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AGING MIRACULOUSLY PART THREE CLASS NOTES

Let us unburden ourselves of the emotional weight accumulated in Acts 1 and 2, opening our hearts to receive the blessings of a new and unimaginably glorious Act 3. We can’t fully let in the new until we have fully surrendered the old. We must release the past in order to reprogram the future.

The emotional key to surrendering the past is to forgive it. Forgiveness paves the way to miracles because it is the path to love.

According to A Course in Miracles, only love is real; the love you gave in the past is real and eternal, and the love anyone else gave to you is real and eternal. Fear, or lovelessness, does not emanate from the Mind of God and therefore does not actually exist. Any lovelessness in your past was an illusion, and need not enter into the present with you unless you bring it with you.

Let us release all lovelessness, that it might plague our lives no more.

FORGIVENESS: FREEING OURSELVES FROM THE WEIGHT OF THE PAST

Forgiveness is the release of thoughts of grievance and attack that otherwise act like poisons in our psychic bloodstream. It is the fundamental key to inner peace and the crux of miraculous aging.

Aging miraculously is about becoming lighter as we age. Light, in A Course in Miracles, is defined as “understanding.” Most of carry accumulated emotional weight as we age: the weight of past hurts, past regrets, and past grievances. According to the Course, we can have a grievance or a miracle – but we cannot have both.

Forgiveness as it is described in A Course in Miracles is not the old-fashioned sense that someone else was a jerk, but since you’re so spiritual now you will deign to forgive them. Rather, it’s our ability to penetrate to the deepest understanding of ourselves and others, that we might realize the unalterable innocence that lies within us all.

All of us are perfect, innocent children of God, but most of us most of the time do not necessarily act that way. That is as true of us as it is true of others. For the world in which we live is dominated by a thought system based on fear – and we were mentally trained to be part of that thought system from our earliest days on earth. It is the human condition that we have forgotten who we really are, and having forgotten who we are we have forgotten who we are to each other.

A fear-based thought system is predicated on the notion that we are our bodies; thus we are separate from each other; and thus when our bodies die our lives are over. In fact we are spirits and not bodies; on the level of spirit we are not separate but one; and the death of the physical body is just like taking off a suit of clothes. Life is one, and it lasts forever.

Enlightenment – or the unlearning of a thought system based on fear (ego) and the learning instead of a thought system based on love (Spirit) – is the key to aging miraculously because it is the key to being happy at all. Whether we are twenty or eighty, an over-attachment to the body is bound to produce misery. Most of us laugh inwardly at that thought, of course, because we feel we’d rather have the misery of a younger body than the misery of an older one. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we remember that our minds could be as vicious when we were young as they can be now. At any age, it is the condition of the mind more than the condition of the body that produces most joy or sorrow.

That is why your greatest power to age miraculously lies in your power to rethink your life, and everyone and everything in it. Forgiveness is a radical shift from a focus on the body to a focus on the spirit; from an emphasis on worldly guilt to an emphasis on spiritual innocence.

Why do we wish to see the spiritual innocence in someone rather than their worldly guilt? Because how we see others is how we will see ourselves. Since on the spiritual plane there is only one of us here, every blessing on another is a blessing on ourselves and every attack thought toward another is an attack upon ourselves. We forgive others in order to release ourselves. Nothing anyone ever did to us in the past is as damaging to us as our unwillingness to forgive them now.

WHAT IS THE ATONEMENT?

The cornerstone of the ego’s thought system is the idea that someone is guilty. The cornerstone of the Spirit’s thought system is the idea of their eternal innocence. Whether you’re thinking about yourself or about anyone else, thoughts of guilt lead to suffering and thoughts of forgiveness lead to peace.

For many of us, particularly as we age, the person we most need to forgive is ourselves. For years we might have carried around the thought that someone else betrayed us, but then in the last few years things have started to change. Our inner eyes begin to open. We can see more clearly the mistakes that we ourselves made, in situations some of which we will not have the chance to do over. We’ve started to consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t simply that we had been abandoned, or fired, or whatever – that in fact, perhaps we hadn’t been such a wonderful spouse, or employee, or whatever. Anger at someone might begin to subside but our own shame, embarrassment, humiliation and self-hatred are only starting to gear up.

That is why forgiving ourselves is as important as forgiving others. And attacking ourselves is as blasphemous as attacking others. Whether they were the culprit or we were – and in most situations, it was at least a bit of both – the breach between the deeper truth of our being and the way we behaved is something that God views with mercy, not judgement. And He asks that we do too. Our task on earth is to learn to think like God thinks. With infinite compassion, and with infinite love.

