Legend has it that the first brownie was created at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, at the request of Bertha Palmer, a socialite and the wife of hotel owner Potter Palmer. She wanted something cake-like and small that could be served to the ladies at the Columbian Exposition for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Working with the hotel pastry chef, she created this delicious confection. In 1898, the first reference to the brownie in America appeared in the Sears Roebuck Catalog, published in Chicago. If you like your brownies, then you must…
Author Archives: acim
Let Healing Be
In my part of the world, spring has sprung! I love seeing bunnies hopping around our hills, butterflies floating from flower to flower, and birds pulling worms from the ground. Everything is so filled with renewal. I am especially impressed when I see buds of green popping out of the seeming “sticks” in my garden. I do not have a green thumb, so when the bareness of winter in my garden gives way to actual growth, I am always amazed. And so it is with God…
Always With You
As I have shared before, when I was a little girl, my dad always carried a hanky in his back pocket. Every morning as he got ready, I knew he was not fully dressed until that hanky went in his pocket. Many times he never used that hanky, for I would see it come out of his pocket at the end of the day, just as neat and pressed as when it went in (yes, my mom always pressed his hankies!). But he always knew it was there, just in case…
The Audacity of Happiness
“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” — Abraham Lincoln
I have always liked this quote by Lincoln, but when I first read it, I didn’t believe it was from him. He never seemed happy to me, and why would he have been? When he was a boy, his mother and sisters died. His father treated him like an indentured servant, renting him out to work for people to make money. As president, he faced a country divided, a war that caused the death of an entire generation of young men, and the hostility of taking a stand against slavery. He had a terrible personal life…
An Answer for the World
Years back, a group of theologians came together in an attempt to go through the Bible and decide by group consensus what the actual words of Jesus were. Entitled “The Jesus Seminar,” they were to look at the few hundred words attributed to Jesus and determine what did or didn’t seem consistent with his message. As you can imagine, when you get a group of people together to decide on anything…
A Story of Resurrection
For the final segment of our Lessons in Light series, we will focus on workbook lesson 50 in A Course in Miracles, “I am sustained by the Love of God.” In this world, we believe we are sustained by everything but God. As this lesson says, we place our faith in all sorts of insane symbols and trust those will provide us with the answers that we need. This is not to say that we cannot use the symbols of the world, but we must see they are only temporary measures and are not meant to sustain the Holy Son of God. While we abide in a world that is not our home…
God Is the Strength in Which I Trust
Many years ago, I saw an episode of the BBC’s nature series Frozen Planet, which featured an amazing little creature called the Arctic Woolly Bear Caterpillar. I have shared this little fellow’s story at conferences, retreats, and seminars because it is such a good lesson for all of us.
The Arctic Woolly Bear Caterpillar has a fascinating life cycle. He begins…
Remembering Robert Skutch
Robert Skutch 1925-2025
Robert Skutch, the last of the original team that published A Course in Miracles, passed in his sleep on April 1st, just three months shy of his 100th birthday. A Purple Heart veteran wounded in World War II, Bob was a writer for television and advertising before co-founding the Foundation for Inner Peace with his then-wife Judy. After being introduced to the Course by its scribes, Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford, Bob and Judy felt guided to publish the book under the auspices of their foundation. In 1984, Bob wrote Journey Without Distance, the first historical account of the Course’s genesis. We here at the Center had the honor of knowing Bob and all of the original team since 1977. We celebrate Bob and his dedication to the Course.
I Could See Peace Instead of This
If you have been joining us in our Lessons in Light series that follows the forty days (traditionally known as Lent) leading up to Easter, today’s lesson is “I could see peace instead of this.” In the wake of what is occurring in the world right now, this lesson is a welcome and powerful refocusing of our minds…
The Cost of Grievances
We need not look very far to find worry and concern. Mass, indiscriminate firings, and closings of essential agencies throughout our country have been enacted by a person who has no Constitutional power to do so. All the while, Congress, whose job it is to oversee this, turns a blind eye. Not to mention the arbitrary, daily tariff threats that cause global unrest and threaten the safety of everyone in this country. And how about you…