Even though this is not a Bartholomew session, it represents something perhaps more precious: Mary-Margaret's own account of a spontaneous awakening while driving at dusk. Her realization of the eternal "I" allowed her to release childhood trauma from her orphanage months — a deeply personal testimony to what the teachings actually deliver when lived.

Setting: In this intimate personal sharing, Mary-Margaret Moore describes a transformative experience she had while driving home alone at dusk, after dropping her daughter at a friend's house. Looking out toward the horizon where the Rio Grande Gorge plunges down, with the sun fading and the land alive with light, she suddenly shifted into another state of awareness.

Awakening: She became totally aware that she had lived endless lives - not computable in number, just a profound knowing. Before this could even become a thought, while it was still pure feeling, a question arose like a shout: "Who has lived all these lives?" And before thought could grab hold of anything, awareness came - of the I. The eternal I that has always been and will always be, manifesting or un-manifesting. "The I that our beloved Ramana talked about all the time."

Ordinariness: What struck her most was how everything continued exactly as the Zen Buddhists describe: she drove the car, parked, walked across the snow, ate dinner. Everything was exactly the same, yet everything seemed different. The things she had feared losing no longer seemed important. The need for external love and validation fell away - not because love isn't relevant, but because the I is love, and there is never a way to be without it.

Healing: Mary-Margaret shared something deeply personal: this realization allowed her to begin letting go of "the agony of the pain of that orphanage and that child, that baby, screaming his poor head off, wanting to be loved and to be kept warm and to be held." For months as an infant, this was not possible. Now she could release that fear and allow the Self to manifest with its power.

Integration: "We are incredible, aren't we? But we're also ordinary. It's wonderful to be both." She sensed she would no longer be afraid as she used to be - no more clinging, no more needing others to care about her in order to feel empowered. "Because I realized, of course, that it is the Self that empowers our life. And the Self is all of them and all of me."