Earth is the ultimate classroom, and our life expe­riences provide the curriculum for our learning and growing. Science of Mind teaches that we are each incarnations of the Divine, here to express the One in unique, individualized forms. We are each a God seed that contains within all that is needed for full expression as a God being. We don’t seem to start life knowing this—we awaken to our divine identity, and life experiences are great awakeners. Each difficulty is a passageway inviting us to come out the other side with a greater experience of God and a greater ex­pression of the divine being. “Take what shows up on your plate and transform it until it feeds you,” is the way Ram Dass put it.

Ernest Holmes wrote that we are not punished for our mistakes, but by them: We will experience the consequences of what we set in motion—another aspect of life’s curriculum. Right now, our planet is revealing the consequences of our loveless and sometimes careless use of her. Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Lakota Nation recently sent a message to world spiritual leaders asking for all to unite in prayer. Referring to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexi­co, he wrote, “The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The catastrophe ... which looks like the bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes that we cannot afford to continue to make. We ask for prayers that ... this bleeding will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work... that people are guided in repairing this mistake, and that we seek to live in harmony as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on. As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.”

May we each be swift in our learning and awaken as people who truly love and care for ourselves, each other, all creatures, and our beautiful Earth.