AYoMW: Jan. 30, 2020 — Squinting at the Divine Light in Walmart

Lesson 30: God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.

After my first round through the workbook of A Course in Miracles, I decided to try an experiment. If it’s true that God is in everything I see because God is in my mind – and there’s really only one of us here anyway – I decided to go to my local Walmart.

I don’t know about you, but I hate going shopping, especially in Walmart where folks seem to be bound and determined to block the aisles, saunter slowly with their carts and leave you no way around them and generally be obstacles and a nuisance as you attempt to get to the dairy department or the dog food.

This time, however, I was determined to see God in everything at the Walmart – because God is in my mind and if God is my mind, I can project God out here and experience the love of the Holy even in Walmart.

It was a surreal and amazing experience. As I passed each person, I noted to myself, “There’s God in the Walmart.” (I suppose, for all the weird things I’ve seen in Walmart, I could have said this aloud and attracted very little attention!) It felt a little odd at first, but as I continued to do that – silently greeting each person that passed me as God in flesh – my vision truly began to change. I stopped seeing other people as obstacles and began to sense a Holy presence right there in that blocked aisle.

“Look at those amazing images of God congregating in the aisle!” I thought to myself. I just stood there and marveled. Eventually, they found what they needed and moved on, clearing my path. It was like a meditation for me, studying their movements and interactions with one another, really seeing the beauty of their innocence, their true Selves out buying coffee, cereal and peanut butter.

God is in everything because God is in my mind. So often, we use our mind to project the ego’s images of fear, competition and irritation. Today’s lesson is an invitation to begin projecting our true, divine Self out into the world – to share our inner light with everyone we meet.

During my Walmart excursion, I chatted with people in the aisles and the checkout line. I never do that. As an introvert and an empath, I’m usually trying to get out of crowds as quickly and quietly as possible. But, when you see God in the Walmart, you want to have chat with her, in whatever form he takes. Those images of God were gracious, funny, welcoming and warm. Whatever worries any of us had seemed to melt away as we exchanged pleasantries and chatted about everything from the weather to their kids.

I wondered if this is what it’s like to live in the happy dream the Course says it seeks to develop within us to move us to that final step of enlightenment back to our unified state.

My ego, of course, was not happy with this turn of events and eventually found a way to worm me back into a state of fear and despair – but my Walmart excursion remains a touchstone – a Holy reference point of the place I want to live in more and more.

When I am mindful that God is in everything because God is in my mind, I become more willing to receive and create miracles, because I have traded my ego’s limited sight for the Holy’s infinite eyes.  

Hafiz reminds us of the central theme of this lesson:

You can return to Springtime whenever you want. 

And your greatest pleasures, 
don’t let their memory ever fade;
let them be as they should – 
a genuine guide and friend,

ever there to take you back again 
to what made you happy. 

Anywhere your soul once or might someday call home,
come to your senses – you carry that inside now,
so don’t look shortchanged. 

Things can only appear dismal until that one eye
opens and the sacred flame makes you squint.

You can return to the Divine Season at a flex
of your will’s might, and be the luminous sphere
in the sky, raining on us, as it does.

Photo by Oleg Magni from Pexels