I'll make a motion to adjourn. Are we ready, Mike? Ready? Welcome to the Essex Junction Trustees meeting. Please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Welcome, Harlan. Thank you. We like to thank our audience by name. Well, if we can, since we listened to it pretty narrowed down and I could just pick it out, it was easy to do. Evan, do we have anything to add to the agenda tonight? We do. But first, President Brown sends his regrets. He has a family emergency to attend to, or he would have been here. It is an additional item for consent. It is from the Burlington Gem and Mineral Club for a banner across 2A. And I believe it is the Village Board's prerogative to approve or not approve. And it is timely because if we don't get it done tonight, by the time you meet again, their event will be over. It's abroad to what? The Gem and Mineral Club. It's the Gem, Mineral, and Bossel show. Oh, cool. And maybe I'll give them the free plug at the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds July 27th and 28th. Fantastic. So we put this, I think we want to put this in the consent, we'll add this in the consent agenda, okay? So I'll make a motion that we add the banner approval for the Gem show to the consent agenda. As item D. I'll second as... Yeah, as item D. Okay, and Amber seconds. Okay, all in favor? Aye. And so I think that's it. We have to approve. I move that we approve the agenda as amended. Okay, I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, thank you. So, audience to be heard? No? Just here to watch? I've worked so many hands now, I'm not sure I'm allowed to ever speak here again. Oh, okay. All right, okay. Well, if you wanted to, go ahead. So, on to our very first item of business, which is the public hearing, our second public hearing on the FY20 water rates and take it with you. So, this may sound a bit repetitive at this point, but as per the trustees policy on large user water rate setting, we are now having our second hearing on the water rates, the large user water rates. The large user water rate is for any user that uses 2.5 million gallons per day or more. We only have one of those in the village and after our calculations, our reconciliation on the year, looking at their actual water from last year and then the proportionate share of unaccounted for water, the rate has decreased from 0.078 to 1,000 gallons, 0.075, a 3.85% decrease from last year. Are there any questions? Are there any questions from the audience? Yeah. Sorry. So, I have a question before. Please. You all have heard the presentation before? Yes. Sarah certainly can go through the presentation or she could just answer specific questions and assuming there are none from the audience or you could ask, he so low could ask, we can move forward. Yeah, I don't, do you have any questions? And I think you cleared up all the questions that I had at our last public hearing for the water rate change. So, Dan, are you good? I'm good. Okay, so I will, I think, I don't think we need to move I think we just declare the public hearing for the FY20 water rates closed. Okay. And so, we will then move on to our first, a second item of business, which is to adopt the FY20 utility rates. And maybe just for the record, we should quickly go over these right, the 6A. Okay, I'm going to quickly go over these or do you want to do it, Sarah? Let me do it? Sure. Okay. In order to fund the FY20 water, the wastewater treatment facility and the sanitation fund budget staff recommends the village rates be set as follows. Water usage rate, 0.0188 per cubic foot. Water quarterly fixed charge, $26.86 per quarter. Wastewater treatment usage rate, 0.0098 per cubic foot. Wastewater treatment quarterly fixed charge, $25.82 per quarter. Sanitation usage rate, 0.0057 per cubic foot. Sanitation quarterly fixed charge, $24.48 per quarter. Large water user rate, 0.075 per thousand gallons. Wastewater treatment wholesale rate, $3.154 per thousand gallons. And the cost to the village resident using 120 gallons per day will increase 8.2% or $38.61 approximately, I will add that per year. The large user rate is decreasing by 3.85%, and the wastewater treatment wholesale rate is increasing 5.73%. And that pretty much wraps it up. So, do I hear a motion? Make a motion to adopt the FY20 utility rates as presented. Do I hear a second? Second. Okay. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. And so now we are on to adjusting the FY20 Water Fund Revenue Budget. Sarah, take it away. All right. So, when we first adopted the utility fund budgets back in the spring, we were still operating with approximate numbers for the large water user. And now that we have records out those to actual, there's an adjustment required in the revenue budget. Because the trustees adopted the budget with all of the revenues broken out and all of the expenses at the time when it was an approximate, this is a formality to make a small shift. The total expenditures are the same, all the expenditures are the same, total revenues are the same, but because the amount that's going to be anticipated from the large user sales is less than the original budget, that is offset by an increase in the residential sale of water reflected in the rates you just adopted. And I would look, I would ask the trustees to amend the Water Fund Revenue Budget to reflect that change so that we're on the right track as we go into FY20. Have the spreadsheets behind the scenes if you'd like me to hold them up. This looks good. Any questions? Okay, so I will make a motion that the trustees amend the FY20 Water Fund Revenue Budget to decrease revenues from water sales large users from $111,132 to $92,729 and increase revenues from sale of water residential from $1,068,385 to $1,086,788. