You'll know it when you see it

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Albert Einstein Saturday, September 3, 2016 The view was breathtaking as Sally Chambers drove into the Rocky Mountains. A river ran alongside the highway, flowing downward towards eastern Colorado. Cars stopped along the highway to watch the few mountain goats that came to graze on the roadside vegetation. The mountains scraped the crystalclear blue sky, some with a hint of white on their peaks where snow had already fallen. As she rounded the corner, a pristine mountain lake came into view. Her kind of quiet place. No cars near the lake. No one on the shore. She pulled in, parked, retrieved her beach chair, and placed it on the shoreline. A few of the aspen trees began to turn from their summer green to autumn gold. She loved how the leaves looked as they danced in the light breeze, which formed ripples on the lake. Sitting down, she closed her eyes and listened to the stillness, grateful for the gift of solitude. It’s moments like this that allow for that still small voice to speak and be heard. Years of dedication proved that. Years of asking, seeking, and knocking always brought the inspiration and truth she needed to move through her life with courage and a sense of adventure. Armed with a strong connection to her intuition, she dedicated her life to seeking the truth through meditation, prayer, and study. She thought of herself as a nun without a nunnery, being out in the world instead of retreating from it. Her thoughts settled back on the events of the morning. She had been dusting her living room with the radio on an oldies station when a Led Zeppelin song came on. Of course, the volume had to be turned way up to appreciate their brilliance. It was what happened after the song was over that had her attention. An advertisement for retirement planning blared into the room before she could turn the radio down. Normally, she would have turned it off. This time, she knew to listen. There was an immediate interest. Her marriage ended several decades ago. She made a conscious decision to remain single, knowing that one day she would have to address retirement without a partner. “Looks like it’s time to begin to plan for my retirement. I’ll be at retirement age in a few years, and I want to be able to retire,” she thought as she reached for her journal in the side pocket of the beach chair. She began to write: I’ve lived an unconventional life. Retirement is bound to continue in a similar fashion. I know it is time to start to put together a doable plan. My plan, not what retirement planning professionals advised. I don’t have any foundational investments. No real estate. No 401k, no pension, or nest egg. It sounds bleak, or the greatest challenge. Either way, I’m all in! Sally breathed in the crisp autumn air. As she began to craft her unique retirement plan, certain questions arose, such as, what things did she have? She began her list with: A life fully lived. I’ve traveled to all forty-eight contiguous states on road trips. Just me and my intuition guiding me along well before I had a cell phone. Solo traveling helped to build up my strong connection with my intuition, which in turn built up my courage. I’ll make that my second entry: my intuition. These two things alone are priceless. In my defense, I didn’t build for my future because I needed all my money, at that moment, to fund my travels. It was my tuition money to cultivate my relationship with my intuition. Self-love must be next. The ability to meet my emotional and spiritual needs comes from that self-love. The love of my friends, family, and community would be another. The next one would be love. I’m feeling very wealthy! She knew her list would look completely different. She realized it was best to not compare herself to others her age, as doing so felt like a surefire way to get derailed. Instead, she decided to ‘keep thine eye single’, focusing on the feeling of gratitude for what her life had been about, and for what she’d accomplished. She wrote the words ‘I am uniquely me’ at the bottom of her list. She was ready to begin to focus on the actual plan. Her favorite prayer came to mind, ‘I want what is right.’ As she wrote it down, she added ‘for my retirement.’ This made perfect sense to her because, in her mind, everything would come from this one thought. Wanting what is right aligns her with the Christ light within—the presence of God at her center connecting her divine and human nature. She continued writing, adding the words ‘I call upon my Christ within’, to ask for help crafting her plan. Laying her pen down, she closed her eyes and began breathing into the feeling of the prayer. She was transported back to the first time she intuitively heard the statement, to call upon her Christ within. She was in her mid-twenties and felt overwhelmed with a recent move to a new state. The words came to her as she was driving down a busy street. This began a lifetime of asking for and receiving help. Very often, the help came as a creative idea, which, once implemented, brought her into direct contact with miracles. People, things, or events would show up, sometimes in the most miraculous of ways. The next thought that came to mind was the idea of being as debt-free as possible. It dropped into her consciousness and began to take root: Don’t create any new debt. Contemplating this brought a flood of ideas, which she quickly wrote down. 1. Keep track of my spending. 2. Create a budget based on my earnings. 3. Keep my current car after the loan is paid off. 4. Create an emergency fund. 5. Be in the present time with money. 6. Paying interest on credit cards is not in my best interest. 7. Get rid of my debit card. Use cash when buying groceries and gas. 8. Don’t discuss this with anyone. Sally began to think about what she had written down. She realized that when the credit card statements arrived, the money