ACIM Movie Gathering, (No Reservations), 6/2/24

✨Greetings Mighty Companions✨

There’s nothing like a romantic dramedy to explore an essential spiritual question… Where does one find true stability? Where does it reside? In what? Perhaps we recognize that our stability cannot reside with our own sense of control in our lives... A COURSE IN MIRACLES points us toward real stability by saying,

"Only a constant purpose can endow events with stable meaning. ²But it must accord one meaning to them all.” [CE T-30.VIII.3-4]

Our featured movie to kick off Summer is called: No Reservations. It’s a great little flick to show how all happenings in our lives always have the same purpose for the Spirit: to bring us into an awareness of the present by helping us to trust our brother.

When we are stuck in the past, day after day, in our routine, we’re on autopilot, lost in a dream… When somehow our false sense of control is disillusioned, we still cannot make sense of our lives. But if we open ever so slightly to joining with what is beyond our littleness, then Spirit reveals itself in miraculous ways which lift our hearts. Miracles reflect the willingness to communicate from a clear and more loving ground of awareness.

Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Kate, head chef at a fancy high end restaurant. She has tensions with her boss who has insisted that she attend therapy, but Kate doesn’t know why.

She runs a tight ship and almost all her customers love her, paying top dollar. She aims to please but is heavily defended against customer complaints, aggressively spitting fire and fury if someone criticizes her dishes. She has become so deeply identified with the role of head chef, she's forgotten what it’s all for. For Kate… well… no one seems to knows better than Kate, so she does it herself. She runs everything to the point of perfectionism. She seems to be headed toward burn out. But everything changes when her sister dies suddenly in a car accident on the way to have dinner with Kate. Which makes Kate the legal guardian of her niece Zoe, (who doesn’t really like her sophisticated cooking.)

Enter Nick, (Aaron Eckhart) an Italian sous-chef with a love of opera. Kate dislikes Nick because he’s spontaneous and unpredictable. Zoe loves Nick’s more refreshing way with things and his yummy Italian food. Kate is presented with an opportunity to trust and collaborate with her new sous-chef, or distrust and compete against him. Nick brings exuberance into Kate’s very serious kitchen (as well as Kate and Zoe’s personal life), which threatens the calculated way Kate does things. But Kate needs more than a little opera and charm from Nick. She needs a miracle to raise Zoe in a new town after her mother’s sudden death. Kate must navigate the waters of huge change: becoming a mom by default, losing her sister, and trusting something bigger than herself in her personal life and career.

So let’s take a journey into loosening our grip, and opening our hearts. This is a love story that will help us see through the rules and limits by which the ego attempts to establish control. And what might we find instead? Can we admit when we're mistaken and find out?

In service to God’s loving plan for everything,
Brian and Alexandra💞