There’s a video out by some guy telling a story that when elite skiers are taught how to navigate snow covered ski runs with trees in the way, the thing they are not taught to do is watch out for the trees. Why? They found if skiers constantly tell themselves “watch out for the trees,” their odds are greatly increased that they’ll run into a tree. Instead, skiers are told to “follow the path.” When they put all focus and energy into following the path, the trees are simply incidental. They don’t get in the way.
Wouldn’t that be great advice for how to apply the Course in our everyday lives? I mean, how many of us have something distressing happen during the day, that takes about 15 minutes, and then spend 24, 36, even 48 hours thinking about how to fix it, how to avoid it happening again, how we might have manifested it, and so on? And later, as we spend our time flying down the hill of life, we’re constantly on the lookout for those trees. What if, instead, we said it was just a mistake, gave it no more attention, and went back to following the path?
It’s like driving. Ever been driving and look at your phone and have a near miss? The next thing you do is put down your phone and focus on the road, right? Do you spend hours wondering how you manifested a near miss? No!
Let’s do that with everything. Focus on the path. “To be in the Kingdom is merely to focus your full attention on it.” (CoA:T.7.II:13) And every upset is just a near miss. Let’s simply say a prayer of thanks that we live to see another day and then turn our attention back to the path.