Don’t get even. Get odd.

“You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. Everything else is your own nightmare and does not exist.”—A Course in Miracles

I met a woman the other day whose mother came to live with her from her homeland of China. Her mom, who can’t speak English, likes to walk around the neighborhood and because she’s friendly and always waves, neighbors often strike up a conversation. Her mom always smiles and, even though she can’t understand a word, says, “I love you. I love you. Goodbye.”

Our Source (God, to use Course in Miracles terminology) is sorta like my friend’s mother. It sees us as perfect, beautiful, amazing creations and can’t understand the crazy dialog that runs like a ticker tape through our minds. It just keeps saying, “I love you. I love you.”

Lesson 5 from the Course in Miracles is “I am never upset for the reason I think.”

It might seem like we’re upset because of something happening out there (politics, our mean bosses, a snow bomb that’s wreaking havoc with our electric grid), but it’s always, 100 percent of the time something that’s happening within us.

Life itself is never painful. It is only a mirror of our beliefs. And just like you don’t look in the mirror, notice your mascara is smudged, and then try to “fix it” on the mirror itself, you can’t really “fix” your problems out there. You “fix” your problems by recognizing them as a case of mistaken identity and then changing the inner belief, the inner cause.

So that’s why I say. Don’t get even (with that problem that appears to be out there). Get odd by going inside and knowing that, despite all appearances, your Source, like my friend’s mother, is simply saying, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.