Living an Inspired Life Read online

  Over the 40 years I’ve been writing books, I can’t tell you how many people have told me, “A book just fell into my hands off of the shelf, and it was exactly what I needed at the time.” I’d wager that virtually every person has had a similar experience more than once in his or her lifetime. (I trust in this type of spiritual communication whenever I write a book: I feel guided to pick up a particular item, and I know I’m in alignment with Spirit when these kinds of messages continually materialize throughout the months of preparation and actual writing.) When a book literally falls into our lap or is sent to us by several different people—or even when we keep seeing the title and having it referred to by others over and over—we need to notice, stop our resistance, and surrender. When we end up reading the contents and applying what it offers, we’re aligning ourselves and becoming a vibrational match to the same Source that’s sending us these signals.

  4. Alignment with People

  We commonly receive alignment when our thoughts become strangely tied to the actions of another human being. For example, we think about somebody we haven’t seen for several years; in fact, we can’t seem to shake our inner visions of him or her—especially when someone else mentions the same person for no apparent reason, or we run across a picture of that individual. Then the phone rings, and it’s the same person whom we haven’t been in contact with for years! The language of Spirit works by aligning our thought energy with the vibrational energy of another.

  When people line up with our thoughts and mysteriously connect their physical presence with our private inner meanderings, we should take note. We must tell ourselves, “Spirit is aligning my thoughts with events that are happening. I’ll stay alert to what I’m being offered here because there may be a reason.” That’s all—just be cognizant of what might be happening, and by being open to what may be baffling and perhaps indecipherable, we’re likely to discover what we’re being guided to learn.

  A few years ago I was reading through a book I’d written years before. In it, I mentioned a friend, Earlene Rentz, with whom I attended school from fourth grade through high school. I put the book down and went jogging, yet Earlene was still on my mind. I thought, I’m going to call her the next time I’m in Detroit—after all, we’re both having our 65th birthdays this year.

  That very evening, I was scheduled to receive the Martin Luther King/Mohandas Gandhi Peace Award from the Unity Church of Maui, which would be attended by approximately 1,000 people. As I completed my speech and walked to the lobby to sign autographs, I saw the little girl who sat next to me in grade school, who was my first love, and who occupied my thoughts throughout my school years. Believe it or not, as I was thinking of her more than a half century later, Earlene was thousands of miles from home and hugging me in the lobby of a theater in Lahaina! It turns out that she was visiting Maui, had seen the award announcement in the newspaper, and had come to the auditorium to surprise me. It was one of those synchronistic alignments of Spirit at work. Somehow at an unconscious level, I was already reconnecting to Earlene without being aware that she was even in the area.

  Noticing the same folks showing up in different settings; running into people we haven’t seen in a while after we’ve just heard their names mentioned; and repeatedly seeing an individual’s name in magazines, on television, or at a local bookstore are all also synchronistic alignments. Spirit is lining up these sequential happenings for a reason—we just need to be open to learning the reason, and it most likely will be revealed. Perhaps it will be a dream or a sudden instant of Eureka! or maybe it will become clearer when simply allowed—no matter how the message comes, we’ll look back on it with a renewed insight and the benefit of no longer being closed off to such possibilities.

  It may be helpful to consider that even with all of our sophisticated technology, we can’t reproduce an eyeball that can compete with the ones made by our Creator. One little eyeball and we’re all baffled! And our Creator’s making them at the rate of six million per day—and that only takes human eyeballs into account! If a Spiritual Creator can do that, then aligning our thoughts with the people we need as teachers now is a minor task indeed. Again, with God, all things are possible.

  Some Suggestions for Putting the Ideas in This Chapter to Work for You

  — Always remember that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Stay in an attitude of readiness at all times, and the teachers and the teachings will manifest for you. Write or print out these words and place them in a conspicuous place: I am ready.

