Saturday, August 29, 2015

to be set free: not your typical ghost story



a memoir



The Church of Happy Thoughts

the one truly unorganized church


Well.
So.  I wrote a book.  

To all my email friends in France, and Germany and Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Austria, and Viet Nam,  Italy and Greece, USA, Canada, and all of you everywhere,...blogspot.com doesn't tell me who you are, but THAT you are and lets me know who's checking in from where you are. Someday I might ask you to be followers, but I'm just happy to know you are there, in the world with me.  To all of you, thank you for checking in from time to time.  

So.  This is a short memoir, about this one thing:

I've learned that the good news for the Ghost in the room is the good news for us all.

Freedom is possible.   Even when I found myself in the darkest places, ones in which I knew I did not belong, freedom might be as simple as looking for it.    

It begins with a simple message from my grandmother, Maia, just moments after she died when I was 3.  A message that has saved my life over and over again. Then it continues to this moment, the clanging and banging that I eventually learned was coming from somewhere not so very far away, and they were hoping my belief in no-end-to-chances, and that all are greatly loved, might be true.

I hope this message saves your life one day, it's simple and true, and these experiences with the otherwhere may shed some Light on clanging and banging of your own.  So, this is one of my many stories.   I can only hope that one day I will have the chance to read one of yours.

We are truly all in this together.







This is a kindle ebook.  If you do not have a kindle, when you go to the link above, it should take you to the To be set Free page, where there is the option to read the first few pages of the book.  Below the cover image, there is a message that says:  "Read on any device.  Get the free app." Click and it will lead you to a link to get kindle on your phone, computer, or tablet, Mac or PC, for free.  Pretty slick. 


to life, death and everything in between,
and to everybody's ghost story,

Julie 


   




Thursday, May 7, 2015

Just Hit Send

                            the church of happy thoughts

                                                       the one truly unorganized church
                                                                                      

Twice in the last week I did something that is very hard for me to do.  I don't exactly know why, don't exactly believe it matters.  I'm one of those people about whom it could be said I've been on my own since the day I was born.  Thinking about it at this moment.. I guess we all are.

I sent an email and a text this week, asking for help.  One was emotional, I just needed someone on solid ground to simply tell me about their day.  No drama.  Just the facts.  My life was at that moment seemingly a world of hurt.  Swirling swirling.  No where to turn.  And I needed to know somewhere the trees were just growing, and the snow was just melting, and the day just rolled along.  Sunrise, a ham sandwich, then sunset.  Period.

So.  I prayed.  That the world I was in could be turned into another one.  I didn't know how.  I asked for the field.  The one Rumi talked about:   "Out beyond the ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field.  I will meet you there."  Whether anyone else was there or not, I needed to be there.

It was awkward to send the text.  It was 3:00 in the morning.  I thought about it for a few minutes before I hit send.  But, as soon as I did, I had to let go.  I had imagined the conversation, which was calming, so was transported to that place already.  Sunrise.  Ham sandwich.  Sunset.  The perfect day.

Out  of my hands, into the hands of the gods.  The field.

 
 
It Causes  something.   Something will happen.  The world will be changed.  Because mine is.
 
The second time, I asked for help with the realization of a desire, a miracle one, and a worthy one.
 
Funny.  In both cases I didn't get a response... Hit Send Again, metaphorically.  Let go of wondering. No wondering.  No speculation.  Those are the rules.  Once you let go, you can't really take it back.  That's the point. It was important to ask.  And let it go.  The magic is always in the question.  The wisdom is in the unexpected answer.  May the wisdom be always what we look for, and what we get.
 
Just ask the question.   Which is always hard for me.  Ask ME a question, and I'm most likely to come up with a damn good answer.  That's who I am.  But asking?  No.  That's a different thing.  I don't like it.  It makes me vulnerable. It's admitting a need I may be reluctant to accept.
 
I don't know who or what god is.  And I don't pretend to.  But, I do know this:  When I let go, When I hit Send and it is out of my hands, into the vast unknown of possibility, I am never disappointed.  Something does Change.  When I ask, I trust that love is on the other end.  But I never know what that is going to look like.  That's the point of letting go.
 
Put the oars in the boat.  And willingly go where the boat goes.
 
It is always downstream.
 
So.  One more happy thought from the world of technology, magic and science, trust, belief and godness crossing over so perfectly in the field. 
 
I love it when that happens.
 
There is that moment, I believe we've all felt it, before hitting Send.  It maybe is a risk.  You somehow know that after you do, Change is Gonna Come.
Not matter what.
 
It's best then, just to let go.
 
This morning I got a message from neither place I had sent questions, but from the very middle of the swirling.
 
They had looked for the field.  And found it.
 
The very best answer.
 
The weight of the night before, gone.
Freedom.
 
To the boat then, my email friends in Thailand, Spain, Germany, Norway, Poland, Viet Nam, Ukraine, Turkey, the USA, whoever you are, wherever you are, just hit send.
 
and see what happens.
What a happy thought.
 
Julie