Hello Miracle Family,
In this week’s teaching, Love Holds No Grievances: Every Grievance Is a Mistaken Identity | ACIM Lesson 68, we looked at what a grievance actually is, beyond the surface of emotion.
A grievance is not just anger. It is a wrong idea about who you are. That means when something upsets you, something deeper is happening than reacting to a situation. You are stepping into an identity that feels justified and real in that moment.
So it becomes useful to look honestly at that. When you are upset, who do you become?
the one who was disrespected
the one who is right
the one who isn’t being heard
the one who has been treated unfairly
the one who is misunderstood
the one who now has a problem to solve
the one who has to figure this out
the one who is dealing with something difficult
Each of these feels natural, but each one is a position you take on. And once you take it on, you begin to defend it.
That is why grievances are so persistent. They are not about what someone else did. They are about maintaining a version of yourself that seems to make sense of what happened.
This becomes even clearer when you look at the role of the body. If the body is experienced as “me,” then everything that happens to it reinforces that identity. Tension becomes personal. Symptoms become meaningful. Patterns begin to define who you are. The ego uses this to stabilize the sense that you are a separate self living inside a body.
So instead of focusing only on what is happening, the more useful place to look is this:
Who am I being right now?
What identity does this situation seem to require?
What would happen if I did not take on that identity at all?
This is where the shift begins. You are not being asked to improve that version of yourself. You are being asked to notice that you are stepping into it. And in that noticing, there can be a small amount of space.
That space is where something different becomes possible.
Love,
Earl
P.S. If you need anything, I’m here. Just reach out: earlpurdy@earlpurdy.com
