According to A Course in Miracles, there is no order of difficulty in miracles. You can search the text by going to www.jcim.net and put no order of difficulty in the search box. I did that today after I heard the news that my cousin Scott was moved out of intensive care after two months. At one point my Aunt Jerry was told that he had only a 4% chance of survival. Apparently that doctor doesn’t know about miracles and the power of prayer. Thank You God!
My Mom loved the Dairy Queen. What she enjoyed the most was a hot fudge sundae. She preferred the small size. That was all she needed. When the Minister spoke at her funeral he said that Dorothy could always spot the red roof of the DQ wherever they went. For about twenty-five years they were able to travel all over thru Texas, Florida, Arizona, all the great places the snowbirds went.
So shortly after Mom died I started noticing Dairy Queen trash in odd places. Once when I went to the American Cancer Society to give the memorial checks I noticed some thrash on the bottom step. It was a Dairy Queen sundae cup. The small size just like Mom liked. I thought isn’t that interesting. There isn’t a DQ anywhere near there. This was just one of many times that I found Dairy Queen trash. It always made me smile and think of Mom. Around this time, Nick Bunick, the author who wrote The Messengers was compiling a book of stories of people who had experiences of connections with their loved ones after they had died. 
I decided to submit my story about the Dairy Queen trash sent from my Mom and the story was accepted and published in a book called Transitions of the Soul.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1571742522/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_tdfhob0BV5FEY
Recently I was telling this story to Cathie, a friend of mine. As soon as I got done rambling on about “my story” we received a call from a co-worker. It seems that Clarence wanted to treat everyone to a hot fudge sundae and did we want one. Well of course we did, it was 96 degrees outside and Dorothy wanted us to think of her. Thanks Mom. I love you so much!
MY STORY – HOW I CAME TO LOVE A COURSE IN MIRACLES
by Karen Montague
I am what Barbara Sher calls a “Scanner.” I am constantly bringing in new information and flinging it out to wherever I think it needs to go. According to my test results from Strengths Finder 2.0, I am a “Connector.” What that means to me is that I believe everything happens for a reason. I remember my Granny giving me these words of wisdom when I was a preteen. I can even remember where I was standing when she told me this great advice. Those words have served me well over the years.
I feel like I have been a “seeker of truth” forever. I want to know why I’m here and what my purpose is. Oh yeah, and I want to be enlightened too! So I have read many books and spent a lot of money and time going to workshops, conferences, listening to self-help tapes, all the current “in” stuff my scanner self could find. Always searching for answers. Most of my adult life from the mid-twenties until mid-fifties I didn’t belong to a church or religious organization. I didn’t believe in them. I was on my own spiritual path.
I believe in angels and that is a whole other story. I even had my own angel gift store called Angel Treasures from 1996 to 2002. During that time I first came across the book A Course In Miracles. I thought it was kind of expensive and yet very intriguing. Who was Anonymous who wrote this? I tried studying it by myself for about seven years. Sometimes I would make a New Year’s Resolution to do the Workbook. This consisted of 365 daily lessons. I found them confusing. Usually by the end of February I was off trying something else. After all, I am a scanner.
In 2007 my friend Olga and I went “church shopping.” First we went to the Christian Scientist Church. I found it fascinating and thought if I ever had a serious illness I would definitely want them praying for me. Yet there was still something missing. I felt welcomed there but it didn’t feel like that was where I belonged.
Next we checked out Unity. I had the experience that many people have when they first find themselves at Unity…I felt like I had come home. Suddenly I was finding myself around like-minded people. I didn’t feel like I was an out of place nutcase. So I started getting involved and attending different classes and meditations. I was like a sponge. I couldn’t get enough of the teachings of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. I was hooked. And then there was the music. So uplifting and joyful. “I am the Thinker who thinks the thoughts that changes the things that shape my life.” Sometime during this period I read Marianne Williamson’s book A Return to Love. This peaked my interest again in A Course In Miracles. I was also reading The Quest and attending a one year study group. I guess you could say I was committed to my own spiritual growth.