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, unanimous. And lastly, we are on to... Second, I want to make sure... Okay, revision to personnel regulation. Sarah? Not sure who's doing this. Sarah's going to take this. It's Sarah Knight. Sarah's showing this. So this is actually one of the items that Travis had mentioned at the strategic advance during his presentation. And this fall we have two employees who are attending a conference together in Chicago for a week. One is a village employee and the other is a town employee. The current personnel regulations in the village limits the amount of meals and incidental reimbursements paid to an employee to $15 for breakfast, $15 for lunch, $25 for dinner, including gratuities on a reimbursed basis. So you have to come back with your receipts and then you will get those funds. That's a total of $55 a day which does seem to be the general time rate when you look up the US GSA website. But for Chicago, the daily per diem is $73 and this is where these two are going. The town policy allows for an employee to request that per diem amount up front. And we think that that should be more of the standard where if you're just a day trip that you can come with a reimbursement after the fact, we think it's more equitable. It doesn't place a hardship on the employees if we allow for any overnight travel for the employees to opt to request the per diem in advance up to the limits established by the US GSA which we can reference in the policy as opposed to having the hard dollars and then they will do the updating on an annual basis. So the proposed language change is the second page in this two page memo and it reflects that. And this is in line with what the town, how the town is treating its employees and we believe, we the management team of Human Resources, Evan and Finance, we think that this is the most equitable way to go. So this aligns the two and it sets us up nicely for the future. Alright. Thank you for the explanation. You're welcome. I mean we have a few people that go to conferences out of state not very often but they do. It is going to, it probably was rare that we had people that went to the same out of state conference but it is not going to be as rare as it used to be and we just want to try to align certain things and we don't like having people that have to put money out of a bucket to go get education or training at our behest. I'll make a motion that the trustees approve the proposed provision to the village of Essex Junction General Rules and Personnel Regulations. I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Okay. Thank you. Sounds good. Thank you for doing that. Thank you for updating that. It sounded like the village's policy needed to be revised. I'm glad you did it. So we are on to thank you. We're done for business items and we're on to the consent agenda. Is that correct? Yes. And will we approve the consent agenda? Items A through D. A through D. Yes. Yes. Including the mentioned addition. Thank you. Second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay. Reading. That included all of the minutes. Okay. I'll try. I was going to say, just in retrospect, there was one of the minutes that was pretty old. Didn't we approve that before? How did that manage to not be approved? You don't need to. If you don't have a specific answer, don't worry about it. I'm just sort of warm on my head. We normally, we pretty much keep up with it. It seemed like one of them was a couple of months old. The June 22nd. Yeah. No big deal. That's a joint meeting. That's a joint meeting. Okay. That's when you were in edit. Yeah. Oh, good. That's why it seemed old to you. Right. You didn't say that. So that's an old. Okay. And several of us lived it. You don't have to. You don't have to. I can approve. You can approve a meeting. I was going to. You can do it. Good. Okay. Let me know. So we are now on to the reading file board member comments. I'll make just one quick comment. The survey so far for KSV, the very first survey they put out about just a sort of general sentiment and understanding about consolidation and other issues relating to village town merger. So far, almost 500 responses. Wow. Yeah. And I think the, they're recommending that we, we, I think they're going to keep it open for like another week, but we're not going to keep promoting it because we don't want to get survey burnout because we're going to be doing a bigger survey. And so we want people to, you know, want to keep pushing it. So like, we only needed like 310 for a statistically significant response. So yeah. Is one of the questions, George, I can't remember. Was it where you took the survey or where you heard about the survey? Yes. Where did you hear or did you link to the survey is one of the questions. Right. We don't have all the data. Right. No, I understand. I just want to. There was just one, actually two age groups that we already knew we were going to get potentially a low response. 