HOW DO WE FORGIVE OURSELVES?

How do we forgive ourselves? This is particularly hard when we’ve reached an age where we feel we won’t be getting another chance at the relationship we blew or ignored for too long, or the career we sabotaged, or the financial opportunity we lost or whatever. None of those things are necessarily true, but there is no doubt the ego uses the passage of years to make our self-bludgeoning even more painful.

In truth, there is never an age past which God has run out of miracles for us. He is incapable of saying, “I’d love to help you, but you waited too long.”

In any situation in life where we feel we messed up because of loveless thought or behavior, it is true that we deflected miracles that occur naturally in the presence of love. But once again, A Course in Miracles says those miracles are held in trust for us until we are ready to receive them. The Atonement is God’s gift to us; a way to re-align our thinking with His mercy and thus release the miracles we had deflected before.

How do we do that? We can’t do it by ignoring our responsibility; only in taking one hundred per cent responsibility for our lives can we change them. Rather, we have to take a good hard look at our mistakes of the past in order to surrender them to God for healing. It says in A Course in Miracles that God will not take from us what we are unwilling to release to Him. That is a process that can indeed be painful, but it is necessary in order to get to the other side.

It is when we atone, make amends where appropriate, and humbly and sincerely ask God to change us so we can be a better person now, that miracles will flow unimpeded into your life once more.

This is from page 90 of the Text of A Course in Miracles:

“….realize that you must already have decided not to be wholly joyous if that is how you feel. Therefore, the first step in the undoing is to recognize that you actively decided wrongly, but can as actively decide otherwise. Be very firm with yourself in this, and keep yourself fully aware that the undoing process, which does not come from you, is nevertheless within you because God placed it there. Your part is merely to return your thinking to the point at which the error was made, and give it over to the Atonement in peace. Say this to yourself as sincerely as you can, remembering that the Holy Spirit will respond fully to your slightest invitation:

I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.
I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.
I will not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the
consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.
I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.”

Remember: time does not actually exist. The three dimensions are merely a construct of the mortal mind. In going to God, we enter the dimension of ultimate Reality, the quantum time beyond time and space. And there, YES we can indeed “go back” — and the Holy Spirit will undo the consequences of our mistakes.

In A Course in Miracles, it says that whatever miracles we deflected by our wrong decisions in the past are held in trust for us by the Holy Spirit until we are ready to receive them. It doesn’t necessarily mean that that lover will come back – or that job, or that money — but it means that the content they represented will indeed return in whatever form is appropriate.
So no matter what mistakes you made in the past, decide for God now. The Holy Instant interrupts the pattern of past mistakes and frees us to a future unlike it.

Once again, there is power in your writing these things down. Write a letter to God and tell Him all of it: how you hate yourself for this or that, how a particular situation fills you with shame to remember, or how you can never stop obsessing about your stupidity in some situation decades ago. Give all of it to Him.

Prayer of Atonement

Dear God,
I surrender to You the things
That I know I did wrong.
I look clearly at what I did that I know I should not have done,
And I look clearly at what I didn’t do that I know in my heart I should have done,
And I surrender to You my shame.
In those moments I sauntered ahead of You, dear God;
I did not let Your Spirit lead me.
In my arrogance I thought I knew better than You,
But in this moment I choose again.
I atone and I give thanks
for this chance to begin again.
Amen

FORGIVING OTHERS

The more time we’ve spent on earth, the more experiences we’ve had. And the more experiences we’ve had, the more some of them might not have been wonderful.

Many things can weigh us down with resentment. Love affairs, marriage, financial issues, and any number of other areas create accumulated layers of resentment. And those we choose not to forgive are going on with their lives – it’s we who go forward carrying the emotional burden of our unforgiveness.

Now, in order to claim a miraculous Act 3, it is time to forgive those who hurt you in the past.

Remember that forgiveness, from the perspective of A Course in Miracles, does not mean someone else was a total jerk but you’re spiritual so you forgive them now. It means that since only love is Real, you need not remain at the effect of lovelessness either in yourself or in others. You can “overlook” the lovelessness someone else displayed towards you, thus rising above it in your experience. You are released from the effects of a wound when you release the one who wounded you.
Dear God,
I carry in my heart
Such anger and resentment
Towards those who hurt me.
I was victimized
Or at least I feel that way,
And I wish to feel that way no longer.
I am willing to see this differently.
Please remove from my mind
my memories of pain,
and my attachment to wrongs
that were perpetrated against me.
Despite my resistance, dear God,
I pray You bless even those who wronged me.
For I wish to be free of this burden I carry.
Send Your Spirit into my mind,
As I surrender to You my thoughts about……
Give me new eyes with which to see him (or her).
Give me new ears with which to hear their side of the story.
Please dissolve this weight upon my heart,
That my past shall no longer taunt me.
I give mercy to those who hurt me
That I might feel Your mercy upon me.
I am willing to rise above, dear God.
Please show me how.
Amen

Since only love is real and nothing else exists (the cornerstone principle of A Course in Miracles), no lovelessness anyone has ever displayed towards you has created permanent effects. Any miracles that might have been withheld from you are held in trust, just waiting for your mercy and forgiveness to be released into your awareness now.

