Finding Happy Birthday Peace! By Sally McKirgan
Are we born only to die? And if so Why? That was my waking thought on the morning of my recent 60 something Birthday! “What a revolting development this is,” as a character on TV used to say in disgust. Can it be that we are born, enter the body and the world only to ultimately march steady and directly to our death? What a (bad) joke!
First we are born helpless and dependent on others for food, clothing, nurturing or maybe not, depending on your parents, circumstances and Country of choice. Then secondly, little by little, you realize that you will have to figure out how to take care of your needs yourself. You go to school, again, depending on where you were born, and what sex you are for that matter. Growing up you may be abused, have an illness, but eventually you have to figure out how to “fend” for yourself when you grow up. If you can’t figure it out, some become sad, take drugs to help the sadness, become homeless, steal to get money for food, and end up in jail or prison. There are millions of people in prisons who were unable to figure out how to care for themselves.
Here’s the kicker – We are all; prisoners; jailers; parents; children; candlestick makers; soldiers; artists; wall street brokers; Muslim; Christian; Jewish; Atheists; Buddhists; Hindus; and others; in the same boat. No one is getting out alive and everyone is fighting a hard battle!
Who created this world of disaster, the ego or God? Would a God that is Changeless, Eternal, All Love, have you accumulate some knowledge, express your gifts and suffer from an illness or accident and then die – kaput – the end? Would a loving God create that kind of scenario?
This is the ego’s world and it is a “bad joke.” God has had nothing to do with it. That thought: ”God has nothing to do with it” is the cool breeze on the fevered cheek. This is the ego’s world where it alone rules. In the Course, Chapter 7. Section VII. p.11 “Perceive any part of the ego’s thought system as wholly insane, wholly delusional and wholly undesirable, and you have correctly evaluated all of it.” It is not True and it is not Real. The only thing in this whole world that is True and Real is Loving Thought. The only reason you are here is to forgive and remember the Loving Thoughts held within your powerful decision making mind.
The ego does not want you to know you have a mind period, let alone a decision making one! In coming to this world the ultimate lesson is to realize, find and follow your inner truth with the decision making mind. The ego will try to keep you from it. That is its job. It will offer “seek and do not find” carrots and dilemmas that it insists will make you happy and offer up zillions of distractions. We are all in the same boat whether we hail from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Everyone, no matter the lesson that their soul came to learn, has entered a dream, an illusion, and in this world EVERYONE has the same problem. We think we are separate from God. That is the only problem – our wrong thinking. The good news is: It is not true.
In summing this Birthday thought: The ego is a parasite on the mind, it made up a world and bodies that die. If we choose it, which we all did when we came here, it will fill us with doubt, hatred, misery littleness or grandiosity and throw in a little piece of happiness now and then to keep you going. But it is not True. Only Loving Thought is True. Laugh at the ego and remember that as you go through your life’s lesson, forgive all mistakes, yours and theirs, for dreaming this illusion, and change your dream, with your thoughts, as only you can do. As a Course students we are told over and over that we are not our bodies in the Workbook Review lessons VI. “ I am not a body I am free, for I’m still as God created me.” And finally, in Chapter 12, Section VII p.15, s.1 Jesus says “When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death remember that I did not die!” The cool breeze of relief for some Happy Birthday Peace!
Sally McKirgan
Ashland, OR