18, 17 and 18 years of age and 18 to 35. We were kind of hoping to get a better response. So one of the things that we would like to try to do over say the next week is see if we can target that audience. And I was joking with George a little bit. If we could actually reach that age group better. They, you know, if we knew how to do that. Yeah. So if you've got an idea as to generally where that 500. So do we have a general idea as to where those? Yeah. A little under 60% from village and a little over 40. It's kind of trending around 60, 40 village town. But are they seeing it on Facebook or? We didn't get that. We'll know all that. We're going to get that in a few days. But the one thing was the first blush. It was an age breakdown and location breakdown. So if you know any 18 to 35 year olds have them fill out. Well, that's what I thought. I mean, that age range. I would think Facebook would be, you know, the place to be. And I know that. That's true. Yeah. I'm too old. I'm outside. All of old people are on Facebook and they don't want to talk to us anymore. Well, I think it's there because I don't want to speak about it. But a great response by the communities. Yeah. Generally speaking, it's a pretty good response. So it bodes well for further, you know, continuing participation because people are paying attention. Does the village have in the town have Instagram? No. No? They do. No. No. Which is unfortunate for most of the young people are. Yeah. Well, we can look at, you know, we could. I would have to check to see if the. We get the data back. We can try to figure something out. They just go Facebook. But it could just be, no matter what you do, you're just not going to get a response. I mean, they're just not into taking a service. It's grandmother. They don't, they don't feel anything, you know, could be, you know, we don't know why. I think a lot of recreation departments have Instagram accounts, but I don't know if they're down in the village. Yeah. No, if they, if the rec department, somebody from the rec department can start on their Instagram. Yeah, maybe they could link it up somehow. Yeah. I don't know. Way outside of my. We're going to see Brad tomorrow. Yeah. We'll figure it out. And so anyway, that was my only comment. Anything else? Everything good? Thanks again. The 4th of July was very well attended. Harlan, thank you for you and your department. I sent you all something, you know, 4th of July is very interesting. I don't know why it always has to be the hottest day of. It's either blistering hot or it's pouring in thunderstorms. Yeah. So I guess something too is better that it was just hot and not rainy, but it is really a team effort with the police department, public works, recreation, the fire department, administration, just a little bit. We're not actually on site. Nobody wants us there. But all those departments really put together an emergency plan and action plan, fencing, vendors, the fireworks show themselves. And then usually those 4 or 5,000 people all try to leave within seven minutes of the last shell bursting in the sky. We pretty much do it actually. Seven to 10 minutes, that place is pretty well emptied out. Yeah. Pretty amazing. Preferred to take 12 to 14 minutes, take your time getting out, but that's how it goes. Kids got to get to sleep. But they did a wonderful job and they really worked well together. So that was nice to hear and see. All right. Very good job. Great event, great community event. Any other comments, questions? Are we good? So last item of business is the schedule. I don't know if you wanted a discussion about this event. Was there some? No, it's usually, my only thought, if I can just throw it out there and I'm not looking for any action, but I noticed that August 13th is, we have a regular board meeting and that is just a regular board meeting with no added joint meeting. And I would suggest that maybe we could have that meeting not happen. Just a suggestion. If it gets to the point where I know there's a lot going on and I know there's other things going on in terms of our hearing here in the village relating to the present connector and I know there are things going on relating to our joint board obligation. But that looks like it would just normally be a trustee meeting and I'm just, you might want to just think about the possibility of not having it. So if your suggestion is that if at all possible, if I could move things before or after, that would