Publisher's Synopsis
INSPIRING. EMPOWERING. TRANSFORMATIONAL. "When you dream, you dialogue with aspects of yourself that normally are not with you in the daytime and you discover that you know a great deal more than you thought." Toni Cade Bambara. This book is about learning to dialogue with all aspects of yourself, seeing life through lens of compassion, not perfection, and embracing all of the complexities and paradox as well as the mystical ways we are guided to healing and transcending our most painful circumstances. This is a book for readers who are drawn to the spiritual and desire to live with greater integrity, intention and purpose. In♥sight provides clarity and vision for these critical times that require us to recognize that we are all woven into what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once described as a "single garment of destiny; whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Excerpt from the Introduction. All rights reserved.Begin with Chapter 17 is the guidance I received in May 2017 before I had any idea what Chapter 17 would be about. Yet, I already had a working title, "In♥Spired," and an acrostic-style outline with the words, L-O-V-E, H-O-P-E, G-R-A-C-E and P-E-A-C-E.This acrostic appeared to me on October 3, 2015, but unlike other inspired writing, it was not during my early morning meditation or while journaling. I was in the middle of folding laundry when I felt compelled to grab a sheet of paper. I felt guided to write Love, Hope, Grace and Peace vertically on the page and then began to record corresponding words that came to mind in quick succession-Lifeward, Openness, Vitality, Essence-Honor, Openness, Purpose, Expression. When I wrote Genius for the G- in Grace, I was certain that I was not the only one directing this. My G- word would have been Generosityor Gratitude...The seventeenth word, the C- in P-E-A-C-E was Courage. Begin with courage was the message that continued to appear in various forms... Then on May 6, 2019, I awoke from a dream, followed two days later by a car accident. The synchronicities that followed again led me back to this outline. This time, there was greater certainty that I would heed my initial inspiration and share the message of this book. On August 1, 2019, in a shared silence with my friend, Gail Van Kleeck, author of How You See Anything is How You See Everything, I began writing about courage. Gail and I would sit together on Thursdays in her home beginning at noontime, writing for at least an hour and a half. By the end of August, not only had I completed Chapter 17, but I also had a much clearer understanding of Dr. Dyer's message that words come through us, not from us. Recognizing the power of intention, here are my current intentions for this book, although I will allow for it to unfold. I imagine even what I initially wrote about courage might transform as I am transformed throughout this continuing process.My Intentions for this book...- For readers to embrace the concept that the challenges weexperience may not always be easily resolved or understood, but are complex opportunities that grow us forward, while stillallowing us to choose the direction of our lives.- For readers to learn a practical method of self-inquiry that honorsour emotional resilience, while recognizing that we do not haveto remain in patterns of woundedness that have continually beenrepeated in our lineage; instead, we can actively participate inour own healing.- For readers to confidently follow their inner urgings, transformingself-doubt into discernment, hopelessness into inspired action, as we learn to accept that life is continually unfolding, no finitedestination, just moments to come to know ourselves more, discover our connectedness and allow for the emergence ofsomething beyond our own imagining.
