Sink into happiness

“Magic is becoming the new norm.”— Bentinho M. Assaro

It’s open window season where I live which means some of my best teachers wake me up each morning with their chorus of joy.

These teachers (most people call them birds) are out there riffing on the day, blaring songs that will never be sung in just that arrangement again. They’re not reading self-help literature or wondering how to heal their childhood wounds.

Likewise, the sun rose this morning with a brand new palette of colors. It painted a one-of-a-kind vista unique to my GPS coordinate on this big stone hurtling through space. It’s not mad at the president or worrying about nuclear war.

The natural world is my best teacher.

Those cardinals and tree frogs trilling advertisement for mates? The squirrels using my fence as a tightrope?  They’re my mentors when it comes to ACIM Lesson 122.

In a nutshell, it says, “clear your mind of all dead thoughts.”

The mother fox parading her kits alongside the road is not obsessing about work or whether or not her butt looks big.

Worry, anxiety, fear, whether or not your butt looks big—all dead thoughts.

Being sealed inside, glued to a smartphone or to a box with 292 channels—dead thoughts.

Forgiveness (which this lesson promises will give us everything we want) is simply letting go of all dead thoughts (and that’s anything that’s not happening right this very now).

Today, I’m going to go outside, listen to the soundtrack of nature, check out the new episode playing every hour in my backyard.

I’m going to follow my mentors in the natural world who neither toil nor sow, neither worry nor fret.

Dead thoughts be gone.

Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her new book, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.