“I need not wait an instant more to be at peace forever.” ~ ACIM Lesson 355

Happy Sunday!

I am in my last 10 days of Lessons in A Course in Miracles, ACIM, and am finding these last lessons to be so uplifting and joyful; each lesson brings me peace.  I start my day reading these lessons and then praying.  This morning ritual brings me joy and can be profound like the experience I wrote about in the poem I posted in my writings yesterday.
I try to go about my day staying within the peace but life gets busy so I worry that I am loosing the peace, perhaps moving away from my true self back to being fear based and manipulated by life’s circumstances.
My work has been very busy lately and this makes me anxious.  I have lots of office work plus two major projects out to construction – when there is a problem on the construction site it needs immediate attention.  On Thursday both construction projects had problems and I was dealing with constant phone calls to resolve these plus trying to manage the office work.  At lunchtime I went outside and realized ‘it’s a beautiful day!’  This put things in perspective for me and do you know what?, the construction problems resolved themselves nicely by the end of the day.
This week I have a big public meeting that I have to speak before a large group about an upcoming construction project so at lunch today with the family I was telling them that I was anxious about it.  Barbara had just shared that she was anxious about her upcoming house move.  As we were talking I had a big “A-Ha!” moment.  I told about how I used to have a great fear of flying but the last few times I had to fly I would feel very anxious before hand but when I got to the airport and sat to wait to board the plane I would relax.  I came to realize that it was just all the preparing for my trip that made me anxious and not that I was fearful about the upcoming flight.
Here is the lesson: we may have big lists of ‘to-do’ things to accomplish for an upcoming event so we may feel anxious about all the work ahead.  We tend to feel this anxiety and think it is related to a fear, like I had done that I would be afraid to fly, or this week that I may be fearful that people won’t like or understand me at this upcoming meeting.  No, I am anxious because I have a long list to accomplish prior to my meeting. The anxiety my body feels is OK, I am in control and can to choose to NOT bring fear into this.
So yes, there will be busy times in my life, and there may be anxiety about workload and schedules, but this does not have to take away my peace!
AMEN!
“The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh