I’m pleased to report that I celebrated Valentine’s Day 2013 by delivering the manuscript for my first book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life, to my publisher, Hay House/Balboa Press for release in Spring 2013.
It is so fitting that I delivered the manuscript on Valentine’s Day. Writing it has been a labor of love. I am honored to have been entrusted by the Universe to share my message of hope and possibilities with the world. And I am grateful that I had the courage, resources, and support to do so.
Once I began to experience the transformative power of loving myself unconditionally, my constant wonder, joy, and gratitude led to one conclusion: I must find a way to share this great gift with the world. While I believe this book was conceived the moment me taking human form this time around came under discussion, it gained significant momentum at seven major turning points during the past few years. I share those turning points in the introduction to my book.
The first was enrolling in a life coaching certification program offered by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) in September 2010. The second was launching my first blog in October 2010. The third was beginning to write my clients’ stories of transformation in August 2011. The fourth was enrolling in Christine Kloser’s 2012 Transformational Author Experience in May 2012. The fifth was a combination writing retreat and vacation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the South Jersey Shore in July 2012. The sixth was finding New Dawn Center for Spiritual Living in Aurora, Colorado, in November 2012. The seventh was a three-week writing retreat in January 2013, during which I completed the manuscript.
The common denominator was a process of baby steps through which I embraced and transformed fear so that I might step further into my calling to foster hope and personal transcendence through the power of unconditional self-love.
For your enlightenment and enjoyment, here’s a sneak preview of the seventh turning point from my upcoming book.
Turning Point 7
When I began summarizing how the book came into being, I thought there were just three turning points. Over time, as my journey continued evolving, the Universe added three more. Then, in the final weeks of completing this manuscript, the Universe offered me the seventh and final turning point in the form of a three-week writing retreat in my Aurora, Colorado, home.
In early January, good friends were moving from Virginia to Texas. They asked if my husband, Wilson, and I could join them for the first week to help them unpack and settle in. With the launch of my radio show that week, there was no way I could be away from home without Internet access. Having retired a year earlier, my husband was free as a bird. We compensated for me not participating by having him help them for three weeks.
Originally, I’d planned to complete my book manuscript by the end of October 2012. When new revelation started coming fast and furious in October, it was clear the Universe had a different idea about the breadth and depth of the book. I revised my target date to December 30. By mid-December, when I realized that only force, not flow, was going to produce the book by New Year’s, I switched my perspective to, “It will be done when it’s done,” letting go of all preconceived notions about timing. I’d learned from experience that force is based in fear. Fear-based energy produces less-than-optimal results that rarely last, while sucking the joy out of the process. This book would be fueled by love. The Universe was in charge of letting me know when it was finished. My job was to stay tuned to the Universal frequency and keep taking dictation.
In preparation for my husband’s departure to Texas on January 14, we talked about the potential benefits of having no other humans in the house. (The cats get very upset if I refer to it as living alone; with the three of them engaged in every aspect of my life, including coaching clients, I never live alone.) Still, there were occasions when I referred to the trip as Wilson “abandoning me when I was coming down the home stretch on finishing my first book.” A few times, I even found myself moved to tears when I thought about it. What was going on? I was the one who had suggested extending his trip from two weeks to three. Where was this abandonment energy coming from?
Knowing that tears always signal an opportunity for new growth, I set my intention to receive the insight. I sat alone with my eyes closed and asked, “What form of misery are you remembering or creating for yourself with fear-based thinking, little one?” The answer came immediately. I had confused Wilson’s departure this time for his departure four years earlier, when he left for a three-month out-of-town job assignment that had stretched to three years. When he left that time, I was burned out, eighty pounds heavier, and ten years into a severe bout of depression. Although his taking the job had been a joint decision, I felt abandoned and petrified. Nonetheless, it became the portal to the greatest transformation of my entire life. A success story in every possible way. My psyche was totally forgetting the facts and channeling the residue of leftover fear-based abandonment energy it had found in some ancient dark corner. As I cleared the fear-based lies and illusions and embraced the love-based truth and reality of my transcendence, I stepped back into the light.
The day Wilson left, the writing began pouring from me at an astonishing rate. No force, just flow. Every time I’d think I was finished for the day, I’d receive more insights, run to the laptop to “make a couple of notes,” and find myself completing a new chapter an hour or two later. I continued to eat well, exercise daily, and get even more rest than had been my norm over the previous year. One night I slept for eleven hours straight with vivid dreams in which I resolved a variety of current life dilemmas and got insights into the next chapters of the book.
So what had happened? Wilson was never an impediment to my writing. He was supportive, respectful, and minimally disruptive. His heading out of town for three weeks was an opportunity to remember that I experienced the greatest transformation of my life during the three years I lived without humans in my house because it focused my energy like a laser on what needed attention in my own life. This “retreat” would be equally momentous; this time I would finish writing my first book.
Over the preceding seven and a half years, the Universe had taken me on an incredible journey from burnout and despair to hope and transcendence, to independence and wisdom, to service and community. Whether I live with or without humans, cats, or other species, I am never alone. My Divine Source dwells within me. When I remain free of fear and centered in love, I experience the Divine in every being, encounter, and circumstance. When I stay tuned to the Universal frequency, I constantly receive new insights and suggestions about where to go and what to do. As a conduit for Divine love and light, I have endless opportunities to partner with others looking for a guide on their Journeys to Wholeness. Whatever my circumstances, I know who I am and Whose I am: a unique cocreative expression of the Divine.
What’s love got to do with it? Everything! Spread your wings, close your eyes and always trust your cape!
Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! 
Love it!! And congratulations, Deborah! You’re an inspiration to me as I continue my journey of writing my first book, a dream of mine since I was a little girl. There’s definitely been my fair share of fear-based thoughts throughout the process, but I continue to remind myself that small movements forward are just as good, if not, sometimes better, than huge leaps. I’m proud of you!
Thank you for the encouragement. Anything of substantive, lasting value is built through a series of myriad Baby Steps.