I was headed up a mountain on a ski lift with a friend. Before we reached the top, I decided that I would wait for my friend to get off first. But then I realized I had waited too long, and if I didn't get off quickly, I'd be on my way back down the hill on the chair lift. Without thinking it through, I jumped. My skis hit the hard ice to the side of the lift and flew out from under me. I landed on my shoulder with my arm stretched behind my back. The pain was tremendous; I felt I was in shock. And it was difficult to move my arm and my hand.
Right then, I began to pray. I knew I had a choice. I could see myself as injured and in pain, which seemed easy, or I could see myself the way I knew God saw me—whole and well. I could either accept this accident—with the accompanying shock, discomfort, and semiparalysis—as real, or I could deny that these symptoms had any reality since God didn't send them.
I remembered a statement from Science and Health: "You say that accidents, injuries, and disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin" (p. 402). As I thought about this statement, I realized that since there is only one Mind, which is completely good, I couldn't suddenly have an opposing thought—pain, fear, shock—that could invade my consciousness. I could change my basis of thinking from bodily pain to the spiritual concept that movement is naturally free of pain because movement is a quality of God. I could spiritually understand myself as God knows me—untouched by an accident. What really needed to change was not my body, but my consciousness. I needed to let go of the belief that something bad could happen to me because of a mistake on my part.