be preferred. Well, I'm throwing it out there. What do you think? What are you thinking, Dan? I'm thinking we have enough meetings. I wouldn't mind having a little break in the action because... I think you're hearing the no. Between the joint meetings, between not being the alternative to the governance committee and the regional planning commission meetings... And I'm going to say, I'm going to get that President Brown and Trustee Chala would not really concur. I think it's unanimous. Is there a word as well? We can make it happen. If it can happen, if something critical comes up, we get it. Don't worry about it. So far on the work list, we have the second public hearing on the comp plan and approving the comp plan. So we'll see how that works. I don't know if there are certain restrictions. Can you find out about the comp plan and I'll send something? Yeah, there are. There are times, unfortunately. Okay, find out about it. But if it can happen, make it happen. Maybe we can FaceTime that meeting. From the beach. Maybe not. Or the pool. Yeah. It's just a suggestion. Okay, so I think that wraps it up. If there's no further business, do I hear a motion to adjourn? Do I hear a second? Second. All right, any further discussion? All in favor? Aye. Okay, we're adjourned. Is that record timing? That one, that one, rocked and rolled. Could have probably cut it by another five minutes or so. Just missed it. In 21 minutes. But you did away with your next meeting completely. Thank you.


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And yeah, as long as I'm here in my office and available with my computer and little lighting and all that, I will continue to do these lessons. But they're very spontaneous. And yeah, I just pray in the morning and get the nudge. So another nudge. And today we're going to continue with the theme of holding this. A lot of you have been working the course and maybe you're doing the course for more than your first time in the workbook lessons.  They're pretty early on in the text and also in the workbook. And it's a subject that a theme that brings up a lot of resistance because I would just say because the sleeping mind is so identified with the body. So identified with the personality and the other personalities that surround it and the objects and images, the environment that surrounds the sleeping mind. You know, the sleeping mind has just put itself into a very, very, very deep slumber in which it's forgotten God. It forgot divine love. It forgot the infinite. And the eternal nature of reality. And now it has wrapped itself up in a cosmos, a linear cosmos, a time and space. That seems real to the perceiver because what you believe you give reality to, not in eternity. I mean, there are no beliefs in eternity, just isness. I've got my little bracelet here that my friend made for me. And it says isness. So I have it on, no matter how the cube's been around, it always says isness. So it's always the present moment. And it's always a joyful reminder that our release is in the present moment. The forgiveness occurs in the present moment. We actually see with the Holy spirit that time is simultaneous. We see with Jesus that time is simultaneous. That's why Jesus was our wayshower. He's the way, the truth and the life because he got past and transcended and forgave, released the belief in linear time. And the ego invented linear time to keep us in projections of guilt and projections of pain and shame. And really the projection of identification with the body and what we're gonna find in our workbook lesson today and the accompanying text that is going to be given with the workbook lesson is that that you can't really fully know your innocence. You can't really fully know your holiness. You can't fully really know how the power of God and the strength that you have within you in the light of God, not as a person but the strength in the Holy spirit who's guiding us and freeing our mind from these erroneous beliefs. In fact, the Holy spirit answered the fall from grace or the belief in separation from God in an instant. Simultaneously it was corrected. So the journey to God within, the journey to the kingdom of heaven within is really just a recognition, not a change at all. It's just you're accepting the correction and accepting the recognition of spirit. You're accepting in your heart that I am as God created me and that nothing, the belief in separation, the ego, the devil, Satan, whatever you wanna call it, whatever pathway you're coming from, error. The belief in error is over. It has been corrected by the Holy spirit and now our joy is to go through the mind training experience of accepting the correction, accepting the atonement. And that's what A Course in Miracles is really all about, to go your way rejoicing in the love of God, to sing a happy tune, the song of freedom, divine freedom, the song of divine innocence, the song of divine happiness and joy and abundance, you know, peace, inner peace, the peace that passes the understanding of the world. That's everything. So here we