I’m enjoying some light snow and the Peace and stillness of winter here on Deer Isle and my heart is in various places. My heart is so much with the people of California who are going through such intensity right now. If I still lived there I would have had to evacuate. Many friends evacuated. I was glad to learn that Gary and Cindy Renard have been able to return to their home.
My heart is also with my father, Danny Wells Hadley who turned 88 yesterday. That’s amazing to me. He’s still going strong, and having fun doing the things he loves, putting on plays, cooking, having parties, going for walks with friends and enjoying life.
Last year my Dad and his wife survived the North Carolina storms and fled to Florida after a week without water and power, and then along came another hurricane which left them again without water and power. The NY Times even wrote a story about them!
I’ve been saying it for years, for many of us, life will continue to be more intense.
I’m so peaceful now, more peaceful than I’ve ever been, but I used to feel intense rage on a regular basis, all because I’ve felt threatened. I’ve felt so much anger and directed it at myself, at my loved ones and at strangers. When the wound is deep enough, people can’t handle it anymore. Rage feels like a form of insanity.
Many people are deeply upset, angry and afraid about what’s happening in the world right now. I get it.
The violence of this world is often the result of people who feel the same as I used to feel and they just can’t manage it. A seething rage deep down explodes. They’re feeling like a victim and acting out. Haven’t we all felt powerless, inadequate, ashamed, hurt and afraid? If it’s not addressed, it festers and ferments until it becomes rage that explodes? We were talking about this in the Forgiveness Workshop yesterday.
People have no concept that miraculous and permanent healing is available to them when they do the deeper forgiveness work. I’ve seen so many heal so much and I’d like to get the word out about what’s possible.
“I have said that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but I have also said, and many times, that you can change your mind. When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be.” A Course in Miracles, T-4.IV.2.
Consider, people without a spiritual practice will generally feel that there’s nothing that can be done about their feelings. There are people in my life that have no real spiritual practice and are not looking at their life from a spiritual perspective and they are 100% convinced that life is happening TO them. They don’t have a concept that they could change their perspective and feel differently about themselves and their lives.
This is precisely why what we’re doing, working at the level of the mind, is so critical to the healing of ALL humanity.
For a moment, let’s consider how we talk about anger. We say things like: He’s mad at them.
I’m mad AT them.
It sounds like shouting at, throwing something at.
Sometimes we say: they make me so mad.
They MAKE me.
Can you feel how our language and thought can be focused on being separate and being a victim or an attacker. “they make me so angry” and “ He’s mad at them” are the kind of thinking that we, you and I are here to heal.
The fastest path I know of to healing this human insanity of victim and attacker, which is what terrorism is all about, is taking total responsibility for what you see and what you experience. 0% blame, 100% responsibility.
If you feel angry about ANYTHING, you’re probably also afraid about something, and underneath that fear is usually some deep sense of hurt or betrayal.
The fear underneath the anger is usually because we haven’t recovered from some past hurt or betrayal, and we’re still holding onto judgment about what happened (remembered or not remembered) and we’re afraid of being hurt or betrayed again – we’re afraid of being poked again in an unhealed wound.
I’m willing to admit that I’ve intentionally tried to hurt or wound people because I felt threatened by them. In my past, there were times when my ego was convinced best defense was a good offense.
Unfortunately, it’s not true.
Fortunately, I learned from it and have forgiven myself.
The teaching about responsibility in ACIM is essential to our waking up and living a joyful life AND it is absolutely unacceptable to the ego. The ego will reject it every time. Consider this:
“I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the goal I would achieve. And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for, and receive as I have asked.” ~ A Course in Miracles
If you think about the great spiritual teachers who have led many to healing in their own heart and mind, and those who have inspired us, they all teach taking responsibility.
Responsibility is very different from blame. For me, taking responsibility necessarily includes realizing that there’s something for me to learn. I have a willingness to learn, and I have an ability to learn. I can learn and grow and bring benefit to all – that’s the motivation for taking responsibility.
It helps to remember what it says early on in ACIM: Nothing real can be threatened.
We are of God, we cannot be threatened. Why?
Because there’s nothing OUTSIDE of or in addition to God that could threaten me.
All threats come from within and are projected outwards, and this is why we can transform our experience by healing at the level of the mind. Responsibility is RESPONSE-ability and it is the key to no longer feeling threatened.
I will not be threatened anymore! Enough of that insanity!
We’re in a world where the curriculum is about learning the difference between total responsibility and blame. The difference IS our liberation.
The ends is in the means. The means to a peaceful world is Peace. Peace IS the way. If we would like to live in a peaceful world we must be willing to be peaceful. We cannot help by looking at the world and being mad AT them or thinking they MADE us angry. The only way the world can heal is if we heal the habit of blame. There’s nothing loving about blaming.
In the simplest human interactions where there’s a sense of upset, when people can take responsibility for their part in it, then compassion flows, forgiveness flows, judgment dissolves, the walls of separation come down.
If the world frightens you – take responsibility for your part in it.
THE KEY is to not need to know exactly what that is – just realize that you do have a part in it.
Letting the past go can’t be about blame, it’s about 100% responsibility and 0% blame.
Be willing to look very carefully around your life to where you are terrorizing your self.
Look deeply into that and heal that in yourself – it will shift your experience of the world.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
This is the kind of work we do in my year-long Masterful Living Program – we get the Love flowing so much that healing HAS to happen. We cannot fail.
We know that anger is a cry for Love. Compassion is the only healing answer. When we feel angry, we can train ourselves to go right to self-compassion. As our mind heals, the world around us will heal. It’s amazing how the difference shows up in our family, our workplace and our life. Go for it!
This is how we actively change the world by changing our mind about the world.
Let’s practice together today and be truly helpful!
MY BEST PROGRAM EVER – Masterful Living 2025 Don’t miss out! Click here to learn more. Remember you can book an Exploratory Call with one of the spiritual counselors to discuss any questions you have about Masterful Living and that’s a free call!
Healing the mental patterns of separation, lack and limitation are a major part of what my year-long Masterful Living Program is all about. It’s about feeling more connected with Spirit ALL of the time and reducing the sense of separation from Spirit means reducing fear, pain and suffering of so many types: physical, emotional and mental. Fear affects our body, emotions and our mental stability – we all know that. If you’d like to live with a sense of trust and faith, Masterful Living might be for you!
TODAY: Join me at Sundays With Spirit today. I’m speaking and sharing inspiration and Tedd Swartz is sharing his music. I’m on fire with our healing right now! Let’s join together and have a helping! Click here for more info.
Saturday & Sunday – TWO yes, 2, Free Forgiveness Workshop – Join me! Let’s do this deep work and have a healing together. Let’s lighten our load as we launch into the new year. Now’s the time! Free sounds good, right? Invite a friend! Register now and I’ll see you on Saturday or Sunday or both! Click here now to register for FREE!
NEW ACIM PODCAST EPISODE: my topic is Fast Track Your Healing. A Course in Miracles gives us step-by-step instruction in how to fast track our healing. What’s wonderful is we don’t even have to believe that it will work in order for it to work. In this episode, Jennifer shares her experience of supporting people in cultivating the willingness to recognize they’re worthy of the healing and the fast track. There’s so much more possible for us than we can ever imagine. We are entitled to healing.
