Our coastal village hosts an annual home garden tour called “Art in the Garden.” For years I have been one of the artists who paints in the gardens while visitors come to support this event. 

This year, while I was able to paint outdoors on the first day of the tour, it was impossible to be outside the second day, on account of the rainy weather. 

As I painted in my studio that day, I realized I was experiencing symptoms of a cold. I knew that if I stopped my work, I would not be able to complete the painting in time for the art reception later that afternoon. So I sat at my easel, brush in hand, and became still. 

What came to mind was a statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “You must control evil thoughts in the first instance, or they will control you in the second” (p. 234). I refuted these symptoms by taking a firm, alert mental stance: No. These symptoms were no part of reality because they could in no way belong to an expression of God, good, which everyone is, and good cannot be deprived of its manifestation. As Science and Health explains, “God is natural good, and is represented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature of Spirit, God” (p. 119).

Holding to these solid and clear spiritual ideas, I finished my painting. All signs of the cold disappeared. Nothing of the condition lingered. Not only was I able to be present at the artists’ opening later that day, but I also ended up selling three of my paintings—the most I had ever sold during one of these events, both in number and monetary value. I stood and conversed with people and got my equipment and paintings to the venue and back home—all without any adverse effects. 

I am very grateful for the ever-ready and healing inspiration that comes as we gain a fuller understanding of our inseparable relation to God. We just need to be still and entertain God-directed thoughts, which provide for our every need, in order to feel uplift and healing power. In the words of Science and Health, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (p. 494).

Heidi Caswell Zander
Rockport, Massachusetts, US