is derived from the Saxon word "helan" meaning to cover; hence the covered or invisible place. Who knows what Jesus may have said that was translated into "hell".  Jesus also used the word “oblivion”.

Let's stay with "invisible". The ego created this 3D world as a place where one could be special, because in Heaven we're all loved equally. This is recorded as the “fall of Adam”. It’s more accurate to say the dream of Adam, because in the Bible it says, “a deep sleep fell upon Adam, and nowhere is there reference to his waking up.” [ACIM Chapter 2 paragraph 7; Genesis 2:21] To the ego, to be “invisible” would be a place of “misery, torture, agony, a torment, a nightmare, an ordeal; anguish, wretchedness, woe”. [Also from the American Oxford Dictionary, second definition of hell.]

 

Jesus was always teaching a gospel of Love and forgiveness, and non-judgment. In fact, calling another person “a fool” was one of the reasons one could experience the “covered place” [Matt. 5: 27]

 

 You know I’m a student  of “A Course in Miracles”, and it clearly states in the Text Chapter 15 paragraph 7: “The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present. The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the present, because you are afraid of it. The Holy Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the ego drives to hell.” [a miserable present].

But we might want to talk about the sadness, confusion or isolation a person has that might make him/her want to commit suicide. The ego loves to create problems because it keeps us from remembering the part of us that is still perfect love. Once we reach that place, the ego’s game is over.

 

Granted, it is hard to be loving when one perceives constant pain in the body, or feels broke, and unloved. However, being unloved is impossible. We are always loved by everything God created, even when we don’t feel it. AND we never run out of love to give. It is Who We Are. Even if we have no physical goods to share, we can share love. By sharing love, we again acknowledge the love within us, and it draws what we need to us as a magnet. One way to get a hug is to give a hug.

 

It helps to hang out with loving people when one feels unloved, until our own Love batteries are recharged again. Depression can be a great tool to inspire one to go within, and find that love, but we can’t do it with just our brain mind. That’s what got us into it in the first place. We have to ask the Holy Spirit to show it to us. Just last week I called to the Holy Spirit to send me someone, or a message or something that would show I was loved. My teaching assistant went out and bought me an iced chocolate mocha latte after the kids had been exceptionally BUSY! I took that as a sign. I’ve done it before, and I always get some sign! Try it, but have no attachment to how or when it comes.

 

It’s O.K. to ask for love. We are it, but the ego plays dirty. It knows our weaknesses, and brings them right into our mind and/or body at the worst times…. Often just when we’re getting close to a spiritual breakthrough. But the ego has no power over us. We give it any power that it has, and we can pull the plug, and switch channels any time. ANY TIME.

 

But just in case making the switch to “there is only Loving Spirit” from “This world sucks, and my own mind is driving me crazy,” Is too much, There is a dear friend of mine who I have called on in my darkest hours. It is the Archangel Michael, the Lord of the Way…. You know the Archangel who slays the dragon, and the demons. His job is to help us stay on our path. It’s a good App. to have.

Dear Friends,

It's good to be back writing. I've been jammed between work and being available for my family, and pursuing my own spiritual endeavors. Speaking of which, I am a student of "A Course in Miracles", and I do refer to it sometimes in this blog. Tom and Linda Carpenter come over to Kaua'i every winter, and we get to study with them. They hold open meetings once a month at the Princeville Community Center. I noticed that there wasn't a handout that might briefly explain it to those who happened to come for  the first time what the Course was. So Tom told me to write one. My goal was to fit it onto one pages. Volumes have been written. This is a skeletal overview. I then thought that maybe some of you might like to read it too, so here it is:

 

 A Course in Miracles, Briefly Explained

 

Dr. Helen Schucman and Dr. William Thetford, professors of psychology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, were tired of the staff’s bickering. They both agreed one day that “There must be a better way!” Soon after that Helen began receiving clear information that began, “This is A Course in Miracles, please take note.” She went to Bill, as psychologists don’t hear voices. He suggested that she take it down. She did so for the next 7 years, and faithfully Bill would type it up. The result is “A Course in Miracles”. The goal of the Course is to experience the Peace of God, a better way of experiencing life.

 

The Course teaches that we are the beloved children of a loving Creator. We are literally an extension of God’s love, joined peacefully with all that is. We are pure eternal loving Spirit, and that can never change. However, while this “program” is running, another “program” can also run, and that could be “Trip Earth”. A part of our mind has decided to partake in a collective experience where specialness occurs. In Oneness there is no specialness, or need for it. We all love each other maximally. In Trip Earth there is a big competition going on, and we are always judging and comparing ourselves and others.

 

“Trip Earth” can become so very consuming, that before long, we forget that we are One, and we see each other as separate from ourselves. God saw this, and created a link between the parts of our mind that were split, and the part that is One. The Course calls it the Holy Spirit (HS). It has other names in other cultures. The HS can see both worlds, and will lead us home if we ask. In fact, it is nearly impossible to undo “Trip Earth’s” non-stop analytical thinking without HS’s help. When Jesus told Nicodemus “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of Spirit is spirit,” [John 3:6] He was referring to these two worlds. Jesus also told his disciples, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26

 

The focus of the Course is to lead us to peace by undoing the ego’s hold on our thinking. Since it is collective, much of the hold is unconscious, and we need to help each other in this process.  We are asked to see beyond a person’s seeming shortcomings in a 3-D world, and see them as God sees them:  their eternal True Loving Selves. That is how the Course defines forgiveness, not the definition that the 3-D world uses meaning: “I see that you did something terrible, but I in my great [self-] righteous being forgive that.”

 

The energy that empowers true forgiveness is love. Love is the medium for all miracles. It is limitless.  We always have enough for ourselves and everyone else, because it doesn’t diminish by giving it away. It increases. When someone deliberately hurts us, we

can choose to see it as an attack or as a call for love. The Course teaches that all attacks are calls for love and forgiveness. As we love and forgive others’ ego attacks, we become better at recognizing, and releasing our own. The truth that fuels our ability to consistently love is that “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.” (A Course in Miracles introduction)