by Beverly McNeff

The month of October is Red Ribbon time. This year, the weeklong celebration is October 23-31 and will be observed at schools, communities, and workplaces around the United States. The purpose of the yearly event is to educate people on the risks of drugs and alcohol and to encourage healthy, drug-free lives. Most of us are familiar with this, especially if we have children. During these weeks, most kids wear those familiar red wrist bands or ribbons.

I remember vividly one Red Ribbon Week when our son Jeff was in elementary school. On one of the days, all the kids were asked to wear red. During an outside assembly, a helicopter flew overhead and took an aerial photo of all the kids in red standing in rows to spell out the words “JUST SAY NO.”

We live pretty close to the school, and on many days, from our open, upstairs bedroom window, we can hear the sound of children playing during the school’s recess times. It is a distant hum of joy, and it always makes me smile. On this particular day, I could actually hear snippets of the outside assembly. The police officer was telling the kids some statistics about drugs and how you will be introduced to drugs by someone you know. She told them how casual use can lead to more serious consequences, and how drugs lead to a nowhere life fast. She asked them, “What do you say to drugs?” You could hear the roar of these children as they said, “NO!” And then she asked, “What do you say to life?” With even more intensity, the children shouted, “YES!”

It was inspiring! Tears of joy welled up inside of me. Those children were affirming life with so much gusto that I shouted YES, too! They inspired me to not only live a healthier life for myself but also to help them! I felt empowered by their enthusiasm.

A Course in Miracles tells us,

“Alone we are all lowly, but together we shine with brightness so intense that none of us alone can even think of it.” (T-13.X.14)

I truly felt that statement through these children. I felt so connected to their shout-out to the world. Even though I couldn’t see their bodies, I could feel their intensity. It was a sensation beyond words.

I still remember that experience as I recount it here. It reminds me again that everyone I meet is shouting the same thing, whether they know it or not. They are saying Yes to life! Yes to the help and support to which we are entitled! Yes to love that is our healing power! I want to help them on their journey as much as I wanted to help those children.

The Course reminds us that there is only life, and that is all we can join in. Dead thoughts of separation, fear, attack, and hate can seem to divide us from this awareness, but what God Wills for us cannot be defiled. There cannot be an opposite to what is the Will of God.

“Life has no opposite, for it is God. Life and death seem to be opposites because you have decided death ends life. Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real. In this one sentence is our course explained. In this one sentence is our practicing given its one direction. And in this one sentence is the Holy Spirit’s whole curriculum specified exactly as it is.” (M-20.5)

All humanity is shouting out the same thing. We need to be willing to look through those acts of hate, anger, and frustration and to forgive them by seeing them all as calls for help and healing. This awareness not only blesses humanity but also each of us.

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