David Hoffmeister: The movie The Time Traveler’s Wife is a masterpiece at undoing specialness, it is a love story that goes beyond the surface level of special, romantic love toward unconditional love.
Henry is an involuntary time traveler who cannot seem to control when he leaves. He is here one moment and gone the next. He and his wife have to let go of all thoughts of control in their relationship. The circumstances of his time traveling bring up opportunities for trust and for letting go of seeming continuity and integrity in the world, as the plans they make cannot always be kept.
We all want unconditional love, something constant, but we must move in the direction of learning to let go of expectations and outcomes. In our relationships we seem to want different things; no two people see the same world. Each one has a different version of reality, a different version of the dream, and when expectations collide, there is conflict.
We want our partner to change in order for us to be happy. We look for changes to occur in time and remain in denial of what is actually offered here and now: freedom, joy, and happiness. We need to see that we can change our mind. With the Holy Spirit as guide we can let go of the belief in linear time. We can release all the expectations, all the goals, all the struggles, and all the misery.
The wish for eternal love is a wish for continuity. It is a wish that things not end; that there be a love that is everlasting. We must forgive whatever is contrary to truth and let Spirit in. The truth is that Love is an eternal and never-ending experience. Any temporary, time-bound experience is not Love. We must be willing to honestly say that, “No, I have never known what love is.” This is a very humble starting point to our awakening.
Like the time traveler’s wife in the movie we have to completely let go of expectations. If we can give ourselves over to Spirit we can go on a ride, towards eternity, towards that unconditional love we all want.
Watch free ACIM Video “What is true humility?”