It was so much fun to feel like part of a family. By this time both of my parents were deceased and so I felt like I was somewhat of an orphan. I needed connection. I met many wonderful people and continued to learn and grow and figure out who I came here to be. Along about October of 2008 I remember asking Shari Sterenberg, our Licensed Unity Teacher, if anyone was ever going to teach A Course In Miracles again at Unity. Then the following Sunday, there it was in the Heads Up. A new study group was forming to study…you guessed it…ACIM. I was sure I had manifested that. 
About the same time I was getting e-mails from Linda Cox. She is a Course student/teacher who now lives in Tucson but who I met thru our mutual friend Gail who lives in Detroit. Gail had an Angel Treasures store at the same time I had mine. We were like soul sisters. I remember receiving an e-mail from Linda about an upcoming ACIM conference being held the next year in February in San Francisco. One of the presenters was Tom Whitmore from the Course In Miracles Society in Omaha, Nebraska. I remember thinking “there’s a Course In Miracles Society in Omaha? I wonder what that is all about.”
So the next Sunday I found myself attending my first study group of A Course In Miracles. There I sat facing Tom Whitmore whose picture I had seen in Linda’s e-mail. I remember thinking isn’t it interesting how we are all so connected.
So the following January we started diligently studying the daily lessons. We have a study guide we follow that leads us thru the text, workbook and manual for teachers in one year. I’m pretty sure the first two years most of what I read went right over my head. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, yet some of the concepts were a little hard to accept. What do you mean nothing I see means anything and I’m never upset for the reason I think. In a nutshell I think this is what I learned those first two years:
So midway thru year number two which was 2009, I found myself elected to the Board of Trustees at Unity of Omaha and I participated in a board retreat. Sometime during that weekend retreat I remember praying to find a job with a “conscious” business owner. I was pretty specific. At this time I was a real estate agent not making much money and I was looking for multiple streams of income. When I went to the ACIM study group the next day Tom asked me a question. He said “Karen, I have a question for you and I know you know the answer but you don’t know what the question is.” I said “OK, what is the question?” He responded by saying that he needed someone part-time in his office to do the bookkeeping for his nonprofit organization the Course In Miracles Society, and did I know anyone who might be interested. My response…”Yes, that would be me.” So very soon after that conversation I found myself with a new job with a conscious business owner, just like I had prayed for. How lucky I am!
Then there was year number three. I remember getting to Lesson 281 which says I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. WOW, I remember thinking we could spend an entire year on this one lesson alone. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. Yet I don’t even recall ever reading this lesson in the prior two years. So as they say, when the student is ready…the teacher will appear. I guess I was ready to hear that one. I am always trying to quiet my ego mind. Sometimes not very successfully and then I remember. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.
So now I am halfway thru year number four of this great adventure of studying A Course In Miracles. In February a group of us went to San Francisco to the ACIM conference. Over 400 Course students and teachers in one place. Talk about energy! At this point, I can’t imagine my life without it. I love it! I feel like I am learning the information on a much deeper level. Sometimes I will read a paragraph or even a sentence two or three times. It doesn’t really matter if I’m really getting it or not. On some level I am. This is a course in mind training. I am going to continue to be diligent for God. I am going to find time to connect with God every day and I am going to put the Holy Spirit in charge. I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Christ who sent me. I am hopeful that my ego’s days really are numbered. I believe I’ve been trying to transcend my ego state of consciousness since junior high. Isn’t it about time I get it right???
Anyone in the Omaha area who would like to visit our study group, we meet every Sunday morning at 8:30 at Unity of Omaha located at 3424 N. 90th Street. Also if you don’t already have a copy of the original edition, we have some available that are slightly damaged and unsaleable. We give them for “free” to newcomers. All are welcome! Blessings to you.
6/12/11
To live without regrets requires the discipline of awareness, the compassion to forgive and the courage to change. I am aware of my true nature–that I am a spiritual being, loved and guided by the Divine Infinite. Anytime I feel I have failed to be my best self, I remember that I am learning to live and love at the highest level of my soul’s wisdom. I ask Spirit to reveal what I might change to move closer to being my best self. I then ask for the courage to make that change.
Knowing I am doing my best, I have compassion for myself. As I learn to forgive myself, I find it easier to forgive others. I am at peace with the path that has brought me to this place of understanding. I have no regrets, and I love the life I live now.
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