Remember Who You Are (continued)

by Mary Ann Ruth

Last week I began reading Marianne Williamson's book, The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for Living Your Best Life (Harper San Francisco, 2004). My eyes fell on the title of Chapter Two: "From Forgetting Who We Are to Remembering Who We Are." Marianne Williamson, the internationally recognized author and spiritual lecturer, was referring to one of the teachings in A Course in Miracles which reminds us that each of us is a child of God and one with the Divine Source.

At that moment, I remembered that I had studied A Course in Miracles in the 1980's. I think the powerful teachings in the Course resonated with and strengthened the earlier message that I am loved by the Creator, am a spiritual being having a human experience, and that love is my essence. (Of course, my essence does not always express itself in my daily human actions in the world.)

When I was a young child my own sense of spirituality convinced me of the unity of all that is, even though I frequently felt separate, not belonging, and wrong. I was supported by spiritually-focused, ecumenical parents, god-parents, years of religious instruction, and study of theology and world religions in college.

As a teenager, I read all the classical religious texts I could get my hands on. Many of my resources came from my mother's books on loan from our church library. Most of them came from the Christian and Roman Catholic tradition. The saints and mystics wrote about the importance of seeking communion with God through contemplation, meditation and prayer, as well as acts of practical charity like feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, and visiting the sick.

When I learned about church history, talked to others who felt estranged from organized religion, and read about some of the misguided and hurtful actions taken by church leaders, including mistaken beliefs that had to be corrected along the way-like church scholars believing that women didn't have souls, or ministers [mis-]quoting the bible to justify slavery and all kinds of discrimination and exclusion from church leadership and community-I realized that any one of us is in danger of forgetting who we are.

Marianne Williamson's books have always been a bright spot in my personal library because she represents the kind of ecumenical thought that is my cultural heritage. As a Jewish woman who honors Christianity, and gathers her insights from an eclectic blend of spiritual traditions, Williamson points to wisdom gathered from the many paths humans have created in search of truth.

Williamson acknowledges our individual and collective struggles, including the potentially overwhelming challenges we have faced such as the cumulative effects of 9/11 and its aftermath, the accelerating speed of change, daily busyness and overload, the petty hurts of others, the guilt of our own transgressions, and woundedness at all levels of society.

The Gift of Change suggests practical ways of being the change for love and peace we want to see in the world by remembering who we are.