I am an introvert, not a “people person,” and I quite like it that way.

I have never drawn people to me, yet my soul drew me to Vernon Howard and the Work. I drew a teacher from Hawaii from a dream that I had. A woman spoke, “You have a teacher, but you will meet a teacher from Hawaii.” Those were cryptic words, but my late husband and I did fly to Maui. Once there I found the teacher, but that is a story that I have often written about.

If you have been given the gift of the Christ Consciousness, you will never be interested in this world. You will dwell within your own silent Self. Of course, you constantly forget that you are the Christ Consciousness, but mercy is also your inheritance.

On first meeting a shaman, he healed me of most of my grief about the loss of my husband. I saw him a few more times and then the pandemic hit. He lives in Peru and I will not see him again, but a good shaman works quickly, thank God.

Now I am an elder in the tribe (of One) and I must submit to my own Self. Why? Because my ego is in the game of betraying the true self.

The world is collapsing over us, underneath us and inside of us. We would be wise to know this and give up all hope of changing the world. That is not our job.

That begs the question, “What is our job?” And the answer will not be given but experienced. And all events come and go, so it is not to change worldly events.

Acceptance to what happens is the answer. Jesus was hung on a crude wooden cross with two thieves on either side of him. That is us in this depraved world of men.

“This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise,” He spoke.

Paradise is our true inheritance, but we have to fail again and again and again to remember those last words uttered as he hung there between the opposites.

Rising above the opposites is how we transcend our painful human experiences.

Oh, the wonder of the living moment!

Vicki Woodyard