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| Book cover courtesy Amazon |
By October 1991, I knew that I had learned what I needed to learn from these groups; I was ready for my next step. I chanced on my direction in the recommendation of a massage therapist whose office was in the same building as the meeting place for A Course in Miracles, a spiritual study group. At my first meeting, a reference to God had prompted my discomfort, yet I left with an intention to return. Much of what I had heard had shown me that this was where I could continue to find a better way to live; I had had a mid-forties breakdown in my orientation to life. Soon I began bringing a question every week. Each one related to what I was experiencing as a mother of two daughters, seventeen and twenty-four. My older daughter would soon move into an apartment and the younger begin her university years, yet both were still in the family home. While I found the language of the book hard to understand, I listened carefully as helpful explanations were given. I was both excited and calmed as all was new learning. Each week I came with a firm intention for my quest to leave with my next understanding of how this information was specifically going to help me parent adult children; I was the one parent in my home.
From A Flower for God, Chapter 11, “Always Loved” . . .
I was the only one asking personal questions, but I didn’t let that deter me for I wanted to know what A Course in Miracles had to do with me at that point in my life—what new thought I might glean that I could carry home weekly and use to be a better parent. Not until many years later did I find validation for my questioning when reading mythologist Joseph Campbell where he wrote of his view of his years of teaching in the 1960s at an all-women’s college. Sarah Lawrence was different in that the faculty had to learn what the interests of the students were. Campbell writes that he was forced to consider what he taught from the women’s point of view: “What does the material mean to life? What does it mean to me? I don’t care why this myth occurred there, and then over there, but not over here. What does it mean to me?” I had wanted to know what A Course in Miracles meant from a woman’s point of view.*
My realization is, “We may have limited understanding of the thoughts that prompt our actions, yet at a later time—even of many years, discover that our thinking had been from beyond a personal realm and instead part of a greater consciousness.”
* Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work (Novato CA: New World Library, 2003) 70-71.
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. Campbell’s theory is, “that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.” https://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Campbell/e/B000AQ33DK
* Prema Jasmine Camp, A Flower for God (forthcoming). A memoir of my spiritual awakening and journey to God that began long before I was aware.