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What's with the house? |
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Who knows what this will mean to anyone but me - I share it because it feels important to say that awakening happens.
And, that it will unfold in as many ways as there are people. I believe
that Awakening is something we'll all experience - and, it won't
always involve inner fireworks and trippy trips. Awakening is the process of Remembering - we're all here to Remember who we truly Are. This is one small tale about my Awakening. This is part of the story of my Remembering.
Years ago I met a woman who was a
life coach/mentor of sorts, long before it became all the rage. My experience of Dorothy Divack - and the story I'm about to tell - covers a couple of decades and is a little convoluted, but maybe stick with me.
This isn't really about Dorothy so much as it is about my own lengthy spiritual awakening. (You might say that I'm a little slow on the uptake.) Some of the dates and details are a little fuzzy but, ultimately, it's a tale of
mysterious beginnings where exactitude isn't really necessary. Here goes...
For Christmas in 1992, I purchased a gift certificate for my mother from the spa at the Claremont Hotel in the Oakland hills and I prepaid for a pedicure for myself while I was at it. I don't particularly care to have my feet touched, so things were already a little weird. Several months went by without either of us making the move to use these certificates - they were set to expire so I made appointments for both of us and we met there one early afternoon in, let's say, late October, 1993. (Both of us grew up in Berkeley, but rarely went to the East
Bay, so the location for the start of this tale is strange in and of
itself. Truthfully, we don't really even like to hang out with each other, so there's that.)
As I sat in the fancy pedicure chair, I chatted it up with the technician who, as I recall to this very day, just had a
winning way about her. I mean, there she was, working on my nasty hoofs, and she just couldn't have been more delightful. Glowing, articulate, sincere, authentic. Finally, I had to ask, "So, what's your deal?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I mean, are you taking something? How is it that you seem so....so......I don't know...happy and fulfilled?"
"Oh," she said, "I've been doing some work with this woman over in San Francisco and she's really helping me get clear on what I want for my life."
"Oh...huh." Crickets.
I sat there and wondered what that even meant. Because, while there was nothing really wrong with my life, and I was having
a lot of fun being a single girl in the Big City, I hadn't really given my life any conscious thought. It was all party, all the time, and that was good enough for me. Sort of.
The rest of the appointment was uneventful except that Gorgeous Girl gave me the business card of her coach/mentor. I pocketed it and it floated around with my piles of paperwork for several months, intermittently reminding me of that nail technician and her healthy, beautiful vibe. Finally, after another hard night of partying, I desperately acted on the impulse to call this Dorothy Divack person and find out how I could get me some of whatever she was offering.
So, I dialed Dorothy's number one evening and she picked up after two rings. I introduced myself and told her that I wasn't sure what I wanted or why I was calling, but I knew that something had to change. And, she told me - I'll never forget this - that she NEVER answers her business phone, but that she was compelled to pick up the phone that evening and that she was sure there was something we could do together that would put me on my"path," whatever that meant.
(Now, that might sound like something someone says in order to make you feel special enough to sign up for whatever they're selling, but in my many years of knowing Dorothy and on the many occasions I would call her, she never did answer her phone, always letting it go to voicemail instead. Others with whom she worked told me the same thing - she NEVER answered her phone.)
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The beauty that is Dorothy |
Dorothy invited me to join an upcoming workshop she was facilitating which would involve the weekends - Friday evenings, all day Saturdays and Sundays - in Walnut Creek, and Tuesday evenings in the City, for six weeks. Not only would this drastically cut into my busy party schedule, but I would have to take public transportation there and back, AND I couldn't afford it - I spent all of my money on eating/drinking/traveling and didn't have a dime saved. It wasn't looking good.
So, I did what anyone might do - I asked my mother to loan me the money which, frankly, went over like a fart in church. She declined, and not very nicely. I called Dorothy in tears to tell her that I couldn't get the money together for the workshop and she offered to allow me to pay in installments, which was also something she NEVER did. (She taught me an early lesson about the energetic difference between responsibility and obligation - I never missed a payment and made each one with deep gratitude.)
So, I attended that workshop, my first such experience of that kind. If my memory serves, there were 5 female and 2 male participants - other than that, there's not much more I could tell you about it except that it was my first exposure to "visualization"; at one point, we were asked to close our eyes and visualize whatever it was we wanted for ourselves in the future - pretty far out in the future, say, twenty years. We were to bring as much imagination to it as we could; it should be as specific as possible, with as many details as we could summon.