go today. We are on workbook lesson number 37 and we're just gonna dive right in and then I'll use some passages from the text to give us some support as we practice this beautiful lesson. So our lesson today, 37. My holiness blesses the world. This idea contains the first glimmerings of your true function in the world or why you are here. Your purpose is to see the world through your own holiness. Thus are you and the world blessed together. No one loses, nothing is taken away from anyone. Everyone gains through your holy vision. It signifies the end of sacrifice because it offers everyone his full due and he is entitled to everything because it is his birthright as a son of God. There is no other way in which the idea of sacrifice can be removed from the world's thinking. Any other way of seeing will inevitably demand payment of someone or something. As a result, the perceiver will lose nor will he have any idea why he is losing. Yet it is his wholeness restored. It is his wholeness restored to his awareness through your vision, the vision of Christ. Always the answer, always the goal, always the ultimate blessing, true seeing with the spirit, not through the body's eyes and not through the five senses but the faith of the spirit, the Christ within, the vision of Christ. Your wholeness blesses him by asking nothing of him. Those who see themselves as whole make no demands. Your wholeness is the salvation of the world. It lets you teach the world that it is one with you, not by preaching to it, not by telling it anything but merely by your quiet recognition that in your wholeness are all things blessed along with you. Today's four longer exercise periods used to involve three to five minutes of practice begin with the repetition of the idea for today followed by a minute or so of looking about you as you apply the idea to whatever you see. My wholeness blesses this chair. My wholeness blesses that window. My wholeness blesses this body. Then close your eyes and apply the idea to any person who occurs to you using his name and saying, my wholeness blesses you and include the name. You may continue the practice period with your eyes closed. You may open your eyes again and apply the idea for today to your outer world if you so desire. You may alternate between applying the idea to what you see around you and to those who are in your thoughts. Or you may use any combination of these two phases of application that you prefer. The practice period should conclude with the repetition of the idea with your eyes closed and another following immediately with your eyes open. The shorter exercises consist of repeating the idea as often as you can. It is particularly helpful to apply it silently to anyone you meet using his name as you do so. It is essential to use the idea if anyone seems to cause an adverse reaction in you. Offer him the blessing of your wholeness immediately that you may learn to keep it in your own awareness. My wholeness blesses the world. Feel the peace of that. Feel the release. My wholeness blesses the world. This is my one function to extend my wholeness because my wholeness blesses the world. I think today too, and this is our, we've got a string of wholeness lessons going here in the 30s. I think today I was guided to a section in the text that really helps to release the resistance to accepting wholeness as who you are. Accepting wholeness as who our brothers and sisters are.  That is the idea of the Christ. That's the kingdom of heaven within. And that this heaven is not a body. It's not a world of images. It's not a projection. This is a reality and this is the light. So when Jesus says I am the light of the world, he's talking about the spirit, the I am presence or what Eckhart Tolle calls presence. And when we start to realize that the only thing we're resisting is the light, and when we pray and we ask Jesus to help us be free of this resistance, free of doubt, free of concern and worry, Jesus is telling us it's just, it's only the sleeping mind's identification with the body and bodies that basically hold the mind back from accepting its eternal innocence. So the section from the text and of course the miracles today that we're going to look at is chapter 20, the vision of holiness. And we're going to drop down to section two, the gift of lilies. Look upon all the trinkets made to hang upon the body or to cover it or for its use. See all the useless things made for its eyes to see. Think on the many offerings made for its pleasure and remember all these were made to make seem lovely what you hate.  