We are all the same, mechanical wind-up toys acting as if we were real. But there is a way to become real and that is to become conscious. Oh, it is hard to do and we can’t succeed for more than a few minutes at a time, if that. But we all have a chance to wake up and become who we truly are.

If I act and feel consciously, I rise above my mechanical behaviors. This is what Christ taught, after all. “My kingdom is not of this world.” One meaning of that is that His kingdom is a conscious one.

If I can become conscious, I can become genuinely able to love myself. And in that love, I enter the Kingdom of Heaven, which is spread upon the earth.

Consciousness heals us of our sins (being off the mark).

Consciousness never rats us out; it simply lifts us above the opposites where people are pitted against each other and cannot ever love truly.

Right now we are cowards behaving mechanically, never able to settle down and experience any lasting peace.

What if we just sat with ourselves without apology? If we could do that, we would experience a healing moment. And if these moments added up, perhaps we could see that we have the right to love ourselves after all.

I look at Vicki, this senior citizen who forgets things more and more easily. She has earned the right to love herself consciously and yet she still forgets herself.

She has written millions of words about awakening and yet she still forgets the power of self-love. You do not have to love other people; you only have to see that we are all the One.

And in that oneness we receive grace.

Grace is worth your whole mechanical life, is it not?

Grace is who we are when we are conscious. Let us revel in that fact.

Vicki Woodyard