Well, I sat there....and, sat there....and sat there some more. I'd never been asked about my dreams and visions for myself - didn't know I could even do that. But, as I sat there, wondering WTF I was supposed to be "seeing," I kept getting a vision of a house - a small house, with fresh white walls and an open floor plan - I could see the utility room off the kitchen and the way the living room was separated from the kitchen by one wall. I kept trying to see something else because my vision seemed totally lame, but it just wouldn't go away. And, along with the vision came an unfamiliar
feeling that I couldn't quite describe to the group when we shared afterwards. Everyone else had these GREAT, BIG, DETAILED visions for themselves
and I was all, "I saw a house." I recall thinking how very average I must be.
During those 6 weeks, I traveled to New York and met my future ex-husband; I moved there six months later. (Dorothy officiated our wedding ceremony.) Over time, I discovered that much of that workshop was founded on the principles of A Course in Miracles which resonated for me in a way that nothing else ever had; I knew that forgiveness, acceptance and unconditional love was a thing, but couldn't see how I could ever embody any of those qualities and I proved that to myself time and time again over the years. They were lovely concepts, but only available to certain lucky people like the Dalai Lama, Jesus and Dorothy. (And, maybe that nail tech.)
My ex and I bought a small house when we lived in Durham, NC. Our marriage was difficult and we eventually divorced, sold that house and I moved back to San Francisco and got lost in a new relationship which had its own challenges. (That's putting it mildly.) I found an escape from everything that wasn't working in my life; my local neighborhood bar became my living room and I spent hours there, drinking and doing drugs. It didn't get ugly - I continued to work and to pay my bills, but something was missing. I didn't know it then but I felt....empty. I was trying to fill a giant hole in my heart that I didn't even know was there. I knew something had to change. I would pray, usually when I was really hungover and wanting so very badly to live my life differently. "But...but...
how?" I couldn't see a way out of my circumstances.
I can say this about myself, though - in spite of my dubious choices, I maintained a positive
attitude and just kept moving forward, certain that something would
eventually change. I was right - in 2009, I met a man who offered me unconditional love. He saw me for who I was and didn't judge me for my behavior. This wonderful man put me through nutrition school which, while I didn't go on to become a health coach, it propelled me to seek deeper meaning and higher purpose in my life. We married in 2011, moved to Seattle in 2012 and in May of 2014, we moved back to the home I'd had in the Napa Valley for several years. A double-wide mobile home, it was nothing to look at but it was in a great location, so we decided to renovate and make it more livable. (Okay, it was fugly.)
Renovation began in November of 2014 - we moved into temporary housing and had our place gutted. My husband became terribly ill in late December and nearly died - it was just a really intense time. I'd started working one-on-one with an intuitive in July of that year and she helped me to stay grounded in my experience, supporting me to connect to whatever Divinity wanted for me during that time. What could have been a really horrible experience became one which felt like a blossoming of sorts. Between she and our contractor, who was beyond good, I was so very blessed.
We moved back into our home in mid-January of 2016, but it wasn't until July that our contractor finished some small projects, finally completing the renovation. As he cleaned up and left the house, I realized that, just that same day, I would be having my final session with my loving and supportive intuitive coach/mentor/friend/guide, Michelle Sinnette, after a year of having worked together. It was as if, while the house was being remodeled, so was I. In my work with Michelle, I had come a long way in my quest to become a loving presence on this planet, which is something I'd thought was out of my reach. I learned that each of us has this potential - that life is nothing but potential - and that THIS loving presence is actually the reason I came here, so there is no way I can fail. A sense of peace and freedom came over me and it felt (very) vaguely familiar.
I sat there, musing on the beauty of this synchronicity, and then I walked around the house, admiring my decorative choices and reveling in...something ....unsure of what I was feeling and why. And, then the hairs on my neck stood up and I got chills all over my body. (I have them now while typing this.) I stood in the living room and realized that THIS WAS THE HOUSE from my visioning exercise over twenty years ago, down to the utility room, the wall in the kitchen, the color of the counter tops, the layout of the rooms - everything, including that feeling I couldn't describe at the time, Peace and Freedom. In my vision, I had not only seen the house but the potential of who I would become IN this house. It still freaks me out a little.

I've lost touch with Dorothy over the years - she moved back to Brooklyn and isn't easily reached. But, her impact on my life is beyond our conscious connection - beyond the physical plane. My Soul guided me to that spa, with that happy girl, so that I could have the experience of knowing that there was another way of Being. Everything that's happened since was perfect, and in Divine Right Order! This is all to say that this experience has allowed me to
know we are being supported by a benevolent force - God - and that, while it's not always quick or obvious, one day we will ALL have an experience of Knowing.
May you be blessed!
PS - Here's a blog post I wrote about the renovation, which has been viewed by almost 16,000!
http://modmobilehome.blogspot.com/