Why didn't I wave? This was the question I asked myself. It didn't take long to figure out the answer. It was the sign he was holding. If a child had waved at me I would have waved without hesitation or thought. In fact, when anybody waves at me I usually wave back.
Why had that sign stopped me? I knew the answer to that too. It was fear. Because he held a sign, I perceived he wanted something from me that I didn't want to give. I saw him as separate from me. In truth, he was asking nothing of me. He had a gift to give, a genuine smile and a morning wave. And I even agreed with the words on his sign. "Anything does help!"
It was another teaching moment. In this split second, I responded from impulse, without time to think. With a sense of sadness, I realized how deeply embedded the idea of lack, limitation, and separateness is in me. After years of reading Truth material, attending classes and now teaching a class, when push came to shove, my unawakened self popped into view.
I thought about the central message of Eric Butterworth's book, Breaking the Ten Commandments. We are all One. I am, we are, the manifestation of God presence. There can be no lack or limitation because there is only one power and one presence and that is God, good.
I thought about the message of the book from which I was teaching, Embracing the Feminine Nature of the Divine by Toni Boehm. The central message of her book is the call to infuse all we think, say, and do with love. In fact, she goes so far as to say that's the only thing that is going to save our planet from being destroyed by ego dominated consciousness.
I thought about another book I have been reading, How I Used Truth (2011), by Dr. Emily Cady. She says, "It is not enough to believe simply that God is our supplier-the One who shall by His omnipotent power influence the mind of someone by possessing an abundance to divide with us. This is limitation...God as our supply is infinitely more than God as our supplier. God is the Giver and the Gift...This divine Substance-call it God, Creative Energy, or whatever you will-is ever abiding within us and stands ready today to manifest itself in whatever form you and I need or wish to manifest..." (pp 170-171).
Then I thought about the I am Willing card in a small black frame sitting on my bedside table. At the New Year's Eve service less than three months ago I wrote, "I will not entertain any thoughts of lack and limitation." And I smiled. The key word is entertain. I can make the choice not to hold on to this seemingly small, yet profoundly revealing experience.
I chose to wave at the next person I saw. Although she probably thought I was a bit nutty, she waved back. During morning meditation I sat and prayed among my like-minded Unity family members and I beheld the gentleman with his genuine smile in the Truth of who we are, Divine Presence manifested in body substance. And I gave thanks for him and the beautiful gift he gave me. And I gave thanks for me for remembering that I don't have to entertain thoughts of lack and limitation. Every moment is a new beginning.
That same Wednesday morning, I attended Susan Sellers class on Myrtle Fillmore's Healing Letters. This is a paraphrased version of what our Unity matriarch and teacher, Myrtle has to say, "None of us are yet able to at all time to express the God presence we are perfectly. But we're finding we can discipline ourselves and call upon the Spirit of God to act through us, which is the light that is given to every one of us as we come into being and that gives us whatever we need in the way of love, wisdom, faith, understanding, and zeal, and the life and strength, the power and the will and the imagination to carry out the divine pattern... and eliminate all that is error thinking" (3rd edition, 2006, p 68).
Yes, every moment is a new beginning! Moment by moment we can choose to respond from love or error thinking.
