The search for the special relationship is the sign that you equate
yourself with the ego, and not with God. For the special relationship
has value ONLY to the ego. To the ego UNLESS a relationship has special
value it has NO meaning, and it perceives ALL love as special. Yet this
CANNOT be natural, for it is unlike the relationship of God and His Son,
and all relationships that are unlike this One MUST be unnatural. For
God created love as He would have it be, and gave it as it IS. Love has
no meaning except as its Creator defined it by His Will. It is
impossible to define it otherwise and UNDERSTAND it.

Love is FREEDOM. To look for it by placing yourself in bondage is to
SEPARATE yourself from it. For the love of God, no longer seek for union
in separation, nor for freedom in bondage! As you release, so will you
be released. Forget this not, or love will be unable to find you and
comfort you. There is a way in which the Holy Spirit asks your help, if
you would have His. The holy instant is His most helpful tool in
protecting you from the attraction of guilt, the real lure in the
special relationship. You do not recognize that this IS its real appeal,
for the ego has taught you that FREEDOM lies in it. Yet the closer you
look at the special relationship, the more apparent it becomes that it
MUST foster guilt and therefore MUST imprison.

The special relationship is totally without meaning without a body. And
if you value it, you must ALSO value the body. And what you value you
WILL keep. The special relationship is a device for limiting your self
to a body, and for limiting your perception of others to THEIRS. The
great rays would establish the total LACK of value of the special
relationship, if they were seen. For in seeing them, the body would
disappear because its VALUE would be lost. And so your whole investment
in seeing it would be withdrawn from it. You see the world you VALUE.

On this side of the bridge, you see the world of separate bodies,
seeking to join each other in separate unions, and to become one by
losing. When TWO individuals seek to become one, they are trying to
DECREASE their magnitude. Each would deny his power, for the SEPARATE
union excludes the universe. Far more is left outside than would be
taken in. For God is left without, and NOTHING taken in. If ONE such
union were made in perfect faith, the universe WOULD enter into it. Yet
the special relationship which the ego seeks does not include even one
whole individual. For the ego wants but PART of him, and sees ONLY this
part and nothing else.

Across the bridge, it is so different! For a time the body is still
seen, but not exclusively, as it is seen here. For the little spark
which holds the great rays within it is ALSO visible, and this spark
cannot be limited long to littleness. Once you have crossed the bridge,
the value of the body is so diminished in your sight, that you will see
no need at all to magnify it. For you will realize that the only value
which the body has is to enable you to bring your brothers to the bridge
WITH you, and to be released TOGETHER there.

The bridge itself is nothing more than a transition in your perspective
of reality. On this side, everything you see is grossly distorted and
completely out of perspective. What is little and insignificant is
magnified, and what is strong and powerful cut down to littleness. In
the transition there is a period of confusion, in which a sense of
actual disorientation seems to occur. But fear it not, for it means
nothing more than that you have been willing to let go your hold on the
distorted frame of reference which seemed to hold your world together.
This frame of reference is built around the special relationship.
WITHOUT this illusion, there can BE no meaning you would still seek
here.

Fear not that you will be abruptly lifted up and hurled into reality.
Time is kind, and if you use if FOR reality, it will keep gentle pace
with you in your transition. The urgency is only in dislodging your
minds from their fixed position here. This will not leave you homeless,
and without a frame of reference. The period of disorientation, which
precedes the actual transition, is far shorter than the time it took to
fix your minds so firmly on illusions. Delay will hurt you now more than
before, only because you realize it IS delay, and that escape from pain
is really possible. Find hope and comfort, rather than despair, in
this:You could no longer find even the ILLUSION of love in any special
relationship here. For you are no longer wholly insane, and you would
recognize the guilt of self-betrayal for what it IS.

Nothing you seek to strengthen in the special relationship is REALLY
part of you. And you cannot keep part of the thought system which taught
you it was real, and understand the Thought that REALLY knows what you
are. You HAVE allowed the Thought of your reality to enter your minds,
and because you invited it, it WILL abide with you. Your love for it
will not allow you to betray
yourself, and you could not enter into a relationship where it could not
go with you, for you would not BE apart from it.

Be glad you have escaped the mockery of salvation which the ego offered
you, and look not back with longing on the travesty it made of your
relationships. Now no-one need suffer, for you have come too far to
yield to the illusion of the beauty and holiness of guilt. Only the
wholly insane could look on death and suffering, sickness and despair,
and see it thus. What guilt has wrought is ugly, fearful and very
dangerous. See no illusion of truth and beauty there. And be you
thankful that there IS a place where truth and beauty wait for you. Go
on to meet them gladly, and learn how much awaits you for the simple
willingness to give up nothing BECAUSE it is nothing.

The new perspective you will gain from crossing over will be the
understanding of where Heaven IS. From here, it seems to be outside and
across the bridge. Yet as you cross to join it, it will join with YOU
and become one with you. And you will think, in glad astonishment, that
for all this you gave up NOTHING! The joy of Heaven, which has no limit,
is increased with each light that returns to take its rightful place
within it. Wait no longer, for the love of God and YOU. And may the holy
instant speed you on the way, as it will surely do if you but let it
come to you.

The Holy Spirit asks only this little help of you. Whenever your thoughts
wander to a special relationship which still attracts you, enter with
Him into a holy instant, and there let Him release you. He needs only
your willingness to SHARE His perspective to give it to you completely.
And your willingness need not be complete because HIS is perfect. It is
His task to atone for your unwillingness by His perfect faith, and it is
His faith you share with Him there. Out of your recognition of your
unwillingness for your release, His PERFECT willingness is given you.
Call upon Him, for Heaven is at His call. And LET Him call on Heaven FOR
you.