Burnt Toast on the Highway

Too often, people think of their lives as a series of random but interesting events or encounters. We’ve developed phrases to describe certain of these incidents that seem to happen out of the blue. We’re standing in line at the grocery store, and we overhear the person in front of us on the phone talking about how they just lost one of their best pet-sitting clients. Meanwhile, I’ve been wondering all morning where I’m going to find a good pet sitter on short-notice for an upcoming business trip.

When such things happen, we might say, “amazing coincidence, right?” Or “right place, right time.” Or, “what are the odds?” Or, maybe even, “Am I being punked?”

But others of us respond differently. We might say, with a knowing grin to no one in particular, “God works in mysterious ways,” or “that’s just how it works,” or “thank you,” addressed to the Universe or some other higher power that we’ve learned to trust and depend on.

These people are referred to in the book, A Course in Miracles, as being “miracle-minded” or in “miracle-readiness.” Living a miracle-minded life could also be described as living by what is more commonly called the “burnt toast” theory. 

Under the burnt toast framework, we choose to experience everything in our lives as working ultimately for our benefit one way or another. The way it works goes something like this: had I not burned the toast and thereby been delayed leaving the house this morning because of the extra time I spent cleaning up the mess, I would or would not have had this happen to me. And the “this” can be something we judge as either “good” or “bad” for us. Ususally, we don’t know whether a burnt toast consequence was beneficial or not until later.

When we get attached to what we want, plan, expect or hope for, we fail to understand how the Universe or God really works. If we stay in miracle-mind, with no judgment but instead open to curiosity about the next opportunity or challenge life has for us, we live in acceptance that we control nothing outside of ourselves (on a good day). 

When we can surrender to a divine will or life force, then we can live in the peace of what A Course in Miracles calls the Holy Instant, the eternal now, where anything can — and does — happen, ultimately for our benefit. Both the past and the future are not reality. The only life we get to live is the tiniest slice we call now. Everything happens in the here/now. In fact, the moment that follows may depend entirely on what we do, say or think now.

Transcript

Too often, people think of their lives as a series of random but interesting events or encounters. We’ve developed a list of phrases to describe certain of these incidents that seem to happen out of the blue. We’re standing in line at the grocery store, and we overhear the person in front of us on the phone talking about how they just lost one of their best pet-sitting clients. Meanwhile, I’ve been wondering all morning where I’m going to find a good pet sitter on short-notice for an upcoming business trip.

When such things happen, we might say, “amazing coincidence, right?” Or “right place, right time.” Or, “what are the odds?” Or, maybe even, “Am I being punked?”

But others of us respond differently. We might say, with a knowing grin to no one in particular, “God works in mysterious ways” or “that’s just how it works,” or “thank you,” addressed to the Universe or some other higher power that we’ve learned to trust and depend on.

These people are referred to in the book, A Course in Miracles, as being “miracle-minded” or in “miracle-readiness.” Living a miracle-minded life could also be described as living by what is more commonly called the “burnt toast” theory.

Under the burnt toast framework, we choose to experience everything in our lives as working ultimately for our benefit one way or another. The way it works goes something like this: had I not burned the toast and thereby been delayed leaving the house this morning because of the extra time I spent cleaning up the mess, I would or would not have had this happen to me. And the “this” can be something we judge as either “good” or “bad” for us. Ususally, we don’t know whether a burnt toast consequence was beneficial or not until later.

Here's a real example. In January 2024, a few minutes after Alaska Airlines flight 1282 took off from Portland, a door plug on the left side of the fuselage blew out. The two seats next to the door plug were empty. It turns out that two the airline passengers — unrelated and unknown to each other — who would have been seatmates missed that flight. Both were very upset until they learned that the side of the plane next to the row where they would have been sitting was suddenly blown out during flight. The 171 passengers who were on that flight were all fine because the blowout occurred at such a low altitude. So were the two would-be passengers that failed to make it to their assigned seats. Burnt toast.

Now, if we look closer, we realize that the burnt toast phenomenon happens all the time — everyday, in fact, in both mundane and dramatic ways. We quickly forget the small mundane examples. The more dramatic ones we’ll never forget.

If we learn to pay attention to them, though, we begin to notice that they follow a certain pattern that I call flow and flux. I’ve talked about the flow principle in other episodes. That’s when we have a sense of well-being and peace and calm. Everything seems aligned and attuned. Our nervous system likes that; it’s what neuroscience calls the parasympathetic state of our nervous system, sometimes called rest and digest.

So, for much of our day, we’ll be flowing along and life seems almost predictable, if not even boring. Then something happens.

I think of it as a glitch in the matrix. A rock hits our placid pond. The song we’re listening to on Spotify while driving momentarily stops because the satellite signal is lost. Those are signs. Pay attention to them. Even to the point of noticing what song was playing when the music stopped. Such events signify that a flux in our life flow may have just started. These are inflection points in our life. And they are bring an opening, an opportunity.

In that moment, it’s paramount that our sympathetic nervous system takes over. That’s the heightened state of awareness and readiness responsible for fight, flight or freeze.

You don’t really need to do anything to make the shift from parasympathetic to sympathetic. We’re wired to do that automatically. But it’s imperative that we pay close attention to what unfolds. And we need to pay attention not only on the visible, physical dimension.

Here’s a personal example. My friend and I were driving through the desert in southern New Mexico in separate cars. I was in the lead vehicle, with my friend and her dog following, traveling maybe 75-80 miles per hour. Suddenly, I noticed that she was rapidly flashing her headlights at me. At the same time, she seemed to be slowing down quickly, her car fading in my rearview mirror. Instantly, realizing something was wrong, I immediately slowed down to match her speed, waiting to see if she would call on her mobile phone or pull to the side of the road. That’s when I noticed in front of me cars swerving maybe a few hundred feet ahead— one car spun sideways across lanes and a wheel flew across the road, along with other debris.

Had my friend not felt or intuited something and acted quickly to “pull me back,” and had I not noticed and taken immediate action by rapidly slowing down, I would have been right in the middle of a serious multi-car highspeed accident on that highway.

Now, my friend is not an ordinary person. She knows very well how to recognize and respond to glitches in the matrix. She possesses many gifts — healer, oracle/seer, medical empath, among others. That day, she smelled the burnt toast. And her response was my burnt toast.

When such burnt toast events are set in motion by humans, or with their intervention, we call that a miracle. And I surely experienced a miracle on a New Mexico desert highway that day.

Byron Katie developed a practice called “The Work” that teaches people how to reframe their lives to remove the mental and emotional suffering over the perceived “bad things” that happen to them. One of the key principles she teaches is that life experiences don’t happen to us, they happen for us. What we experience as a minor inconvenience or a major disappointment actually may be saving us from something very damaging and even life-threatening, or positioning us for an unimagined, amazing and life-changing opportunity.

When we get attached to what we want, plan, expect or hope for, we fail to understand how the Universe or God really works. If we stay in miracle-mind, with no judgment but instead open to curiosity about the next opportunity or challenge life has for us, we live in acceptance that we control nothing outside of ourselves (on a good day).

When we can surrender to a divine will or life force, then we can live in the peace of what A Course in Miracles calls the Holy Instant, the eternal now, where anything can — and does — happen, ultimately for our benefit. Both the past and the future are not reality. The only life we get to live is the tiniest slice we call now. Everything happens in the here/now. In fact, the moment that follows may depend entirely on what we do, say or think now.

As Matt Kahn, a spiritual teacher, healer, speaker, and author, likes to say, “whatever arises, love that.” To do otherwise makes no spiritual or emotional sense. Easy to say, of course — but that’s the work.