Forgive, not to free others but to free yourself. For only in releasing them will you be released.

Take this opportunity to write down all your grievances, resentments, and feelings of victimization. Do not allow them to fester within your psyche, but write them down in order to surrender them to God. Literally write, “Dear God, I give these thought to you.” Pray that He change your mind about them for you. Pray that the Holy Spirit show you the innocence beyond the veil of someone’s guilt, that you might be at the effect of that person’s lovelessness no more.

This allows the Holy Spirit to remove all effects of that lovelessness in your life, to divinely compensate for whatever you have lost, and to begin your life again. For we cannot be affected by something we do not believe in. This is what it means to be “reborn” – to enter into the present with nothing brought with you from the past.

Entering now into the second half of this course, it is time for us to start opening to the present and to the future with a renewed sense of hope. Surrendering the past is essential now. Forgive what you do not want, that you might receive what you really do.

All best wishes to you, and much love…

Marianne

AGING MIRACULOUSLY PART TWO CLASS NOTES

Hi! I hope you enjoyed this week’s video.

There are two ways we can deal with age: We can deride it, or we can honor it. Too many times, when we think of “aging gracefully” that connotes a kind of surrender…almost permission to let ourselves go…to simply sink into the background and be okay with it.

Aging Miraculously is not that. It involves surrendering to the fact that we are older now, yes — but with a sense of honor and self-respect that allows us to experience Act 3 differently. We can consciously claim Act 3 it not as an anti-climax but as our crowning achievement, the years when we have finally learned what we came here to learn and are ready to actualize our best.

Clearly, this is a different paradigm for age than one we’re used to. But it isn’t different in historic terms at all; in fact, what we’re discussing here is actually a return to a more traditional worldview.

In cultures and times where families with lots of children lived together and remained closely bonded – which was most of human history — grandparents had an important and honored role as elders within the family dynamic. Having lost so much of our traditional social structure, we are bereft when aging with no sense of personal significance once parenthood, marriage, and previous career have either changed form or disappeared. In order to reclaim our joy, we must re-think and re-imagine our significance in a contemporary society.

This re-thinking and re-imagining precedes our re-doing; if we’re just trying to “figure out what to do” now, our efforts can take on an almost desperate quality. So let’s step back here: as with anything else, our first task is to align ourselves with miraculous thinking. The question is not what can we do now, but rather who can we be now? The role of conscious elder begins in a shift in the way we see ourselves. No one can grant that to us, and no one can take it away from us, once we have claimed it for ourselves.

The world isn’t going to tell you you’re important; you yourself have to remember you’re important. And then the world will remember it too.

*****

For me, turning fifty was hard. For months before my 50th birthday, I was depressed in a way I had not expected to be. It was hard to accept that as of that birthday, my youth would be irrevocably over. I remember thinking to myself, “I don’t feel old yet, but I’m not young anymore either.”

Friends a bit older than myself told me everything would change once my birthday arrived, and they were right. I remember sitting at a café that day, and it was as though everything shifted in a moment. All of a sudden it was all fine. I had grieved, and now the fever had broken. A new and wonderful new chapter was at hand.

My friend Tara told me that “50 is the age past which you don’t care what other people think anymore.” And that turned out to be so oddly true. For whatever reason, after fifty you’re not tyrannized by other people’s opinions in the same way you were before. People pleasing isn’t a disease that plagues you anymore. And that is extremely liberating as we age. We feel so much freer to speak our truth when we’re no longer asking someone else’s permission. After fifty, whether or not you respect yourself for speaking up is more important than whether or not someone else appreciates what you said.

That is particularly important in the world today, because the heart’s wisdom is radical. In a fear-based world, love doesn’t always receive applause.

Turning sixty I felt something slightly different, like I was entering into my twilight years. But twilight is the most magical time of day, after all. In consciousness as in nature, twilight is a mysterious time. It is a gorgeous mix of both night and day. It is numinous and filled with power.

In this week’s video, I spoke of the Ceremony of the Elder that’s in my book ILLUMINATA. Think about whether you yourself might want to do that. Such rites of passage are profound; their psychological and emotional effect are real indeed.

