Gloria to God:
Dear Heavenly Father, what knowledge do You will me to have this morning?
God:
The wisdom to see without preprogramming. To see with fresh eyes. To see as the morning sun sees each day. It reaches the horizon, takes a breath, and is pleased.
A Course in Miracles, Lesson 325:
"All things I think I see reflect ideas…From judgment comes a world condemned. And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth with mercy for the holy Son of God…Dear Father, Your ideas reflect the truth, and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams. Let me behold what only Yours reflect, for Yours and Yours alone establish truth."
Gloria:
Dear God, help me to see truth and not what I imagine. Help me be free from judging. Help me to just be.
God:
It is like, Gloria, you are moving from one house to another. You are the one who has to pack your belongings. It is you who has to decide what you take with you and what you give away. Once you make the decisions, then you don't even need My help, dear one.
Gloria:
I want to throw away old emotions, associations, thinking, stumbling blocks, theories, virtues, ideas, pictures, playing fields, impressions, fears, foibles, fantasies, resistance, habits, denials, angers, hurts, evaluations, comparisons, phrases my mother used to say, beliefs, refrains, discouragement, needs, predictions, detours, energies, disappointments, expectations, control, avoidance, limitations, lies, points of view.
Anything from the past that was helpful and would be helpful now, I would like to keep. Connection with You. Values — I'm not sure — with my values comes snobbery. I would keep any goodness I may have done or had been given to me — why do I even want to keep those? Maybe I should empty everything. Maybe all I need is my connection with You.
God:
That's right. That's seeing the day as the new sun. Behind is behind. Tomorrow is tomorrow. Today is today.
Today is new Gloria, rising from the earth, like a tulip bulb, and now she grows taller, and now she flowers, and now she reaches the sun, and now she shines bright and vibrant.
How simple is a tulip! What complications does it have? It follows its inner urgings and bursts the ground at its appointed time.
What has a tulip to do but be a tulip?
In your case, each day, you are a new tulip bursting forth. That is all.
You burst forth from sleep. Even lazily, it is still bursting forth. From your bed, you rise, and the day has begun.
You do not know what these writings are going to contain. You do not demand that they come along according to an idea you have left over from another day.
You do request that the writings come along. You sit there, waiting for them. You do not wield a baton or sword. Simply a pen that waits with you to see what comes forth.
That is how a new day transpires. What will it bring? You ask for nothing but that it be itself and bring forth whatever it brings.
Today, Gloria, the Tulip, emerges and merely looks around and issues its leaves of Gloria.
Gloria beckons the day and welcomes its offerings, as she welcomes the words her pen writes. That is Gloria the Tulip.
Gloria to Mother Divine:
Dear Mother Divine, what will you tell me this morning, if you do wish to tell me?
Mother Divine:
A tulip is a good image for you. A tulip is serene, simple, and satisfying. It is what it is. Clear lines. Not complicated. And it is bright. I never saw a bedraggled tulip or a hesitant one or a shy one.
A tulip is a tulip. And a Gloria is a Gloria.
Do you have to be anything but a tulip?
What are you like? What is the simple essence of you?
Gloria:
God.
Mother Divine:
And your personality is a certain draping. A tulip keeps its personality, but what is it? The outward Gloria does not have to be the outward Gloria of the past. What does this mean?
It means you do not even think Gloria-ness. You think God, and Gloria takes care of itself.
Your little dogs don't think: "What is my personality? What am I like?" They just are their personality. They are as natural as the tulip image of you.
So you do not think, "What am I like? How should I be? How do I want to be?"
You just are Gloria, effortless, not self-conscious Gloria, but God-conscious Gloria just being. A God being, identified as Gloria, the human being.
Be. Be. Be. How weightless that is. How easy, how light. All burdens lifted. Oh, to just be. To be the Gloria you are. Not having to be anything, just a Gloria, a simple tulip looking for the sun in her hand.
Not having to say anything but what is truly there to say. The tongue not forming, the tongue innocent, merely moving in truth.
The eyes not predicting. The eyes simply seeing and not making anything of it, not seeing fear or death but just another simple tulip or two.
Not straining to hear anything but what comes to the ear — beauty or not beauty — and not making anything of it. Just passing sounds, and you let them pass.
Consider Gloria intact. She is not the moving object. She doesn't run to this or that. She stands still, and the world comes to her — the skies, the dew, the air, the birds. Gloria does not have to fetch anything, run up and down the stairs, nor lose anything because it is all scenery that moves past her.
This is neutral, Gloria.
Coast with the ship of life. You are on this sea for but a short time. It costs nothing. Good to just enjoy the sights, honor them, trust in them, and let them pass by you without mourning or regret for the joy they gave you and you received.
This is Lesson One of this course in life. What is the lesson?
Gloria:
Be.
Mother Divine:
Just right.
Later…
Gloria to God:
Dear God, thank You for today. Nothing amazing occurred, but I felt lots of bliss. I did get a letter out to my favorite literary agent, kefir babies to Sandra, and a divine picture out to Karen. Tomorrow more letters out. It was also beautiful writing that You and Mother Divine gave me this morning. Now, dear Heavenly Father, what would You like to tell me?
God:
Accept your misdemeanors as well as others'. When you accept your own, it will be easier to accept others'. Accept means to release it. It will be good to release everything as it happens, and then there is nothing to let go of. When you don't hold on in the first place, it's one step rather than the two of holding and on and having to let go. Accepting means to let go.
Be appraised of your great progress. You have taken giant steps.
Tell your friends who read My words that this applies to them as well.
Progress comes in increments, so you don't always notice. You can, however, take My word for it.
Gloria:
I would think so!
God:
And yet you don't always. Sometimes you still doubt. Doubt is another thing to add to your list of what you would like to remove.
Doubt is a devil. It is sneaky and trips you up. It serves no other purpose than that. It is a booby trap. It is sabotage. Doubt is disservice to My creation. It is a nothing thing. It offers nothing, and wants to take away your heart. And your heart is everything.