Epiphany! A Forgiveness Lesson in Valenica

I was in an internet cafe in Madrid and for the FIRST time since I have been in Europe I took out my laptop and took it to an internet cafe. A man saw it and waited all day until I was working at an internet station in the cafe with the case on the floor beside my foot. My foot was TOUCHING IT! When I realized it was gone I asked them to call the police. They refused. So I went out into the street where I found a traffic cop who came with me, and a lovely man who was a professor of business. He spoke English. We went back to the internet cafe, and while we were standign there waiting for the police the man who had eyed my computer came into the cafe and stood in front of me pretending to look at a bulletin board. I recognized him from the morning when he had looked at my computer with greedy eyes. Immediately that he realized I recognized him he darted out of the cafe towards the elevator and jumped into it and went UP! I told my professor friend that it was him and we went downstairs to watch to see that the man did not come downstairs and leave. The policemen arrived and I told them he was IN THE BUILDING! They said, "NO, he has left!" And there I was, with FOUR policemen, none of whom spoke English, and one Business professor, and no one could catch him or even believed me or understood what was happening. So I lost all my pictures from my incredible trip, and all that I have written, and all the pictures of you and I and all the pictures from the last three years. I was going to back it up that night. SHIT! But there was a reason. The next day, after filing the police report, and calling Canada to file a report with my insurance, I came to Valencia, where, I thought I would be able to go to the beach and recuperate, because you really need to heal after a theft. It is like a form of rape of your indentity, and the girl in the hotel suggested I go to the beach where it  is calm and peaceful.

 

On the first day in Valencia, I could not find the beach, but I went looking around and tried to find the Teatro Principal, since that is what fascinates me. I had a map, and I was trying to find the theatre, which was supposed to be off the main square, but there were so many streets radiating off teh main square, and I could not find the correct street. I took one street that looked right, but thenI stopped in dismay, realizing I was lost, when suddenly I noticed in front of me, on the corner of the street a small curved white feather swirling in a circle about four feet in diameter. It went around and around, until it was sure it had my attention. Then it began to spiral upwards, until it disappeared, or so I thought, into the blazing sunshine. I watched, and sure enough, it emerged from the glare of the sun and moved to the left, as if guiding me to follow it. So I did. I went back up to the square where I had made the wrong choice, and followed it to...the theatre. Beside the theatre was the tourist information where I saw there was a theatrical presentation of the history of medieval Vallencia that night, so I got a reservation and decided to go to see a Cathedral that was nearby. As soon as I entered the Cathedral a young man named Victor accosted me and told me that Dan Brown who wrote the Da Vinci Code was a liar, and the REAL Holy Grail, the cup that Jesus drank from when he was blessing his disciples at the Last Supper, WAS THERE IN THAT CHURCH!!!  I scoffed at him, and he said I should go and do the audio tour, and afterwards he would bring me the brochure in English that explained it. And there it was, in a chapel above the alter, the cup that Jesus drank from, made from agate, polished in Syria or Egypt in the first century, brought to Rome by St. Paul, and used in remembrance of Christ for centuries, hidden, and then passed on. So that was the miracle, but the REAL miracle was the blessing that I saw in a painting in the Cathedral of Valenica. There was a painting of Christ with the THEIF on the cross, and I remembered that Christ forgave him, and told he that today he would be in Paradise with him, and so, answering the question, "What would love do now?" I forgave myself for my anger at the theif, and expressed gratitude for the blessing of seeing what might actually be the Holy Grail. (Althought the Spaniards do not believe it, even though the Pope did!)

 

I realized that at some very deep level I have been projecting onto the world that I am in some sense a thief, that I do not deserve what I have, and the freedom to do what I am doing, and what I have, my abundance, my life, because in some way I have not truly earned it, and therefore I must be guilty, and deserve to be punished. Ergo, I created a thief to rob me, so I could express the rage and guilt that I feel towards myself onto the thief, and desire him to be punished as I think I deserve to be.

 

And so, remembering what Christ did, and realizing that we are all one, that Christ is not special, merely a brother, an innocent Child of God, like myself, and realizing that God is nothing more or less than agape, or the Love that consumes and forgives and blesses al with compassion, I  forgave myself for believing that crock of guilty nonsense that I have been carrying around like so much extra uneeded baggage. I decluttered myself of that erroneous thought, and returned to simplicity and peace, here in Valencia. Someone who is carrying past pain and negativity cannot be simple. And cannot receive love. There is no room. Too much baggage. And, my God, it costs a lot of money to send baggage home where it belongs!

 

As the Course in MIracles says, "The only thing about the past that you can be certain of is, it is not here!"

 

So that is story of my the learning on my pilgrimage for today!

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May peace prevail.
Shelora