Perhaps you will choose to invite friends and family to attend, or even perform it with friends so it’s a ceremony for more than one of you! Perhaps your book club, church group, synagogue, mosque, spiritual center, apartment building or community club might be interested in hosting you! Announcing your choice publicly brings others into the circle of power created by the ceremony.

As we age, not only are we no longer children – we are no longer even youthful adults. And that is staggering, even shattering to realize unless we have a psychological context within which to contain it. It is spiritual power that releases us from the plague of perceived insignificance and delivers us to a new sense of self.

Our society is undergoing a crisis of adulthood; we need more children to mature into truly conscious adults, and we need more adults to mature into truly conscious elders. Whether or not your body ages is not a choice; whether or not you become an honorable, conscious elder is absolutely your choice. Anything that helps prepare any of us for happier, more conscious living is a boon not only to ourselves but to the world around us.

CEREMONY OF THE ELDER
from ILLUMINATA: Thoughts, Prayers, Rites of Passage

A Rite of Midlife

As a generation, we are growing into our wisdom. We are hungry for our wise women, our wise men. We are hungry to know them and to become them. The wise have seen the light at the center of things, and the light at the center of things is who we are. Until we see that, the mission of our lives remains unfulfilled. This rite is very significant when done for someone’s fiftieth, sixtieth, or seventieth birthday. It should also be noted that it is as our lives remains unfulfilled.

This rite is very significant when done for someone’s fiftieth, sixtieth, or seventieth birthday. It should also be noted that it is as appropriate for men as it is for women.

OFFICIANT:
We gather on this day to celebrate an important passage in the life of Anne Martin. She is to us a beloved child of God. She is as well the daughter of (name) and (name), the wife of (name), the mother of (names), and sister to the world.

The years of her life on earth have brought her to this sacred moment, where she takes upon herself, through the grace of God, the mantle of the Elder. From this day forward, she celebrates and carries forth the purpose of the wise ones, who oversee our human progress, who nurture and sustain us. She shall be grandmother to all children, handmaiden to God and Goddess, revered for her insights and honored for her knowledge.

To you, Anne, having lived these years, having seen what you have seen and cried the tears of troubled times, we now acknowledge that you have climbed the ladder of the elder ones. May God reveal to you a sacred sensibility. We are blessed by your presence. We are grateful to know you.

Please reveal to us your story.
(Anne has prepared, prior to the ceremony, a letter to the world. It describes her history however she cares to reveal it. She forgives and blesses past times. She offers herself for continued service to humanity and to the world. She claims the full blessings of her maturity,the value of her experience to now share in faith and inspiration with those who seek her counsel.)

And so it is. We thank you, Anne.
I’d like to ask any gathered here who wish to at this time to share with us your acknowledgments of Anne, and your prayers for her life in the future.

(They do.)

Now I ask those assembled here to join with me in prayers for this woman:

Dear God, We thank you for the years gone by, and we thank you for the years ahead. This woman has lived, dear Lord.
She has seen the cycles of life and death.
She has rejoiced at morning and mourned its passing.
Thus she has now gained sacred knowledge:
The power to heal through the depth of her compassion;
The power to teach through the depth of her understanding;
The power to bring forth a new and better world through the depth of her vision.
May all now see in her, and may she see within herself, the elder, the wise one, the one who holds the candle of illumination for all the world to see.
May she be honored and revered.
May her heart be as a womb to new life.
May her children’s children see the power of the ages as it is written in her eyes.
She has arrived, dear Lord.
May she be blessed.
She has come so far,
May she now know peace.
She has worked so hard,
May she now find rest.
And may a cycle now begin for her, more powerful than any other, most glorious of all.
For she is now the fullness of human, of woman, of God’s servant and child.
Bless her always.
May she shine.
Amen.

I would like to ask you all now to join with me in two minutes of silent prayer, in thanksgiving and in blessing on this woman.

(They do so.)

And now, Anne, I’d like to ask you to read to us your vision for us and for this world.

(She does so.)

Anne, please repeat after me:
Dear God, Thank You for my life.
May it open now to a new and glorious chapter.
May my past and future be transformed.
May I become a channel for good as never before.
May the generation behind me receive strength and comfort from my being here.
May I glorify and fortify Your light on earth.
Amen.

OFFICIANT:
Dear Anne, you are to be honored and respected for what you have done and who you are. You are an Elder among us, a wise one who has seen what we have not seen. Teach us, that we might all be more.

We deeply thank you. We wish you well. Go in peace and go in joy.
(To those assembled)
I bless you all.
Amen.

