Hey Pinkies. Joy here in the midst of a startling realization … one that Lissa reached a few months ago when she met Elizabeth Gilbert. Finding myself once again just a few strokes behind on the lavender-scented river, I am just coming into the joy of this discovery myself, and thought I’d share it with y’all.

My Hero

Awhile back, when we’d begun our bucket lists on the wall of OP Headquarters, I’d listed one of my goals as meeting or working with Neale Donald Walsch. After all, it was his book, Conversations With God, Book 1, that changed everything for me ten years ago. It was a pivotal time when I suddenly saw the indescribable truth that had been swimming around in me put forth in words. It validated so much of what I believed, and made clear things I didn’t even yet know I knew. Every paragraph translated from the beyond through Neale resonated deeply with me. I freed myself from my religion, from many of the old traditions and expectations, and came to understand that there was a deeper truth that wanted pursuing. It was the pebble that started the rockslide of my spiritual journey. How could this person not be my hero? How could I not want to be in his presence, learn what he knows, and come to be known by him?

A Dose of Reality

Not long after Lissa wrote her post about Liz (which I loved, but didn’t REALLY get, if you know what I mean), the wise and incredible Christian Pankhurst came to town. Turns out that, early in his career, Christian had been Neale Donald Walsch’s protégé – he had even been called “mini Neale” by those in the Conversations With God realm. One night at Lissa’s home, Christian saw the goal on my bucket list, and spent a good half hour or more telling me about his experience in Neale's world.

At the end of Christian’s story, you’d think there would have been stars in my eyes and the flickerings of a dream starting to come true. But instead of resolutely beginning to lay out the whens and wheres of my first meeting with the man who changed my life, I marched into OP headquarters and crossed Neale’s name off my list.

Now, rest assured, Christian told me nothing bad about Neale. He is an amazing man with beautiful energy and power, as one would expect. But what I came to understand was that, despite his literary connection with All There Is, Neale is HUMAN. He is a person with relationships and weaknesses and needs and decisions to make and an ego and a body and a mortgage … just like the rest of us. To be trite, he puts his pants on one leg at a time.

The Search Continued

Contrary to what you might think, this understanding didn’t pop my balloon and send it hurtling, hopeless and deflated, back down to earth. Rather, it left me wide open and curious. If Neale Donald Walsch isn’t my guru, then who was? I spent weeks pondering whose name would replace Neale’s on the wall of dreams. Was it another author? My coaching teacher? Was it Lissa? Or an actual, ashram-having guru like Amma? No, no, no. Maybe it was someone I hadn’t yet met, I thought. Perhaps I’d even have an experience just like good ol’ NDW, and meet a spirit guide of my own who would help me be a conduit to the Universe just like he is.

Freedom

And then, after I got to know person after person - and spirit after spirit - as the wise, talented, developed, flawed, beautiful, and exquisite beings they were – it hit me. I’m the same as my guru candidates, and they’re the same as me. Though we’re each using different maps to guide us and may have packed different stuff for the trip, we’re all on the same journey. I don’t have to be told or shown how to get big, where to uncover truth, what next step to take … I am doing it myself. With each pang, each moment of chaos, each setback, each doubt, I am expanding in the direction of my fullness, just like everyone else. Just like Barack Obama, just like the eight-year-old kid next door, just like the homeless guy selling newspapers, just like my mom, just like Neale Donald Walsch. I may not get famous (in fact, at this stage, my desire is for a life that is rather quiet and simple), and I may not have experiences that defy the laws of physics as we know them to be. And that is perfectly okay. Instead, what I am doing, once and for all, is owning MY path. Pursuing MY truth. And understanding that there’s nobody on this planet – or in the spirit realm, for that matter – who can tell me how that’s done.

Phew! Took awhile to grasp that one. And that’s okay too. But this lesson – as with many I’ve learned – has been wonderfully freeing. I don’t have to worry about keeping up with anyone else, making sure I know all that they know, or do everything they do, exactly how they did it. I’m taking my own trip. Planning my own itinerary. Doing my own thing on my timetable. It’s a freedom I’ve craved for a long, long time. Little did I know that all it would take is a shift in consciousness.

But We Still Need Each Other

Not that it isn’t okay to have heroes – we are all connected and learn from each other all the time. It’s just that, when you realize the only real truth to follow is your own – it makes it a lot easier to spot the people whose purpose is aligned with yours. If you look around, you’ll start to see that they’re already in your life, supporting you along the journey to who you really are. To me, those are the folks worth admiring, valuing, and bowing to.

Who do you follow, Pinkies? Who are you dying to meet? Who do you believe is waiting with all of your answers, or with the map that will show you your way? Is it impossible to believe that the answers are within you (I didn’t believe it for decades, and will probably forget again somewhere along the way)? How can we support you to own your journey?

From the inside out,

Joy


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