In the text "A Course In Miracles" there is an exquisite saying: Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God."
I have worked very deeply with this truth over the past two weeks. My hospice work is getting fuller and richer.
One patient is a wonderful man in his 90's whose wisdom in spiritual matters astounds me. I literally sit at his feet because he has trouble holding his neck up in order to look at me while we converse about God and he shares his favorite scriptures from the Bible with me. One day I was blown away at the complete appropriateness of this form. He is a great teacher. He is a devout Seventh Day Adventist.
Another man is the caretaker for his wife who has very advanced Alzheimer's. He is well into his 80's and struggles with his own limitations of aging but cannot bear to send his wife away from her home. They have been married for over 50 years. Now, she looks at him with incomprehension and tells him that she scares her. When he smiles back at her it is a smile that breaks my heart. He shares his Mormon faith with me and I let him say all he wishes to say. He is not trying to convert me. He is trying to hold on to the only anchor he has.
Within all of this I come to a deeper faith and stillnes about my own beliefs. What is real about my interactions with both of these men is that we cherish our faiths and therefore, not feeling threatened by the other, we are curious about each other and can share our common ground. Our faiths embrace and all that is unreal; the differences and fear that divide people from each other; melts away in the light of common respect and gratitude.
Herein, indeed, lies the Peace of God.
