Soul Lessons

PREFACE

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

—Rumi

Rumi could have been speaking directly to me in this passage. The light was always there in my peripheral vision, just beyond cognitive thought, until the pain seared a wound into me. The wound came to me from the illness and death of my pet companion, Roxie. She had consented to enter into a precious and sacred contract with me in this life, which had now for her come to a close. Her task? To bring me back to the door of love.

For my journey to make sense, you have to understand that the experiences from my childhood where ones of emotional and physical pain and fear. Fear was the primary lesson passed down through my childhood. There was a storm gathering around my family before I was born. My mother was running from her parent’s divorce and the breakdown of her family as she knew it. My father was running from his demons that he carried with him since his childhood. My world was one of secrets and lies. The truth was something not to be shared. The world wanted the illusion and people had to be kept at bay for fear of discovery which would only result in pain. I lived in a quiet place of disappointment, rarely (if ever) feeling satisfied with my life. I had bouts of depression and feelings of unworthiness. I was in a place of darkness that felt so removed from light. I understand now this storm that I was born in, was a perfect storm for it brought me to this place right now.

I always knew I’d come from a place of love. I could sense the invisible strings from the divine source were still attached to me, yet I couldn’t feel the love. My negative false beliefs had created a hard, protective shell around my heart. The one we all create when something or someone has hurt us. My shell had seen me through decades until the pain of losing Roxie cracked it open. My invisible walls fell before what appeared to be the destruction, of my heart, a place that my fear was screaming in agony for me to avoid. My false beliefs feared that losing Roxie would be the end of everything; it would be the end of me. I was being pushed into the realm of the unknown.

I was wrong. The love I had for Roxie grew. Instead of my love shrinking as I had feared, love opened the door for me to see and feel love in all its full glory. It was a love that transcended all fear, a love where fear doesn’t even exist. Roxie’s parting gift to me was to open my heart to receive the message of divine love that had been waiting for me.

Igniting this gift has allowed me to share this message of divine love with you. It’s the message of why we exist. Our purpose in this life has always been with us, but we have hidden it from ourselves beneath the layers of our false beliefs. Your purpose is waiting for you. It can be revealed to you when you journey through the process of transforming fear to love. This was my journey to love. My hope is that sharing my journey, will open the door of love for you, that Roxie opened for me.

INTRODUCTION

Don’t go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you’re anything like me, you’ve always had this feeling that you came into this world for a reason, something grander than this body you inhabit and the experiences you’ve gone through. Perhaps one day, something will somehow make it all make sense, the reason behind our existence in this amazing, extraordinary place we inhabit in this life. For me that purpose has always seemed so elusive, so hard to find. I spent years reading books, attending seminars, and trying to learn all I could from those who claim to have found their purpose. The path to the higher existence we all seek to find. Yet through all the advice and lessons I’d learned from their teachings, I still struggled to discover my purpose. Something was missing, and I couldn’t seem to figure out what it was. I felt I needed a more defined plan, a step-by-step instruction guide that would give me the basic steps to follow—instructions to find my purpose, like the ones that come with furniture requiring assembly. How nice would that be?

The truth is, there are many books and teachers out there who share this instruction guide with us and for some people these resources provide just the right tools to find their purpose. But for others, like me, it still seems to be elusive. If you’re reading this book, I imagine that you’re in the latter group like I was.

One concept I often heard was to find your passion. Focus on what you enjoy or what you’re passionate about. Find that and live it, and that is your purpose or will bring your purpose to you. My problem was I never felt an overriding passion that consumed me, one that I wanted to live day in and day out. I had moments when I was passionate about some things but never a burning passion. If I ever thought I might have figured out what my purpose was, my longtime fellow companions, fear and doubt, emerged. My connection to the source of love was choppy and disconnected.

What I didn’t realize was that I had been skipping over the initial steps required to allow my purpose to find me. I was lopsided in my stance. While I had one foot on solid ground, my other was sinking in the sand. I didn’t have a proper understanding of the foundation to start from. I was so busy looking up that I never took the time to look down. I didn’t bother to see where I was standing. The platform shaking beneath my feet threatening to crumple beneath me. I didn’t understand that I was looking ahead to find the grand plan of my life rather than looking at where I was in the moment.

As I look over my life, I see how my experiences and circumstances I have gone through were specifically designed for me. It was during these times and challenges that I learned the lessons of love. This was where my gifts were forged either through laughter or pain. These gifts became a source of love, a love that must be given back. It’s the process of looking over the events of your life, your experiences whether good or bad that your gifts, your unique expression of your purpose is forged. Until you’re able to clearly see the blessing you have in the here and now, you will be cast in the shadows. These shadows will obstruct your message, clouding its true meaning from others.

You cannot authentically share your message with others until you’ve done the work. Our main purpose in this life, which we all share, isn’t really all that exclusive. The problem lies in failing to understand what lessons the divine has been trying to teach you. You’ve been looking everywhere except the one place where the answers can be found, within the soul lessons of your life.