Learn you but offer him a crown of thorns, not recognizing it for what it is and trying to justify your own interpretation of its value by his acceptance. Yet still the gift proclaims his worthlessness to you as his acceptance and delight acknowledges the lack of value he places on himself. Okay, those are beautiful strong words. If you're watching this broadcast today or if you're watching the video of this, you are going, whoa, this is Jesus speaking in chapter 20, the vision of holiness and the gift of lilies. And I remember, oh my gosh, back in the late 1980s, I was in a course group and when the group was held at a friend K's house and basically as we went to read this, the questions were flying everywhere. Even with the first paragraph, the questions were flying. What is he talking about? What is Jesus talking about? Oh my God, he's done it now. He's gone too far. Whenever you find yourself or people saying that Jesus has gone too far, it means that the sleeping mind is not been willing to go far enough to follow Jesus. And following Jesus is following Jesus to the awareness of the I am presence. I and the Father are one before Abraham was I am. It's going all the way, way past theologies and doctrines into an actual living experience. So if any of you were a little perplexed by the first paragraph, that's okay. I'll read it again because this is really where the rubber meets the road. This is really getting at the teachings of the Course in Miracles. This is really the depth at which Jesus is pointing. He's telling us, follow me and follow me by being simple. Follow me by being in the present. Follow me by not putting investment in the body or the things of the body or the circumstances that surround the body. Don't put your effort into the environment that the ego made because the ego made the body and the ego made the environment of time, space that surrounds the body. I mean, even the early quantum physicists including Albert Einstein called it space time and basically they were quite perplexed when it came to what we now know in the quantum physics is called the unified field where everything is absolutely connected everything is connected by seemingly an energy and it's basically talking about the forgiven world or the unified field or the happy dream or you can interchangeably use many things for it. Jesus sometimes calls it true perception. It's a forgiven world and yet in order to really experience the forgiven world the true happiness of the happy dream then you have to realize that you have a purpose in mind and that purpose is everything. There's nothing that that purpose doesn't offer. That will come later on in the workbook. What do you want forgiveness cannot offer? Do you want quiet, the state of mind, a sense of purpose sense of unity, everything that you ever, ever wanted in your heart is offered by forgiveness which is letting go of the perceptual world. It's not forgiving people, places, things. It's releasing the past. It's releasing the whole construct of time and space. It's not itsy bitsy forgiving the pieces. It's forgiving the whole projection and seeing the projections not outside the mind. It's how you become the savior of the world in mind not as a person, but in unified mind, unified awareness that Mooji talks about and a lot of the great Nandu teachers, you know, Mr. Garada and so many through the centuries and then modern day ones too, Adyashanti and, yeah, this just goes on and on. Byron Cady is zooming everyone into what is, love what is. So here we go. I'm gonna read this first paragraph again just because I know it seems radical, but let's go practice the workbook here because this is our joy. This is our release. This is not looking to outcomes of the body and the world. This is looking to the kingdom of heaven within, to the vision of Christ. So again, the gift of lilies. Look upon all the trinkets made to hang upon the body or to cover it or for its use. See all the useless things made for its eyes to see. Think on the many offerings made for its pleasure and remember all these were made to make seem lovely what you hate. By the way, you may say, I don't hate my body. Well, unconsciously actually, that's what the unconscious mind is. The unconscious mind, the out of awareness mind is just pure hatred. And just because it's out of awareness and you are identifying with something on the surface of consciousness, you have to look Jesus says until you're willing to look upon the full extent of your own self-hatred you will not be willing to let it go. That's from the text. And basically Jesus is really telling us, yeah, everything that you do, think on the many offerings made for its pleasure and remember all these things were made to make seem lovely what you hate. There's a hatred that's buried and it's time to, that's the ghost in the graveyard, the ego. It's time to ollie ollie income free. Let it out. Let that hatred up and let it go to the Holy Spirit and Jesus where it will disappear. The hatred goes up like foggy mist and then comes into the bright sunshine. The fog is gone. Little drops of hatred and guilt and shame and pain come toward the light and evaporate. That's right. The course is about bringing the darkness to the light. It's about bringing the illusions to the truth. It's not about the other way around trying to proclaim the loveliness of the body because Jesus is saying, actually, if you go into your mind, you find there's a hatred. The ego is unsatisfied with the body because it thinks it's not a good enough home for it. But it is a puff of