GRIEVING WHAT IS NO LONGER OURS, AND CLAIMING THAT WHICH IS

Few of us are jumping up and down in excitement over the fact that we’re no longer young. A theme that is central to this course is that to celebrate the future, sometimes we first must grieve the past. Otherwise we are pretending to feel what in fact we don’t.

So what are the things we need to grieve? And what are the gifts we need to embrace? I hope you will take advantage of this section to write some things down.

The issue is not that age brings no gifts, but that it brings less obvious gifts. The gifts of youth – the energy, the beauty, the ease – are poured upon us freely by the universe. But the gifts of age are earned, and they’re gifts we only get to keep if we pour them back into the universe. Unrecognized by us they will be unused by us, and unused by us they will be unrecognized – both by ourselves and by others. It’s not enough to have become wise; we must share our wisdom to help heal the world, and only then will we experience the satisfaction of having done so. Whether it’s political or social or family involvement, few of us can honestly say there is no place where our help would not be appreciated.

But most of us have not achieved wisdom easily, or without great pain. It was often our failures that taught as much as our successes. Sometimes it was having treated life irresponsibly that taught us finally to be responsible. It was having moved too quickly and making some terrible mistake because of it, that taught us the importance of slowing down. It was treating life too casually and suffering the consequences that taught us the importance of being reverent.

And this is where the process of Aging Miraculously is inevitably filled with tears. We can’t grow from our mistakes unless we really look at our mistakes, and to really look at them at them is often painful. There might be grief involved in looking at them honestly, but only in doing so will we be able to move forward into a lighter and more joy-filled place. We look, then we cry, then we grieve, then we grow, then we laugh. I promise you.

There are two main categories of grief that all of us go through in surrendering our youth: the things we miss, and the things we regret.

This is a process that cannot be rushed. It is not completed overnight. But only if you go through this process can you get to the other side of it. Whether you are in your Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, Eighties or Nineties, your life has been a drama that is worth this attention and forgiveness and love.

Use this opportunity to write down those things you must release now, and surrender them to God.

“People used to want to invest in my projects. I can tell they think I’m too old now.”

“I had so much energy. It’s not there anymore.”

“I knew I had a lot of time left. I can feel that I don’t anymore.”

“There used to be so many chances. I don’t feel I have them anymore.”
“I wish I hadn’t wasted so much time.”

“I wish that I had been there more for my kids.”

“I wish I had been a better (husband, wife, father, mother).”

“I wish I had used my talents more.”

“I wish I had done….better.”

“I wish I hadn’t made such a stupid mistake when….”

“I wish I had realized how quickly time would fly.”

Write about these things, give yourself time to reflect about them, and allow yourself whatever period of sadness it takes before the emotional fever breaks. You might find yourself crying over things you hadn’t even thought about for a while, bursting into tears while reading a novel or in the middle of the night. But these are tears that will not hurt you; they will heal you. You might find yourself obsessing about things you feel you got wrong twenty, or thirty years ago. Now, your psyche will bring them to the forefront of your consciousness. Why? Because they represent baggage you need to let go of, layers of accumulated sorrow and unprocessed feeling that must now be forgiven, and learned from, in order to develop your wings for Act 3.

The point is, don’t worry about this. Don’t think it means that something is wrong. It simply means you’re downloading some old unprocessed energies that have impressed themselves into your psyche, even your body, that you’re bringing up now in order to release them to God. According to A Course in Miracles, he cannot take from us what we’re not willing to release to Him.

Here is a powerful idea: Write a letter to God and place your burdens in His hands. Then, after you have written, allow Him to write back! You will be surprised by all the wisdom in your heart that is just waiting to be heard.

Dear God,
Please take from me
The pain of my regret,
The agony of my remorse,
And my sorrow at realizing
That I am young no more.
Help me to release the things that serve no longer,
And to claim the things that serve me now.
I give to you my youth, Dear God.
Please give to me my wings.
Amen

THE THINGS THAT WE HAVE LEARNED

As you continue writing about the things that are heavy on your heart, begin also to write about the points of light that are emerging from the darkness.

It’s time now to claim the lessons of age. Some examples might be as follows:

The lesson of humility – which you might not have learned, had you not been arrogant when you were younger.

The lesson of deeply appreciating every day you have left – which you might not have learned, had you not reached an age where your mortality is now so obvious.

The lesson of appreciation – which you might not have learned, had you not taken so much for granted for too many years.

The lesson of gratitude – which you might not have learned, had you not received some things so easily when you were young.

