Finding peace at Golden Spring

"Do you think it will still be there?" my sister asked me as we drove along the road that follows the Pennamaquan River.

I wondered. It was a sunny afternoon in late summer 2003, and after almost 50 years, so much had changed in that little Maine town where we spent so many happy childhood days.

"This might be it," I said and turned into an old dirt road half-hidden by alder bushes.

We drove through the trees and into the clearing and – there it was! A long pipe came out of the hill, and clear water was rushing from it, sparkling with light as it splashed into a pool lined with little stones that shone golden in the sun – Golden Spring.

We got out of the car and stood there, admiring the tranquil beauty. After so many years, it was just as I remembered it – the pure water still flowing freely for everyone to take as much as they needed.

I had been feeling unsettled and kind of insecure because of the passing of a dear relative, and also because I had just closed a business after 15 years. World events were disturbing, as well.

The fact that the spring water just kept on flowing no matter what changes were taking place in my life and the world awakened me to the fact that God, the source of all good, is changeless and always available to us.

To me, Golden Spring was a gift from God – so simple and full of promise. It was a symbol of God's profound love for His creation, the perpetual gift coming directly from the source of life and love. In this love there is no room for insecurity because each one of us has a unique place in God's creation, a place where he or she is cherished and provided for. I realized that I could feel just as peaceful and secure as I did when playing with my sisters and cousins here years ago, and chasing the little spotted frogs that lived in the spring, while our mothers filled jugs with the clear water.

The way to reach this safety and closeness to our divine Parent is down a quiet path in our thinking, away from the noisy freeway of materialism. As we open our hearts to God, we are led to "the secret place of the most High" (Ps. 91:1), to the sanctuary of Soul.

That night we camped beside the Passamaquoddy Bay, and as I lay in the tent listening to the sounds of the night, I thought of the waters of Golden Spring joining the Pennamaquan River and flowing into the bay and then out to the Atlantic Ocean.

I was reminded of Ezekiel's vision in the Bible in which he saw pure waters flowing from the house of God. Everywhere the waters went, whatever they touched was healed (see Ezekiel, chap. 47).

The touch of God's love heals our lives. God is the wellspring from which all life flows. All the miseries of the world have no real basis because they are not of God but are a negation of what God is. Just as hatred is a denial of love and brotherhood, so chaos, disease, and disasters are a denial of the harmonious order of God's creation.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin" (p. 262). She continued: "Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence."

To know that we come from God and cannot be separated from Him brings our lives into spiritual focus. Harmony, health, and peace are the natural results of turning our thinking to our divine source, our Father-Mother God.

The Lord shall guide thee
continually, and satisfy thy soul
in drought, and make fat thy
bones: and thou shalt be like
a watered garden,
and like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not.
Isaiah 58:11