“We are not the people of ‘what if.’ We are the people of ‘what is.’”

The weeks before Association were challenging. My husband’s company has a loan with a local bank. On the Tuesday before Association, we had a meeting with the bank to help them decide whether or not to renew our loan. Our new accountant was very negative—he was sure the loan would be pulled and we would be out of business.

I was very afraid and so had been working with a practitioner, who was a profound help. One afternoon the practitioner quoted Mrs. Eddy’s statement: “Christian experience teaches faith in the right and disbelief in the wrong.” (S&H 29:7–8) She also said, “We are not the people of “what if.” We are the people of “what is.” I stuck with these ideas fervently.

Our meeting with the bank was totally positive. They were aware of how rough last year had been and were comfortable with the progress we’d made and the steps we are taking to improve business. It was a very cordial meeting. I left feeling that now nothing could get in the way of Association.

Then our daughter called to say that she had fallen when jumping her horse. She had gotten right up and felt fine. When she woke up the next morning, however, she had a headache and her neck and shoulder were very stiff. I shared some thoughts with her and then worked. She called back several hours later and said she was doing fine.

That night, she called me crying. She had just spent two hours with the head of Equine Department walking a cross-country jumping course. The professor had spent the entire two hours describing all the head, neck, and shoulder injuries that a rider could get while jumping. The professor had emphasized the importance of not letting a rider continue, but instead sending them straight to the hospital. Not surprisingly, my daughter’s head, neck, and shoulder were aching again.

I shared with her the ideas that the practitioner had expressed about our financial situation. It was so interesting to me how perfectly they met this very different human situation. We tossed out all the “what if’s” and got back to my daughter’s true spiritual nature—untouched by matter. The pain left almost immediately, and she was healed.

The next night, she again called in tears. She had just been told that a dear friend had been killed in a motorcycle accident. I prayed to know what to say, because I didn’t want it to go over her head. But the right ideas came to me, such as the fact that in reality her friend had just gotten up and gone on with his individuality intact. My daughter just seemed to drink in these ideas. She calmed down very quickly. When I talked with her the next day, she told me that she had been able to help several of her friends who were deeply shocked by their friend’s death. During the next few days she always seemed to be in the right place with the right ideas, and was quite a blessing to others.

On Association weekend, our daughter came home to care for her siblings, while my husband and I went to Association. While she was home, we had the opportunity to talk about immortality in greater depth. She told me that she was feeling guilty about the fact that she had been healed of grief so quickly. We saw that her feeling of guilt was a ploy of mortal mind to keep her tied to grief, instead of being lifted beyond it. She returned to college and was able to attend the wake and funeral with an uplifted thought.

Then I learned that the practitioner with whom we had been working for the last few weeks had fallen and passed on. It was quite a shock. I found myself taking very seriously the ideas in the address about the need to handle animal magnetism and malicious animal magnetism more diligently, and I endeavored to do so. I memorized “What our Leader Says.” During the following days I worked with it many times each day. I was so grateful for all the ideas in the lessons that seemed to fit our needs so exactly.

Several days later, I left a pan of eggs boiling on the stove and went out to run an errand. When I came back, I found that all the water had boiled away and the eggs were burning. I quickly transferred the pan to the sink and added water. The eggs exploded in my face. My face hurt and felt badly burned. I resisted the temptation to look at it, but instead worked with “What Our Leader Says.” I also called a practitioner for help. I happened to see myself in the mirror, and there was not a mark on my face. The pain left by the following morning, and I was healed.