My little daughter and I were driving across two states to reach home. As we left the toll booth in the first state, the attendant said: "You are going to be in very bad blizzard conditions in about half an hour as you drive into the mountains. Watch your step."

I prayed. Some lines from a familiar hymn came to my daughter and me, and we began singing them:

As we came into the mountains, it began to snow and the roads became very slippery. At one point we slid off the road into the median strip. As we came to a halt, the thought came to me, "If only my husband were driving!" Quickly the next thought came, "But you include true manhood as the reflection of God."

And with that came a realization that changed my whole outlook: this circumstance was not a call for me to act like a man in the human sense, to imitate my husband's strength; it was a call to demonstrate the true manhood already within me, as well as the true womanhood. I could express right there the qualities of fearlessness and intelligence because I was the image of God—God who is Father-Mother. God includes both male and female natures in one—and so did I. I could go forward secure in my knowledge that I included whatever quality I needed in this situation.

I got the car back on the road and proceeded cautiously and prayerfully. I found that I was leading a long line of cars. My daughter kept saying to me: "Mommy, we're all right. God is with us." I felt more than adequate and was led to take the right action each step of the way. When we finally reached a rest area, we decided to stop. The blizzard conditions had lessened, and I knew we were through the worst; we were almost out of the mountains. As I pulled into a parking place, the man who had been following me pulled in next to me. As he got out of his car, he said to me: "Lady, you drive like a man! What a great job you did leading the way!"

His remark would be viewed by many people as an insult. But I was gratified because I believed that what was really being acknowledged was the spiritual sense of manhood that I had discerned and then expressed.

Whatever life problem is in front of us, each of us already includes the qualities needed to work it out. Each of us is a complete and whole spiritual idea, expressing the true sense of both manhood and womanhood. Nothing is missing from anyone's individuality.

The basis for why people see themselves with countless limitations and shortcomings is found in the whole myth embraced by the Adam and Eve story—the belief that man and woman are created out of matter. The basis of completeness is the fact that each of us is actually a compound, spiritual idea. Our true being is not corporeal, physical, or mortal. We read in Science and Health, "Give up the belief that mind is, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and you will quickly become more manly or womanly" (p. 397).

Since my husband passed on a couple of years ago, I have kept the idea of spiritual completeness uppermost in my thought every day. From this vantage point I've been able to express more fortitude, endurance, and ingenuity. Once as I was sitting alone, praying about how to get my car unstuck from the snow on my driveway, a course of action came to me that was based on a sudden glimpse of the way front-wheel drive works. I followed it and got myself out of a very tight spot with relative ease.

It is not necessary for a widow to feel helpless under certain circumstances. This statement is very supportive: "When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness" (ibid., p. 264). Because we include both male and female qualities, all the husbanding that we need is within us. Occasionally this completeness may manifest itself in someone who helps us to do a job. But we never have to do without what is right for us to have. We are not some poor, helpless offspring of Eve—or a weak Adam. We are not ineffectual mortals. We are the offspring of infinite Mind.

How can a woman overcome the fear of driving alone—to the airport, in the city, at night, and so on? By seeing that fearlessness is a quality that divine Love imparts to all its offspring, impartially. We are fearless because God is Spirit, everywhere present. We are never alone. God is Mind, always directing and protecting. God is Principle, operating right where we are. God is Truth, asserting Himself over any fear or false belief that would limit us. God is omnipotent, expressing Himself through each one of us. In undertaking tasks I have never done before, I have leaned on this verse: "It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect" (Ps. 18:32).

A woman is not dependent upon a man, but totally dependent upon God. Understanding this brings a feeling of incomparable confidence, peace, and contentment.