What Others See in You

If you inspire joy and others react to you with joy, even though you are not experiencing joy yourself there must be something in you that is capable of producing it. If it is in you and can produce joy, and if you see that it does produce joy in others, you must be dissociating it in yourself. (T-9.VI.1)

Years ago I had an older customer in my house cleaning business who was occasionally home when I cleaned her condo. We would talk about general things – the weather, her son’s political career, our families, etc. Nothing in depth. One day she told me she had gone in for a colonoscopy, an uncomfortable and painful procedure. The doctor’s assistant had held her hand and looked in her eyes and talked to her to distract her from her pain. She told me that she felt such peace talking to this young woman because she looked like me!

What the heck? I wondered. This woman and I had only a very casual, passing relationship. I tried to explain it away to her, but she insisted it was because this other woman reminded her of me that she felt so at peace. I realized then that she was seeing Something in me that had nothing to do with the personal me. I dissociated this Something that could inspire peace in someone else. This reinforced for me that the Kingdom of Heaven is within me and not something to be found “out there”.

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Comments

carrie genevachild said…
Yes. When I was sixteen years old, three classmates were killed in an auto accident. It seemed like the entire school showed up at the funeral home for a viewing of the bodies and to pay their condolences. As soon as I arrived, the mother of two of the students who had died spotted me from acroos a large parking lot, flung out her arms and ran toward me saying, "Thank God you've come!"

Believe me, I was startled and shaken. I had no idea what she was thanking God for. Now I know. She recognized Miriam.
12:22 PM
Anonymous said…
What if someone reacts with fear, are they seeing their own ego? I guess it's not personal...
8:44 AM
ACIM Mentor said…
Yes, everyone looks out from their own filters. What makes them afraid is their own projections (the story they tell themselves about what they see). It is never personal.
10:19 AM
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