nothingness. It's a tiny mad idea that has been believed by the sleeping mind, but it's not true. None of it is true. None of the ego or the ego belief system or ego attack thoughts and grievances and judgments or the projected world of time and space, none of it has any truth or reality because none of it is eternal. None of it's spirit. None of it will last forever. Jesus continues, would you employ this hated thing, the body, to draw your brother to you and to attract his body's eyes, learn you but offer him a crown of thorns, not recognizing it for what it is and trying to justify your own interpretation of its value by his acceptance. Yet still the gift proclaims his worthlessness to you as his acceptance and delight acknowledges the lack of value he places on himself. Okay. So I know, so we were going, can you give me an example of this? What kind of state of mind is detached from the body like that? Well, let's talk about peace pilgrim if you want an American mystic. Let's talk about St. Francis if you want a Christian mystics. Of course, Jesus was teaching this to the holy apostles in the women's corps back 2,000 years ago. The Essenes back in the time were on to it. They were living in a desert, the desert fathers too. Some of you have read some of the work of the desert fathers, very disidentified from the body. And it's a state of mind. It doesn't matter what the world looks like. It's like, do you value any of the trinkets or do you value the body? That's what Jesus is saying is don't do this. You'll be resistant to your own holiness. You won't be able to see that my holiness blesses the world if you stay identified to bodies, persons, personalities and all kinds of things. He's really, he's cranking it up here. He's helping us with the lesson today. Okay. Let's go to the second paragraph. We made it through the first one there. Gifts are not made through bodies if they be truly given and received. For bodies can neither offer nor accept, hold out nor take. Only the mind can value and only the mind decides on what it would receive and give. And every gift it offers depends on what it wants. It will adorn its chosen home most carefully, making it ready to receive the gifts at once by offering them to those who come onto its chosen home or those that would attract to it. And there they will exchange their gifts, offering and receiving what their minds judge to be worthy of them. Gifts are not made through bodies. It's communication and it may seem like this body is being used by the Holy Spirit to speak these words but actually the bodies aren't really even the deliverer of the message because it's all in the mind. There's just one of us and that mind is teaching through demonstration and teaching through sharing and extending ideas. And then when others seeming others seem to accept those ideas as true, then that reinforces them. And so ideas are strengthened as they're given away. Ideas increases they're giving away. You come closer and closer to the kingdom of heaven by being a pure mind that's teaching and learning love. Teach only love for that is what you are. So gifts are not made through bodies. That's right, let's start to let go of this thing even with Christmas. Come on, bodies and gifts. No, no, and with Easter and Easter bunny candy hunts and Easter egg hunts, no, let's give the resurrection. Let's give the joy of the resurrection away on Easter, why not every day? Every day is Christmas, every day is Easter. If you've got the song of love and joy in your heart and you're shining your innocence and you're radiating your holiness, well, that's a good use of the whole world. Not only bodies, but words. And you start to feel, it's like that Carpenter's song on top of the world. That's how you feel when you start to radiate the love of God. Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eye and I won't be surprised if it's a dream. That'll put you on top of the world. That'll put you above the battleground. That'll put you on high because you're lined up with the Holy Spirit in Jesus. Okay, paragraph three. Each gift is an evaluation of the receiver and the giver. No one but sees his chosen home as an altar to himself. No one but seeks to draw it, the worshipers of what he placed upon it, making it worthy of their devotion. No one but seeks to draw to it, the worshipers of what he placed upon it, making it worthy of their devotion. And each has set a light upon his altar that they may see what he has placed upon it and take it for their own. Here's the value that you lay upon your brother and on yourself. Here's your gift to both, your judgment on the Son of God for what he is. Forget not that it is your savior to whom the gift is offered. Offer him thorns and you are crucified. Offer him lilies and it is yourself, you are free. So this is a course about mind training to be miracle workers and teachers of God to only let miracles, those are Jesus told us that the only constructive acts that can be involuntary and miracles are involuntary. But still you have to say, Jesus, use me, Holy Spirit, use me, use whatever I believe that is me, mini me. So that I may know my Christ reality. That's it. So you're basically like the Bill Withers song. You just keep on using me until you use me up. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Until you use me up. All right, Bill. Bill's passed away, but his song is not.  Let's light this whole time, space, place up by miracles. Jesus says this, I have great need for lilies for the Son of God has not forgiven me. And can I offer him forgiveness when he offers thorns to me? For he who offers thorns to anyone is against me still and who is whole without him? Be you his friend for me that I may be forgiven and you may look upon the Son of God as whole. But look you first upon the altar in your chosen home and see what you have laid upon it to offer me. If it be thorns whose points gleam sharply in blood red light, the body is your chosen home and it is separation that you offer me. And yet the thorns are gone. Look you still closer at them now and you will see your altar is no longer what it was. You still look with the body's eyes and they can see but thorns. And you have asked for and received another sight. Those who accept the Holy Spirit's purpose as their own share his vision. And what enables him to see his purpose shine forth from every altar now is yours as well as his. He sees no strangers only dearly loved and loving friends. He sees no thorns but only lilies gleaming in the gentle glow of peace that shines on everything he looks upon and loves. Getting close to Easter. This is February, the end of March is Easter this year. This Easter look with different eyes upon your brother. You have forgiven me and yet I cannot use your gift of lilies while you see them not. Nor can you use what I have given unless you share it. Let's share the resurrection. Let's share the gift of lilies. Let's share our holiness. My holiness blesses the world. Oh my, that's our lesson for today. The Holy Spirit's vision is no idle gift, no plaything to be tossed about while I'm laid aside. Listen and hear this carefully nor think it but a dream, a careless thought to play with or a toy you would pick up from time to time and then put by. For if you do, so will it be to you. You have the vision now to look past all illusions. It has been given you to see no thorns, no strangers and no obstacles to peace. The fear of God is nothing to you now. Who is afraid to look upon illusions knowing his savior stands beside him? With him your vision has become the greatest power for the undoing of illusion that God himself could give. For what God gave the Holy Spirit you have received instantly. The Son of God looks unto you for his release for you have asked for and have been given the strength to look upon this final obstacle and see no thorns nor nails to crucify the Son of God and crown him king of death. Your chosen home is on the other side beyond the veil. It has been carefully prepared for you and it is ready to receive you now. You will not see it with the body's eyes. Yet all you need you have for your home has called to you since time began nor have you ever failed entirely to hear. You heard but knew not how to look nor where. And now you know in you the knowledge lies ready to be unveiled and freed from all terror and kept that kept it hidden. There is no fear in love. The song of Easter is the glad refrain the Son of God was never crucified. Let us lift up our eyes together not in fear but faith. And there will be no fear in us for in our vision will be no illusions. Only a pathway to the open door of heaven the home we share in quietness and where we live in gentleness and peace is one together. Okay, he goes on but oh my, we're just lit up with that. We got our booster rocket on today for my holiness blesses the world.  Even when your eyes are open as you're looking around at the sky, the trees, the street any buildings you have any or nature you encounter birds, worms, anything, deer, bunny rabbits. My holiness blesses the world. You're sending the love and joy in your heart out that your perception of the world may be transformed that you may see the world simultaneous instead of linear because the Holy Spirit sees the world simultaneously the Holy Spirit sees no script. It's just simultaneous bliss. And that's what the holiness is about. Letting that light show you, you know to be careless and carefree in relation to the world because you're blessing it. You're sending the blessing. Oh, I love you all. I'm so grateful that you're all on this journey and for those of you that are doing the work with glasses of the Course in Miracles it's wonderful to be happy together in purpose. That's really what it is. It's not bodies, but we're happy to be of one mind. We're happy right now in this instant. We're happy to extend this holy instant. We're teaching the holy instant as we bless the world with our holiness. So remember today, my holiness blesses the world. God bless you. Love you, send my heart, send my joy to you send my happiness to you. Go forth in joy and happiness.