  — Once you’ve declared your readiness, don’t scoff at anything or anyone that may have some connection to your return to Spirit. Even an overheard conversation between four-year-old children can be a message to you—if it registers with you in any small way, then drink it in and allow yourself to process it as a Divine communiqué.

  Trust your own intuition—no one else has to agree with you or even understand you. In fact, I’d urge you to resist defending your inner inclinations to anyone who has an attitude of resistance. Remember, you want to feel good (God).

  — Now begin the process of actually looking for ways in which Spirit might be communicating with you right now. When these unexpected synchronicities appear (as they will more and more frequently when you’re open to them), ask what it is that you’re to learn from them. When you peacefully ask your Creator in quiet meditation or prayer, you’ll see what it is that’s guiding you. There are angels of Spirit surrounding you, so don’t be hesitant to ask. And, of course, when you do, you will receive.

  — Be prepared to make major changes in your life after you become accustomed to what these alignments you’re experiencing are saying to you. I personally received many messages from Spirit that told me over and over that I was to give up my addictive ways—yet for years I ignored them at my own peril. Today I look back at the obvious nature of what I was being encouraged to do, and now I know why I had to ultimately follow those alignments of energy or die.

  You may be guided to leave a job, a city, or even a relationship—all of which may sound terrifying at the moment. Nevertheless, if the signals keep coming and they resonate internally with you, take the step—and while doing so, know that you’re being guided to a life of inspiration.

  — Whenever you seem to be receiving an unexpected jolt from the Universe, make every effort to note precisely what it was that you were thinking at the moment you took in the message. That bird that touches you, that leaf that blows into your face, that toe you stub for the third time—anything at all—note your thoughts at the moment and see if you can detect any connection to what has just happened. Your thoughts are energy, and Spirit communicates by aligning Itself with you by getting your attention, and allowing you to then move on it or ignore it.

  What I know for certain within my very core is that there’s no separation between us and all that we encounter in the Universe. One of my favorite poets is William Butler Yeats, and here he perfectly sums up the ideas in this chapter:

  O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,

  Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?

  O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,

  How can we know the dancer from the dance?

  You are the dancer and the dance, just as God is. In other words, those messages from Spirit are you if you feel them—because it’s impossible to separate the dance from the dancer, the root from the blossom, and you from God. The only place where separation takes place is in your mind. But since you’re now heeding your ultimate calling, you’re right on your way to living an inspired life.

  PART V

  A PERSONAL LOOK AT INSPIRATION

  “There is a way of living in the world that is not here, although it seems to be. You do not change appearance, though you smile more frequently. Your forehead is serene; your eyes are quiet. . . . You walk this path as others walk, nor do you seem to be distinct from them, although you are indeed. Thus can you serve them while you serve yourself. . . .”
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  — FROM A COURSE IN MIRACLES

  CHAPTER 18

  HOW LIFE LOOKS WHEN I AM INSPIRED

  “Give me a man who sings at his work.”

  — THOMAS CARLYLE

  “They can because they think they can.”

  — VIRGIL

  IN THIS FINAL CHAPTER, I offer my own very personal view on how the world looks when I feel inspired.

  I’d like to acknowledge right from the outset that I don’t live at this level of being in-Spirit 100 percent of the time—like most everyone else, I occasionally have lapses and feel uninspired. Yet these moments have become rarer and rarer; in fact, it’s difficult for me to recall a day in the past several years when I felt completely uninspired.

  What follows is a personal account of both how I feel inside and what seems to take place in the world around me when I feel connected to Spirit in the ways that I’ve written about in the pages of this book.

  Jack

  The same day that I completed Chapter 17 and read it over the telephone to my editor, Joanna, on Bainbridge Island, Washington, I had the most profoundly mystical experience of being in-Spirit in all of my years.

  When I finished up with Joanna, I went for my daily hour-long walk along the beach . . . but for some reason I elected to take a slightly different route along a grassy area adjacent to the beach. I was recalling my friend Jack Boland, a Unity minister in Detroit, who crossed over more than a decade ago. Jack loved monarch butterflies, often telling stories of how he marveled at these paper-thin creatures who migrated thousands of miles in high winds and returned to the same branch on the same tree where they first emerged from their cocoons. Before Jack passed away, I presented him with a beautiful paperweight containing a dead monarch that I’d found in perfect condition. When he died, his wife returned it to me, telling me how much Jack loved that gift and how much he admired these amazing creatures who had such mysterious intelligence built into their brains, which are the size of a pinhead.

  Jack always told me to “be in a state of gratitude,” and he ended every sermon with this message to God: “Thank You, thank You, thank You.” On three occasions since his death, a monarch butterfly has landed on my body. Since these creatures studiously avoid human contact, each time this has happened I’ve thought of Jack and said to myself, Thank You, God—thank You, thank You.

  Anyway, as I walked, feeling grateful for having completed the second-to-last chapter of this book, a monarch landed on the ground, not three feet in front of me. I said Jack’s magic words to myself (thank You, thank You, thank You), and felt deep appreciation for my life and the beauty of the day. The butterfly stayed right there until I approached, then he flapped his wings several times and flew away. Thinking of Jack and feeling a little bewildered and immensely thankful, I watched this creature in flight, now 40 or 50 yards away.

  As God is my witness, the butterfly made a U-turn and not only headed in my direction, but landed right smack on my finger! Needless to say, I was shocked—but not totally surprised. I must confess that it seems to me that the more I stay in-Spirit, the more I experience synchronicities similar to this one. But what followed did border on the incredible, even for me.

  This little creature became my constant companion for the next two and a half hours—he sat first on one hand and then moved to my other hand, never even coming close to flying away. He seemed to be trying to communicate with me by moving his wings back and forth, and even opening and closing his tiny mouth as if attempting to speak . . . and as crazy as it may sound, I felt a deep affinity for this precious living being. I sat on the ground and simply stayed with my new fragile friend for 30 or so minutes. Then I called Joanna from my cell phone, and she was also stunned by the synchronicity, insisting that I somehow get a picture of this event.

  At this point I decided to return to my home, approximately a mile from where I was sitting, with my new companion. I returned along the beach walk, where the winds were brisk—the butterfly’s wings were pushed by these high gusts, but he clung to my finger, and even moved to another hand without making any effort to leave. As I walked, I encountered a four-year-old girl with her mother. The girl was sobbing over some perceived tragedy in her young life, and when I showed her my “pet” butterfly, her expression went from sad to blissful in one split second. She smiled from ear to ear and asked me all about the winged creature on my forefinger.

  When I got home, I was talking on my cell phone to my friend Reid Tracy as I walked upstairs. He laughed with me as I related the bizarre synchronicity at play in this very moment. I said, “Reid, it’s been 90 minutes, and this little guy has adopted me.” Reid also encouraged me to get a photograph of this, since it was obviously in complete harmony with what I was writing.

  I left my new friend—whom I was now calling “Jack”—sitting on the handwritten Chapter 17 on my lanai, and went downstairs. I found Cindy, a young woman who works nearby, and asked her to run to the store and purchase a disposable camera. She did, and I went back to the patio, put my hand next to Jack, and watched him jump right onto my finger!

  It appeared that my butterfly companion had decided that he was now going to live with me forever. After another hour or so of meditating and communing with this little creature of God—and pondering this event as the most unprecedented and out-of-the-ordinary spiritual episode I’d ever encountered—I gently placed Jack back on my manuscript while I proceeded to take a long, hot shower. When I returned to the patio, I placed my finger near my winged friend as I’d done many times in the previous 150 minutes, but he now seemed like a totally different little critter. He fluttered away, landed on a table, flapped his wings twice, and flew off, straight up toward the heavens. Moments with him were now history, but I still have the photographs, which I treasure.

  The next morning, I decided to watch one of my favorite films, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, which I hadn’t viewed for more than a decade. And sure enough—in the opening scenes of Franco Zeffirelli’s interpretation of the life of St. Francis, there he was . . . with a butterfly alighting on his fingers.

  Inspirational Vibrations

  When I live my life so as to be open to the language of Spirit, I find almost overwhelming rapture overtaking me. For several days after my experience with Jack, people kept telling me that I seemed so peaceful and content, and one woman even suggested that I was “walking grace.” This episode with my butterfly friend and the communiqués from Spirit touched me at an unprecedented level. From the perspective of being in-Spirit, I’ve seen Its hands embrace me and heard It say: “You are not alone. You can count on Me to guide you—and whatever you do, do not doubt My presence.”

  This makes me feel safe, comforted, and that I’m not alone. I feel good (God) because I’m living in almost perfect harmony with the Source of my being, living on purpose and writing from my heart. The reason I feel inspired isn’t because the world looks perfect. Rather, it’s the other way around: The reason the world looks perfect to me is because I’m in-Spirit—a person who chooses to live an inspired life. I’m able to stay in a state of gratitude from the moment I awake early in the morning right up until I close my eyes while falling asleep; and throughout each day, I’m reminded that staying in-Spirit is really about staying in vibrational harmony.

  I don’t find it necessary to change anyone or anything that I encounter or read about in my daily life. Each time that I’m tempted to, I catch myself and return to a mind-set that calls to me to be more like God, right here and right now. I stay inspired by making an energetic shift within myself; when I do, the world looks completely different, and I move inwardly toward peace and kindness. The energetic shift is merely a way of processing people and events from the insight of being unified with the All-Creating Source—that is, by eschewing judgment and allowing the world to be as it is, rather than as I think it should be.

  I stay inspired by encouraging others to live out their destiny and allowing the world to unfold as it will, and I’m much more like
ly to feel peaceful. In fact, when I’m living my life from this perspective of inspiration, my vibrational energy is more attuned to that of the creative energy of the Universe, and I find that my effect on others is far more spiritually aligned. Furthermore, I know within my own being that I’m doing something very powerful to make this world a more spiritually oriented place for us all.

  You see, when I resonate to anger, shame, hatred, or revenge, I add to these decidedly nonspiritual energies by joining in what I find to be so objectionable. But when I remember to bring nonjudgment, love, tolerance, and compassion to these low, ego-dominated energies, I see how different the world looks, and even how different those around me act in the presence of these God-realized energies. I feel optimistic when I’m in-Spirit, with an inner knowing that nothing can interfere with an idea whose time is coming or has already arrived.

  I trust that our Creator knows what It’s doing, and that good triumphs over what ego believes is bad or evil. I sense that we’re all moving toward a world that will no longer know the horrors of war or practice our long-established habits of inhumanity toward our brothers and sisters around the globe, who may have different cultural views and their own unique physical distinctiveness. By staying in-Spirit, I’m truly inspired to see the potential for greatness that’s in all of us, as one people, and I turn from anguish to faith that at least I can live from a place of God-realization, and practice being a force for good (God).

  Staying in vibrational alignment with Spirit allows me to be more present in all of my life activities. I find myself less concerned with goals, outcomes, winning, and accumulations, and far more involved in the process of enjoying the activities of my life. Arriving seems to replace striving, and being in a state of flow is far more common than my old uninspired state of worry and anguish. I remind myself that Spirit is only here and now—not yesterday, not tomorrow, only now. By keeping my vibration aligned spiritually, I see the ecstasy in the present. Everything else that once was a source of worry doesn’t come up for me, since the outcomes are already handled for me in my own mind. What will be, will be, I remind myself. The world looks so much more peaceful when I approach it this way, and my ego, which once needed to win at all costs, is relegated to a distant seat in a stadium in another galaxy!