Such lessons, and the gifts they represent, are divine compensation for the lost gifts of youth. Whatever arrogance, irresponsibility, lack of gratitude or appreciation that might have marked our personalities when we were younger, have been replaced by a richness and wisdom it took all our youthful experiences to achieve.

And according to A Course in Miracles, whatever miracles we deflected through living lovelessly in the past are held in trust for us until we are ready to receive them! So okay…you didn’t “get” it when you were younger! (Join the rest of us.) But we “get it” now! God isn’t saying, “Too bad. It’s too late!” Truly, it isn’t over ‘til it’s over. And in truth, it’s never over…

So now make another list – a list of the strengths you have now. The key is to surrender them to God, dedicate them to His purposes, and ask how you can use them on His behalf.

“I can listen more patiently; send me someone who needs to be heard.”

“I can understand more deeply; send me someone who needs to be understood.”

“I have learned so much; send me someone who could learn from my experience.”

SEX AND AGE

The gifts of age might not seem as hot and sexy as the gifts of youth, but they are. I wasn’t really, truly comfortable in my skin until I was over fifty. And what is sexier than that?

The idea that we are not sexually attractive past a certain age is difficult for many of us. But whenever I find that particular demon circling my head, I remember my parents and smile. A story about their sex life is a constant reminder to me that where there is love there can be delight.

Well into my father’s elderly years, he had a health emergency while we were dining as a family one night. A while before that, he had had a heart attack. We were fearful he was having another.

Rushed into the emergency room, he was surrounded by young doctors rapidly asking my mother what medication he was taking. They began shouting at my father, “Sam! Sam! Tell us – did you take that medicine today?!?”

My father looked up at the young doctor, looked him straight in the eye and said defiantly, through his pain, “I can’t take that medicine, you bastards! When I take that pill, I can’t get it up!!”

The room grew suddenly still. I remember the abashed, horrified look on the young doctor’s face, as he backed up and said “Oh Sam,” he said. “I’m so sorry…I thought…”

With that, my mother threw herself over my father crying, “Oh Sam, I’d rather we never have sex again than that I don’t have you at all!”

The rest of us in the room were too stunned to speak. Obviously, after that my father was given an alternative prescription for his heart problem! I learned from my parents a very important lesson that night: to make no further assumptions about age and sex.

I can honestly say that two of the hippest, coolest women I have ever known are over 80. And yes, they have it going on in every area of their lives. There is more going on in twilight that we can see with our physical eyes. They told me so, and I believe them.

*****

I hope that between the video and these class notes, you will have much to write and think about this week. Try not to skip over your deepest thoughts and feelings. Allow them to be, and allow them to guide you. There is so much wisdom – your own wisdom – just waiting for your permission to flourish.

God bless you and enjoy your week!

AGING MIRACULOUSLY PART ONE CLASS NOTES

As with everything else, our experience of age is determined at least as much  (if not more)  by our thoughts about it as by its objective reality. Our culture is dominated by attitudes regarding age that tempt us to constrict emotionally into anxiety and fear as we get older.

Our opportunity is to rethink age, to contextualize it differently, both as individuals and as a culture. Each of us, as we live our lives and as we participate with others, can choose thoughts and behavior that shift the dominant paradigm from one of limitation and fear to limitlessness and love.

This is not always easy but it is doable. I’ve created this course to guide your process and uplift your ability to rise above the thoughts that otherwise hold you back. We need a new vision and a new sense of possibility for age. And we need to support each other in this so that a genuine cultural shift can occur.

*****
As you go through the course, you will find yourself grappling with thoughts and feelings that may not always be comfortable. Things will come up that perhaps you hadn’t thought about in a while; as I wrote to you earlier, this may not always be fun.

But we heal through a kind of emotional detox process. According to A Course in Miracles, God cannot take from us what we are not willing to release to him That means God will only remove from our consciousness what we are willing to release to Him. To do otherwise would be a violation of our free will.

In doing this course, you are giving yourself the gift of healing. But this is not an instantaneous process; it is a soul’s journey. For the duration of the class, and beyond, you will be taking a deeper gaze into the recesses of your own heart. You will find there some tears still left to cry, perhaps, but on the other side of the tears you’ll find a new inner peace and an ever increasing joy.

SHIFTING OUR THOUGHTS

According to A Course in Miracles, a miracle is a shift in perception from fear to love. But in order to shift a fearful thought, first we must recognize it for what it is.

So many thoughts about age, bred into us from our earliest years, are by the time we reach middle age almost instinctive. We think, “Of course I think a certain way. That’s just how it is!”

Yet we can take a stand here. There is no “just how it is” – about age or about anything else. And your greatest power to change your life is to rethink it.

