Have you ever heard someone say they “feel like a fish out of water?” I have experienced this feeling several times in my life. It’s a hard emotion to explain, but I would describe it as a general feeling of being out of sync with whatever is going on around me. I love the perspective that we learn from A Course in Miracles; that we really are like a ‘fish out of water’ if we identify with our body and our experience in form to the extent that we feel that is our true Reality. Who we truly are is outside of form and bodies. So it makes sense that we often feel ‘a stranger here.’
In Lesson 182 in the A Course in Miracles workbook we learn the important teaching stated as: “I will be still an instant and go home.” Anytime we feel that feeling of disconnect with our surroundings, that ‘fish out of water’ feeling, we can use our power of focus and choice to go within ourselves, quiet our mind, and go home.
This is a powerful thought to use anytime, but it is especially helpful if we find ourselves experiencing a situation that feels overwhelming or oppressive. ‘I will be still an instant and go home.’ We can focus on connecting with the stillness within ourselves and mentally choose to go either above or below what we are experiencing. It can be very helpful to view a situation from a higher perspective or below. Remember that feeling of shutting out the world you can experience when swimming and putting your head underwater and descending to the bottom of the pool? That can be a powerful visual in understanding what we are doing by being still for an instant and going home. Our physical senses are instantly quieter. The external world seems to fade away. Its still there, but our sensitivity to it is lessened.
The text says:
We speak today for everyone who walks this world, for he is not at home. He goes uncertainly about in endless search, seeking in darkness what he cannot find; not recognizing what it is he seeks. A thousand homes he makes, yet none contents his restless mind. He does not understand he builds in vain. The home he seeks can not be made by him. There is no substitute for heaven. All he ever made was hell. ACIM WB p.339)
We spend so much time searching for what we think will make us feel whole and complete. It’s like we’re trying to cover up our feelings of ‘home sickness’ by distracting ourselves with pretty gadgets, new toys and endless games of judgments and chasing success, with fulfillment always staying just out of reach. If only we could get there, we tell ourselves, then we would feel at home. We would have reached happiness. Endless and forever. But in the cruel game of form, it always turns out to be temporary at best.
The child in us, who remains as god created us, longs unceasingly for home. For heaven. This child begs us to awaken from this dream that ‘we are mortal, fallible and full of sin and remember that we are the holy child of god.’ Our inner child’s voice “cries unto us to:
“let it rest a while. It does not ask for more than just a few instants of respite, just an interval in which it can return to breathe again the holy air that fills his [creator’s] house.”
We can give this respite to the holy inner child within us. Even if it’s just a moment in length. We can remind ourselves, “I will be still an instant and go home,” and allow ourselves to reconnect with the strength of peace that is always available within us.
I’m reminded of a story I heard of a class that was held for a group of pianists at the prestigous Julliard school in New York City. These elite level musical performers were being prepared to perform under difficult situations. A sports psychologist was brought in and tasked with this assignment.
The students already had their piano pieces performance-ready. But were they ready for all situations? Would a bad case of nerves cause a mistake? Would a disruption in the audience cause a musical misfire? To prepare the students, the sports psychologist used a methodology previously used to train athletes. The students would be prepared to continue playing on, regardless of what was happening around them. As one student performed their musical piece, the rest of the class would create high levels of noise, yelling and screaming. Lights in the room would be turned on and off. Even large objects would be dropped on the floor in a loud startling clang. The challenge for the pianist was to learn to play through it and shut out the ‘noise.’
So it is with our Inner child, who but asks us to return to a place of peace as often as possible. Regardless of what loud sounds are clanging all around us in form, the challenge is to mentally shut it out, be still an instant, and go home to the peace within that is our inheritance as a child of god. And it is in this stillness that we will be able to hear our inner child speak to us.
The challenge is to let go of our judgments and condemnation. To come defenseless to this quiet altar within and recognize that this peace is all we truly want, allowing the “calls for love” in our fellow humans to be met with love and a willingness to overlook any perceived errors. Our inner Child “gives us its defenselessness, and we can accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle we have made.” This child will lead us home, if we allow ourselves to be still for an instant and go with them.
Remember, Peace is an INSIDE job. May we all find more peace moment by moment, by allowing the holy spirit to guide our actions and thoughts to the stillness and peace beyond all understanding.
Namaste-
