The Home Depot Guide to Enlightenment: Meet Skelly

By Dehyana

What’s Left When Everything Else Falls Away?

Well, I’m back in Canada after seven years, and just in time for my favourite season. Autumn!

Oh, the changing leaves, that wonderful crispness in the air, pumpkins on porches, witches hanging from trees and ghosts floating around front yards. I love it all.

And naturally, I had to visit Home Depot.

Some people return to their homeland and visit historical landmarks. I head straight for the Halloween department.

And there he was.

SKELLY.

🎧 Prefer to listen? Join me on In Spirit with Dehyana as I introduce Skelly, our first unlikely teacher in The Home Depot Guide to Enlightenment.

Twelve feet tall.

I mean seriously. Who buys a twelve-foot skeleton?

Apparently lots of people because this fellow became so popular they could barely keep him in stock.

And depending on where you live, you’re looking at around $299 for him.

$299 for enlightenment.

Not bad really.

Because look at him. No designer clothes. No Botox. No impressive job title. No certificates hanging on the wall telling us how clever he is.

Nothing.

The poor guy doesn’t even have skin.

And yet there he stands, twelve feet tall, without a care in the world.

At seventy, I rather appreciate his attitude.

Since returning to Canada, I’ve been doing a lot of listening. It’s been seven years since I was last here, and goodness, things have changed.

Politics seems to be on everyone’s mind. The right, the left, who’s doing what to whom. Then there’s the cost of living, illness, ageing, money, and what the future might hold.

And I get it. These are real concerns.

But I find myself wondering where God fits into all these conversations. Where’s our faith in something greater than what’s happening around us?

Meanwhile, Skelly hasn’t got a worry in the world.

No retirement plan, no cholesterol problems, no political opinions. He’s not wondering whether he’s fulfilling his dharma or whether the universe is trying to tell him something.

He hasn’t even got a brain to manufacture a hypothetical.

Lucky bastard.

And then I discovered his eyes move.

Home Depot calls them LifeEyes™.

LIFEEYES!

Oh, come on. Now you’ve got my attention.

Because apparently even when you’re down to your bare bones, you can still change the way you’re looking at things.

That’s practically A Course in Miracles sitting in the Halloween department.

One of my favourite lessons from the Course is, “I am never upset for the reason I think.” (Workbook Lesson 5)

Now there’s something to chew on.

How often do we decide what something means before we really know? Then spend the rest of the day worrying about what might happen next?

We can frighten ourselves half to death over things that haven’t even happened.

Skelly doesn’t do any of that.

He just stands there.

And apparently his arms are poseable too.

Well, naturally.

Because even after you’ve been reduced to your bare bones, you can still change your position.

I love that.

How many times have we taken a position in life and defended it as though our very existence depended on being right?

Meanwhile Skelly can raise his arms, lower them, wave at the neighbours, or stand there looking like he’s just received his electricity bill.

But here’s the part I really love.

His eyes light up.

Of course they do.

The fellow hasn’t got a stitch of clothing, a job title, or even a decent set of teeth, but he’s still got Light in his eyes.

And that got me thinking.

We spend so much time worrying about what’s happening in our lives that we sometimes forget there’s more to us than our circumstances.

And if you’ve spent any time in spiritual circles, you’ll know all about the Light.

We’re supposed to hold the Light, shine the Light, raise our vibration, activate our Light bodies and preferably glow while we’re doing it.

Good grief.

I’ve spent more than thirty years studying and teaching A Course in Miracles, and I can tell you that life doesn’t always go according to plan.

Good heavens, no.

But one thing I’ve come to trust is that God doesn’t disappear just because the circumstances change.

We don’t have to earn the Light, manufacture it, or prove to anybody that we’ve got it.

It’s already there.

Even when we’re having a rotten day.

Even when we haven’t a clue what comes next.

And certainly when we’re standing in the middle of Home Depot wondering what on earth a twelve-foot skeleton has to do with enlightenment.

For decades, I’ve ended my teachings with the same words:

God Is. I Am. All is well.

Not because everything in life is going wonderfully, but because I’ve come to trust something greater than whatever happens to be going on around me.

And sometimes, when life gets noisy, I think we could all use a little reminder of that.

So there he stands.

Twelve feet tall. No impressive credentials. Nothing left to prove. Nothing left to suck in for the photograph.

Just Skelly, with his LifeEyes, poseable arms and absolutely no idea where he put his pants.

And you know what?

He looks remarkably free.

$299 for enlightenment.

I’ve spent considerably more than that over the years.

Meet Skelly. Our first teacher in The Home Depot Guide to Enlightenment.

God help us.

With love, light and laughter,
Dehyana