How do you do that? You begin by becoming clear about the thoughts you are thinking now, so you can change the ones that hurt you.

Your task is to bring your beliefs about age into your conscious awareness.

Begin by writing down your honest feelings about age. Try to be as complete as possible, and be honest about your fears. No one is going to read this but you, so feel free to be as honest an authentic as you can. Below are examples you might relate to…

1. I feel I’ve become invisible.
2. I’m afraid of getting sick.
3. I’m afraid of being ignored.
4. I’m afraid of being poor.
5. I’m afraid because I have no savings.
6. I’m afraid my spouse will leave me.
7. I’m afraid my family will abandon me.
8. I’m afraid I won’t be able to work.
9. I’m afraid of death.
10. I’m afraid I waited too long.
11. I hate myself for the mistakes I made.
12. I resent what others did to me.
13. I’m afraid I’m no longer attractive.
14. I feel I threw away the best years of my life.
15. I’m afraid of being sick.
16. I’m afraid of being lonely.

Look at that list. Just allow yourself to see how full of fear it is. As it says in A Course in Miracles, we should be ware the power of an unrecognized belief. Every thought you think, either positive or negative, affects both your body and your mind!

But spiritual transformation involves more than a decision to simply think differently. It often takes more than an act of will to change our thoughts, for some are so deeply ingrained that it takes God’s help to change them. But when we take the first step, expressing our willingness to change, the power of our decision then activates God’s power within us. This enables Him to do for us what we sometimes cannot do for ourselves.

Here are examples of some miraculous changes in thinking…

1
Fear says…
I feel I’ve become invisible.

Love says…
God’s radiance is always visible, and I grow more radiant with each passing year. It is my inner light, not my external beauty, that is the source of my visible power.

2
Fear says…
I’m afraid of getting sick.

Love says…
My body is programmed for perfect health for as long as it serves my soul to remain on earth. My prayers, meditations and positive thoughts are the guardians of my health and healing.

3
Fear says…
I’m afraid of being ignored.

Love says…
To the extent that I do not ignore the beauty in others, people will not ignore the beauty in me. My contribution to the world around me, and the interest others have in me, is not determined by my physical age.

4
Fear says…
I’m afraid of being poor.

Love says…
God is sending me endless opportunities for abundant, right livelihood. May I enthusiastically embrace them without dictating what they should look like. I affirm the infinite creativity of the universe in providing me the abundance I need.

5
Fear says…
I’m afraid I don’t have enough savings. What if I get sick? How will I live?

Love says…
In God, there is infinite supply and I claim my inheritance as a child of God. The universe is programmed to fulfill my needs. In the name of God, I command all fear to depart my mind, which I claim for the power of Love and Love only.

6
Fear says…
I’m afraid my spouse will leave me.

Love says…
Every day may I become more positive, more generous, more compassionate, more interested and more interesting. I embrace the love that is coming towards me. I do not burden my loved ones with neediness, but rather bless them with my generosity that I might receive as I choose to give.

7
Fear says…
I’m afraid my family and friends will abandon me.

Love says…
We create what we defend against; therefore, I do not defend against being abandoned. Rather, may I generate the energies that attract the love of others. May I become more interesting, more generous, and more of a blessing on the world around me every day.

8
Fear says…
I’m afraid I won’t be able to work.

Love says…
The older I get, the more my accumulated wisdom makes me valuable to the world around me. I am lifted by God to the place where I can give and receive in the most perfect way.

9
Fear says…
I’m afraid of death.

Love says…
May the Holy Spirit transform my thoughts of death, and open my inner eye that I might see that life goes on forever. I place the hour and circumstances of my physical death in the hands of God, that I might peacefully depart this world in a way that brings joy to myself or others.

10
Fear says…
I’m afraid I waited too long and wasted too many opportunities.

Love says…
It is never too late to show up for life. The universe is eternally creating new beginnings and opportunities to be now who I was not before. What miracles I deflected have been held in trust for me by the Holy Spirit until I am ready to receive them. May I receive them now.

11
Fear says…
I hate myself for the mistakes I made in the past.

Love says…
I atone for the mistakes of my past, and seek to be a better person now. The Atonement allows me to begin again at a higher level, having learned from my mistakes of the past. The past is over and it has no power over me, as I open to receive and give God’s love today more deeply than I did before.

12
Fear says…
I resent what others did to me.

Love says…
I forgive others for their trespasses against me. Only love is real. The love I gave is real, and the love I’ve received is real. Nothing else exists, except in the realm of illusion. May the Holy Spirit enter here and cast out all illusions from my mind. Only love has any power over me. I release all thoughts of victimization and attack, for I am released from the effects of my wound as I release the one who wounded me.

