By Coreen Walson
I received a phone call that a piglet down the road from where I live was not doing very well and asking if I would take care of it. I arrived on the scene to see a female piglet with back legs that were not working, lying in the blistering sun unprotected, with ants and flies all over her head. Only her shallow breathing let me know she was still alive. I took her home and washed her off. As I did so, I began declaring that this beautiful animal is actually an idea in the Mind of God, and that as a spiritual idea, nothing could be added to her or taken from her, including her vitality, life, wellbeing, and activity. I was very careful to watch my thoughts, and reject such thoughts as “it’s too late”, “she’s too far gone”, and “why bring her back when she is going to slaughter someday”. I quickly rejected these egoic thoughts and each time this pig came to my thought I declared “perfect, intelligent and good! (p.i.g.)
I tucked her in a blanket in a large dog bed on my enclosed porch for the night, and the next morning I went to check on her. She was lying down, and I could tell she was feeling challenged. I had to be online that morning at 9:00 a.m. and at 8:58, she let out a scream and rolled on her side, and began doing a rhythmic gasping indicative of the body passing on. I dropped to my knees and looked at her and told her that she was God’s pig, that her life was in Him, her substance is Spirit, and that Life is the law of her being. Next, I told God (yes), “this is your pig, you are taking good care of her, you are the healer, I leave her in your Hands”. I turned away from her and went inside the house to join the live, online session.
I would be lying if I didn’t say that the ego’s fiercest attraction to the belief in death did not come to my thought persistently and vehemently. I was actively dismissing each distressing thought and replacing them with Truth. The morning’s session was our End of Death book study with Nouk Sanchez, and we were reading about the absolute nothingness of death and that Life is eternal and infinite. Of most importance, however, was the reminder that it is the guilt in our own mind that reacts to images of sickness or death as real. Since God did not create either of them, they don’t exist. If I think I see images of death and react to them as real, this is the guilt in my mind, stemming from the belief that I am separate from God. I saw it very clearly that if I knew my own innocence without any doubt, the image and sounds of the piglet could not move me at all. I would behold a perfect pig as I look right past and through the false report. Out of my love for this animal, I began deeply accepting the Atonement for myself. claiming my innate innocence as a child of God, as well as that of the piglet. Around the half hour mark, I felt a lift of the seeming burden.
I was able to give my full attention to the online session, which lasted two hours without checking on the pig. When the session ended, I went outside and kneeled down in front of her. She was alive and her eyes were open. She looked at me, and then, for the first time since I had her, she stood up! I shrieked with joy and told her how wonderful she is. She then showed interest in her breakfast (oatmeal with apple sauce stirred in with a dash of cinnamon) and began eating heartily. I was rejoicing and giving thanks with each bite she took. I named her “Gracie” right then and there.
I am so grateful to God and the teachings of A Course in Miracles, and to Nouk Sanchez for the End of Death teachings. I am thrilled to report that in two days’ time she was back to her perfect piggy self and has been returned to her siblings on the farm.