One day it hit me that it’s all an illusion. While that revelation didn’t turn me into an instant water waster, the anxiety I used to feel when hearing water running, running, running was gone. At least I thought it was.
Until I was running water to wash grapes. I was swishing grapes in a little bowl of soapy water and then rinsing them off under running water. And I felt uncomfortable; that I was wasting water to let it run while I rinsed off little handfuls of grapes, one after the other. What is wrong with you? I wondered. This is all illusion. And I remembered, “I could see peace instead of this.” Lesson 34.
It’s tricky, isn’t it? We want to be responsible citizens, yet the Course tells us “your thoughts determine the world you see.” Lesson 11. And, “salvation lies not there…The body suffers that the mind will fail to see it is a victim of itself…There are no laws, but God’s.” Lesson 76.
I know that even in the illusion I don’t have to be wasteful, but I realize that what I do have to watch are my feelings and my state of mind while I do anything, even rinsing off grapes. Because all thoughts of uneasiness, fear, worry and guilt are attack thoughts that feed the dark side. And it’s worry and guilt over the scarcity of water that create a world with a scarcity of water.