The Nouk Sanchez’ Power of Power Retreat was the exact venue I was needing… The first of this four day retreat… began with Bill Free stating to a participant… The participant was holding a belief… similar to ‘the earth is flat’… Bill said… “I don’t agree to that ‘agreement’… Bill sorry about bad paraphrasing… I was Struck, once again with the 1,000 pound Monty Python Fairy wand…. What agreements to I ‘blindly’ agree to… The One that Jumped On to me like an amoeba on my fact… I agree that conflict exists…. This, I understand now, has been playing out under ALL the other beliefs. So my life occurred as conflict a lot…

So the first day produced the agreement that I would dismantle over the next four days.

I was to bring ‘special homemade donuts’ with Wild flavors to the retreat one morning… The past Month, I had spoken with the baker and paid the bill, and it was on… When I went in to pick them up one morning for the retreat… The counter person looked like a deer in the headlights. She disappeared into the kitchen… I KNEW… there were no ‘special’ donuts ready… I looked in the case and I saw that if I took all the donuts… I could cover the retreat…

There was a line forming behind me… the woman at the counter came back out… No Donuts… OMG.. She said, loud enough for all to hear, “I could give you all the donuts in the case!”…

Immediately, behind me, I could feel the tension building… broken by one voice saying… I only need two donuts… another saying the same thing. I turned and faced ‘breakdown’… Breakdown in front of me… Counter woman on one side…. Angry Donut Mob on the other… Wow, for somebody that has just agreed to a New, “No Conflict” policy…. This was not going well…

I did a quick prayer to God… And the Answer was immediate… The line behind me had no capacity to deal with a donut breakdown… My ACIM retreat group of 50 could more than handle not having a ‘donut’ in hand… So I released the donuts with love. The woman at the Counter started breathing again and the crowd appeared to be satiated. There donut future appeared to be in tact.

So I left to be with my retreat friends… sad that I did not carry donuts with me… yet… as I drove to the center… I saw the donut that I was carrying for them…. I KNEW… they had the tools to deal with any apparent breakdown… That is the donut I gave them… My complete faith in them standing in God…. God Never has a Donut Breakdown…

The next day, I went into the donut store… The owner was there and we spoke. He came out with his tail between his legs… and I realized I wanted NO CONFLICT for him. He offered free coffee, donuts for the rest of my life… I declined… I was clear I Love this baker and he has a beautiful expression of love through donut batter… I did not even think about it… I saw him as guiltless and he was feeling…’bad’…’guilty’… ‘remorseful’…

I declined all of his gifts… I told him what I wanted was for him to learn whatever he needed so that his business could handle large orders and not have them fall thru cracks. I also told him that ALL I WANTED… was for him to hear, I Love his donuts, I will continue to be a customer… and when I walked out his door… this situation was over for EVER… (except this post)(lololol)… As I walked out I Felt him Breath in Gratitude… That is SOOOOOO Much better than conflict…. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX