My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness. - Michelangelo
I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we're all teachers - if we're willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door. - Marla Gibbs
The #1206 “fiction” series continues …
Geri crawled into bed next to Will. It had been a busy but fruitful, fulfilling day. She kissed Will and snuggled lovingly into him. Sleep came fast and easy for her …..
…. and then she awoke with a start.
She was no longer in her bed but sitting in a chair in a darkened, softly lit room empty of anything but the comfortable chair she found herself in.
She looked frantically for Will but he was nowhere to be found and for a moment, panic began to seize her.
A voice from nowhere, everywhere and within her spoke softly and gently to her. “There is nothing to fear here, Geri”, it said kindly.
The voice paused for a moment before continuing.
“Before you move on in your journey, it is normal that your journey-to-date be reviewed. Hopefully you will find the review to be useful”, the voice said.
Images appeared around Geri, movies floating in the air about her. She recognized them all. It was her Life in all of its early struggle. One moment she was observing being bullied in school, another time she saw abuse at the hands of someone who sought to relieve his pain by pushing it on her. She watched her younger self struggle with her career and a Life of personal difficulty. Years of frustration, unanswered prayers and a sense of being lost in Purpose were replayed and she felt painful, all-too-familiar emotions welling up inside her as she remembered those days.
“How do you know this?”, Geri asked in bewilderment.
“This is not the time for questions”, replied the voice, “Observe.”
Geri watched the movies in silence, tears rolling down her cheeks. Small, personal victories and moments of happiness were interspersed with long stretches of difficulty. She relived her feelings of fear, failure and a strong sense of unworthiness that she had experienced then.
And then the movies disappeared.
Geri sat in silence, digesting what she had just watched.
“This was your Life story”, the voice said.
She cleared her throat and spoke.
“That wasn’t my whole story”, she said quietly.
“True”, replied the voice, “We spent a long time preparing you for your real story. Sometimes, difficult things were sent your way to prepare you for your Purpose. Other times we sent gifts to you in the form of opportunity but you resisted them, choosing the difficult path when an easier one was available. Some lessons were necessary. Some were voluntary on your part. All of them were important.”
The voice paused.
“Observe”, it said.
Another movie appeared. It showed a meeting she had had with a long time friend many years ago. They were talking about her struggles as they had done in the past and he was encouraging her to stop being fixated on what had gone wrong in her Life. He implored her to see her difficulties as preparation for something greater and to allow herself to be guided towards her real calling instead of driving towards what she believed that calling to be. He was reading to her from his Bible, quoting Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 and how everything mattered in its own time. The time had come to use her talents and gifts in the way she was meant to and not in the way she thought she was supposed to, he had implored.
“I remember this meeting”, Geri said, “Hank was telling me something I already knew.”
“Perhaps”, replied the voice, “Hank, or Gabriel as we know him, was telling you something important that you had ignored for your entire adult Life. So while you claim to have known this all along, it was your failure to take any action that kept you trapped in the Life that you hated. Gabriel’s task when you met him that day was to get you to think differently. Do you remember what happened after that meeting?”
“Yes”, Geri replied, “Will and I decided to trust our instinct more. I gave up on my dreams of running a big, fancy, impactful company and we settled on a bed and breakfast that we had had our eye on for some time. It was kind of a silly dream I guess but I always like it was something that kept calling me and so we gave in to the feeling and followed it.”
“A silly dream?”, asked the voice, “Observe.”
Movies again began to play in the air around her. One movie showed a successful artist proudly exhibiting his art to an admiring audience in a large art gallery. Another movie showed a couple lying on a beach, intertwined in each other as they watched the sun go down. In another, a young man was saying goodbye to his father as he lay dying in a hospital bed.
Other movies played all around her.
“Who are these people?”, Geri asked as she watched them all in awe and bewilderment.
“The young artist stayed at your bed and breakfast when he was struggling to find his way in his vocation.”, replied the voice, “The couple were experiencing the death throes of their marriage when they decided to give it one last try by spending a romantic weekend at that same bed and breakfast. The other young man and his father had become estranged over the years and had decided that it was important that they reconnect and they did so at your bed and breakfast shortly before his father died.”
The voice paused for a moment.
“All of these people were struggling. Their lives changed when they met the owners of the bed and breakfast. As their Life Journey took them through your bed and breakfast, they were transformed.”
The voice paused again before continuing.
“As were you and Will”, it said gently.
“I don’t understand”, said Geri quietly.
“We spent your entire Life preparing you for your real Purpose. You fought us and resisted us the whole way. When you finally acquiesced, the Purpose we had for you was allowed to come to fruition. You wanted to serve people but you kept getting in your own way. Impactful service was much easier to achieve and closer at hand than you realized.”
Geri sat in silence, tears once again rolling down her cheeks.
“I didn’t know”, she said quietly.
“Nor were you meant to”, replied the voice, “You would have attempted too many shortcuts had you known. Human beings cheat if they know the answers in advance.”
“What about Will?”, she asked, “Where is he? Can I see him?”
“He still has a small part of his Calling remaining”, replied the voice, “You will see him soon.”
There was a moment of silence.
“You once had someone important that you lost”, said the voice gently, “Tell me about her.”
Geri choked down the sobs that wanted to well up within her and she looked down at the floor.
“My mother was everything”, she said, “When she died, I felt like I had lost my champion.”
“What would you tell your mother if you could speak to her right now?”, asked the voice, “What do you think your Champion would tell you about all of the people whose lives were changed when they met you and Will at your bed and breakfast?”
Geri shook her head for a moment and then looked up to answer the question.
As she did so, she was stunned to see her mother standing in front of her. Behind her, others stood, people that she had recognized as having helped her over the years or whom she had helped.
She opened her mouth to speak …..
To be continued.
© 2016 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved
Background
This blog post is a long distance dedication to someone I can not identify.
Perhaps the person is you.
You know what it means.
Someone is waiting for you.
What are you waiting for?
Series Origin
This series, a departure from my usual musings, is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy advisor and large-scale technology architect.
While this musing is just “fiction” (note the quotes) and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)
This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.
