Quote of the Week
My Self is ruler of the universe: It is impossible that anything should come to me unbidden by myself. Even in this world, it is I who rule my destiny. What happens is what I desire. What does not occur is what I do not want to happen. This must I accept. For thus am I led past this world to my creations, children of my will, in Heaven where my holy Self abides with them and Him Who has created me.
ACIM Lesson 253
Would that we could believe the grand vision of ourselves (our Higher Selves) as expressed in the above quote. Not from a place of egotistic arrogance, but as the normal, natural result of our divine heritage. Indeed it is arrogance to deny this inheritance given that it comes to us from the perfect Lord of Creation, who certainly is beyond error. Is this not the inheritance befitting one whose identity is that of a child of God. Could we expect any less be offered by God to His children? Yet, even though we can agree that we are indeed children of God, we have a difficult time reconciling that grand truth with the apparent reality of our daily existence. Where almost all our thinking addresses worldly concerns like, “Why oh why can’t I get a higher credit limit on my American Express card?” As opposed to the thinking that acknowledges and expresses our divine inheritance as ruler of the universe. How can we bridge the distance between these two ways of being, thinking and doing? The obvious solution is to spend more time contemplating, embracing, and expressing the implications of what it means to be a child of God, of what it means to be ruler of the universe. The motivation for such an endeavor need only be that it may have a profound positive effect on our understanding and experience of life. It would indeed be a worthy endeavor, even if the universe we are ruler of is our own minds, for not many of us can truly say that we are the ruler of our own mind. Such an accomplishment would be of great benefit to us, so let us consider the implications of the statement “My Self is ruler of the universe.” The word ‘Self’ is capitalized implying that it is not our ego-driven individual self, that is being talked about here, but our Higher Self, that part of our being that is pure, perfect and always connected to our Creator and to all of creation. We could think of it as our unifying right brain connection, as opposed to our familiar ego-driven, dream-making, analytical, and judgmental left brain* connection. Our Higher Self is unified with our Creator, and therefore with everything in the universe, even with our illusory ego self. Our Higher Self therefore knows all that could be know as to what is in our individual best interest, now and in the future, and how it impacts all of creation; it is therefore the only one rightly able to rule the universe. Our ego-driven self is easily overwhelmed in trying to understand the implication of even one action, on us and those directly affected, and is therefore incapable of judgment simply because it does not have all the data and processing power necessary to evaluate the infinite variables involved. Clearly then it is in our best interest to develop a close working relationship with our Higher Self, for that alone will bring maximum success to all our individual endeavors, and do so in harmony with the desires of everything else in creation. How do we go about developing such a relationship with our Higher Self? How do we become more friendly with our Higher Self? Easy. Be Still! Practice being quiet for a few minutes every day, sit comfortably with an open mind and heart, putting aside all concerns and open our awareness to the tranquil silence of our Higher Self. Being willing to lean not onto our own understanding of things, but open, not expecting, but open to new insights, new awareness, and the deep and perfect wisdom of our closest friend, our Higher Self.Peace, Edmond 
* See Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight talk on TED and her book by the same name, for first hand information on the functioning of our left and right brain hemispheres. Also listen to her interview with Terry Gross on NPR
