There is nothing to teach and yet there is so much to learn. The first lesson is that everything is a paradox. Once you know and accept that, you can quit listening to drivel. I used to shovel drivel into the mouth of my mind like it was a hot fudge sundae. Mmmmm, it tasted so good—until I forgot it seconds later.

The internet is like that. You are surfing for all kinds of reasons. Some of them are worthy but most arise from boredom.

You watch pets and recipes and gossip. You take in wisdom but you are drinking from a dribble glass. Oh, God has a sense of humor, indeed.

He knows more than Santa Claus and yet He loves you anyway. Some of you pride yourselves on intellectual knowledge of the Self. The mind loving God is perhaps the biggest joke of all.

God loves us when we laugh at what we used to call knowledge. Our stacks of books cost a lot of money and yet we didn’t retain a thing.

The holidays, which purport to be about the birth of Jesus, consist of tissue paper. Once a good rain comes, they can be balled up and tossed in the trash. Now depression sets in. We have maxed out our credit and watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” until we can quote all of the memorable lines. And yet when we are asked to take out the trash, laziness hits us.

I have been telling you the situation, as Vernon Howard, used to say. The solution is simple: Be what you know without taking thought. Remain inside the messy mind. Clear some space and sit down and take a good long look at it. Poof! It’s gone. Merry Christmas!

Vicki Woodyard