| What if I had not made the choices that brought me to | | | | interesting experience. I had thought of myself as |
| a point in my life where I now have the time and | | | | somewhat indispensable in various positions and what I |
| means to travel to be with my grandchildren on their | | | | found was that, once you're gone, it's like pulling a stick |
| birthdays and holidays? What if I was still tied to a job | | | | out of the mud - the hole is quickly filled and few |
| that paid me only enough to survive, but definitely not | | | | remember you were ever there. |
| enough to thrive as I am today? | | | | My "housecleaning" continued as I began clearing |
| I think back on my journey of the past six years and, | | | | away habits that were slowing me down. One of |
| oh, what a journey it has been over a path strewn | | | | these habits was multi-tasking. Another habit was |
| with joys and sorrows; the births of long-awaited little | | | | spending too much time on the telephone. A third habit |
| ones and the untimely deaths of Alan's mother and our | | | | was answering the phone when I was having a |
| oldest son; times of calm, contentment, and peace | | | | face-to-face conversation with someone in my home. |
| punctuated by periods of upheaval and challenge with | | | | I also began a media fast and, although I had been a |
| a daughter's divorce and the transition of our son who | | | | news junkie for years, I stopped watching or listening |
| has Down syndrome from the security of public school | | | | to the news and I quit reading newspapers and news |
| to a new life as an adult. | | | | magazines. It was so wonderful to live each day |
| My journey may not be too different from yours. My | | | | without the depressing stories of death, destruction, |
| hope is that you have made room for the miracles | | | | deprivation, devastation, and depravity. My world could |
| that will always come when there is space in our | | | | then be centered on the uplifting and the positive. |
| existence for them to occur and awareness in our | | | | With the relinquishing of all this, my life slowed down. I |
| minds to acknowledge them. Let me share with you | | | | began to breathe deeply. I started to look around at |
| how I cleared the way for amazing things to happen in | | | | the abundance that surrounds me everywhere. I |
| my life. | | | | initiated a goal of speaking less and really listening to |
| As I stepped away from the security of a teaching | | | | people when they spoke to me. I embarked on a |
| contract into the unknown of a new home-based | | | | project of daily personal development. The void |
| enterprise, I realize now that I was opening myself to | | | | created by abandoning activities, habits, responsibilities, |
| miracles simply by choosing a different way to live my | | | | commitments that no longer served me began to be |
| life. I had always been extremely active in my children's | | | | filled with the miracles of the awareness that comes |
| schools, in the community, in my church, in local | | | | with introspection, the confidence that results from |
| non-profit organizations, and, as well as eliminating the | | | | living peacefully, the prosperity that shows up through |
| J.O.B., I began letting go of commitments which were | | | | service and appreciation. |
| no longer fun or productive for me. That was an | | | | |