Shift Happens

Once again, we have some big opportunities for forgiveness in the news. Interesting that we even call it "news," when what would really be new is a world where we didn't have a media exploiting stories of people going berserk and using other humans for target practice.

Yes, of course I'm as disgusted as the next person about the violence at Virginia Tech. And I'm so very sorry for those who lost loved ones. But I made the mistake of letting my clock radio play the news to me while I lingered and dozed a bit longer this morning. As I lay there, gradually transitioning out of my sleeping dream and into my waking dream, the reporter on the radio was self-righteously preaching about how "we" need to start watching more closely for signs of this kind of thing so we can, as a society, prevent this from happening in the future. Maybe. And if more people acted to prevent these tragedies, who would the media exploit then? The truth is, the media, like the Ego, take secret pleasure in human misery. Both can justify their existence by showing us the myriad terrors in the world.

And the other truth is that we really have no idea of how many of these tragedies have been prevented by people who were observant and lent an ear to another who was facing his/her own inner demons. One of my favorite quotes from A Course in Miracles is:

"A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware."

If we agree that a miracle is a change in perception, then every time any of us chooses to see something in the outer world as a reflection of a thought or belief in the inner world, a shift can take place. And in that moment a miracle has occurred. Whether we ever know how it shifted events for ourselves or others isn't important. What is important is looking to the Holy Spirit to help us find ways to shift our inner perceptions. The fact is, miracles work across time and space, so they might actually affect something that we perceive to be in our past, in which case we would have no idea of our own effect on our world. But it might be helpful to remember that our own perceptions of reality can have a positive impact if we invite the Holy Spirit to interpret them for us.

We can think of it as closed captioning for ego-impaired spirits.