13
Fear says…
I’m afraid I’m no longer attractive.

Love says…
While I no longer have the beauty of youth, I have another kind of beauty that is equally amazing. I do not disdain my physicality; I do attend to it with attention and love. I treat it still as one of the gifts I give the world, for such it is.

14
Fear says…
I feel I threw away the best years of my life.

Love says…
In the realm of ultimate Reality, there is no time. Whatever I missed before, is available to me now. Not increased age but only diminished receptivity can block miracles from my door. I am open to receive not only the gifts of today, but any gifts of yesterday I refused to receive before. Such is the miraculous mercy and generosity of God.

15
Fear says…
I’m afraid of being sick.

Love says…
My body is programmed for perfect health for as long as it serves my spirit for me to remain upon this earth. I pray and meditate to maintain my health, and heal any wounds or sickness that I might have. God’s Divine Physician is tending to my body every moment, and healing angels surround me. I dedicate my body to the purposes of Light, that every cell might respond to its divine assignment.

16
Fear says…
I’m afraid of being lonely.

Love says…
I cannot be lonely, so long as I take every opportunity to bless the lives of those I encounter. Either with a smile, a kind word, or even a silent blessing, I will give as I would receive. The entire world is my ministry as I see its only purpose as a place where I can spread my love.

Dear God,
Where I have thoughts about age
That hurt me,
Please change my thoughts from fear to love.
I surrender to you all my thoughts and feelings.
Please send Your Spirit
to enter my heart and renew my mind.
Where I am tempted to feel fear because of the age of my body,
Remind me of my eternal spirit.
Please remind me who I really am
That I might fear no more.
Amen

The thinking of the world is 180 degrees away from the thinking of God, and it takes conscious effort to repudiate the power of a fear-based thought system. That is why you are taking this class: to consciously let go the vicious thoughts that, if left unchecked, have the power to depress you.

You were not programmed to have a depressed Act 3! We are programmed by the thought system of the world to fear, but we are programmed by the Holy Spirit to love. Place your mind under the Holy Spirit’s guidance that He might turn your pain to peace.

CHALLENGING AGEISM

How we age is influenced deeply by the world around us. It is challenging to be more positive about age when we are surrounded by negative cultural imagery, but not all the news is bad news! With the aging of the baby boomers, I think in many ways the situation is improving – but we still have a long way to go.

Many people, at least unconsciously, are still deeply ensconced in ageism. Ageism is alive and well in America today, but it should be passionately challenged. Each of us has a role to play not only in changing our own lives, but in changing the conversation our entire society is having with itself.

The first thing we must challenge is the idea that younger people have greater gifts to give. In fact, the gifts of wisdom – more than technology or any gifts of the outer world — are essential if we are to survive and thrive as a species over the next hundred years.

While the young understand things that are happening now, the older among us understand those things that do not change. The eternal patterns of life are as important as temporary trends. And one without the other is an incomplete understanding of life.

The most important currency of the 21^st Century is understanding. Some things we understand not because of book learning, and not because we did everything in life just perfectly so far. Much of what we understand in our more mature years are things we learned from the scrapes and bruises of having lived life to its fullest, with all its ups and downs. We can honor the paths that got us here, even if they were not always pleasant or even obviously fruitful. If those paths led us to wisdom that we have now, they are to be honored.

On the level of energy, what’s happening in America today is not so much that people are aging in a downward spiral; it’s that people are feeling the inner pull of an upward spiral, but don’t quite know where to put their energy! And it is that void, that I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself, that is aging us! In traditional societies, that energy would have gone towards grand-parenting; but for most Americans, even if we have grandchildren they’re not in the same town as we, so it’s not a daily role that it would have been fifty or a hundred years ago.

That is why we must recreate our context for the experience of age. As we come to respect the wisdom that it gives us – not like some booby prize, but for the bounty that it is – then we will transform not only our personal experiences but our entire social milieu.

A Course in Miracles teaches that all thought creates form on some level. Harmful thoughts should not go unchallenged. Whenever we hear anyone express even a subtly derogatory view of people who are older, let’s politely but firmly challenge that. Even when said as a joke, the idea that older people are in any way “less than” is a prejudice with potentially painful consequences for an aging population. Unconscious prejudices toward older people can have financial, social, and even physical consequences and should not be ignored. It’s time to recognize this form of social toxicity and change it.

***************

I hope you feel that these class notes, combined with Video One, give you a lot to think about this week. Think, pray, write, and share with others. You’re not alone in your search for a transformed experience of age. And remember – you’re not going downhill, you’re aging miraculously!