On our journey here on earth, we many times take things for granted, like getting in your car, and knowing it will start and get us where we are going.
Buying an airline ticket to visit friends, or buying a train ticket to visit another part of the country…we have become accustomed to just buying a ticket, knowing with a ticket, we can go anywhere we want. What if we apply this in the spirit world?
This is my story on what can be accomplished when you “Just Buy the Ticket”.
My mother died when I was a young child of two years old, having only one sister a couple of years older than myself, we were sent to live with my Grandparents from my mothers side. Life as a child was very sheltered. Being raised with someone from the depression era, many times there were not any of the nicer things in life; including store bought clothes or enough pencils and paper for school. My Grandparents, particularly my Grandmother was over protective of me and my sister, especially me since I was the younger. Being over protective, that meant I never had sleep overs with the girls from school, I had limited friends and I never rode a school bus to school or on any field trips that the class was taking. As a child in elementary school, this was very hard, being ridiculed by class mates and questioned by the teachers. Somehow I survived those years and I realize now it was all a lesson and growth for me, even at that early age. Watching TV was another challenge early in life, as my Grandmother always said it was bad for you, so she limited our TV watching to two hours a week. Lucky for us, we got to pick the times we wanted to watch TV.
On Sundays when my Grandpa bought the Houston Chronicle, we couldn’t wait to get the TV guide out to see if there was an Elvis Presley movie showing. Elvis was my favorite actor and singer, not only was he good looking, as a lot of young girls thought at the time, but he was always going somewhere really cool and at the end, he always “found love” with the one he wanted. I always said if I had ever met him in person I would have married him surely. To me, this was the ultimate dream come true, to have the one you want and to be in the place you wanted to be. Of course this was all in the movies, but again to a young child, it seemed so real.
The most inspiring, touching Elvis movie I ever saw was the movie Blue Hawaii. Hawaii was portrayed as such a wonderful, beautiful place that it even caught and kept my attention as Elvis, as cute as he was, sang the songs and acted his part. I imagined myself being there in Hawaii and dancing the hula and eating pineapple and cocoanut as the others in the movie were doing. I didn’t know where Hawaii was at the time, all I knew was I wanted to be there, and even then I heard the voice inside of me telling me to go there.
Being that money was scarce and even if Grandma and Grandpa would have had the money, they would have though it crazy to go to Hawaii, after all, we needed shoes and food. I remember thinking at the time that I guess I would never get to Hawaii; I gave up the realization that I would live in Hawaii one day, but it didn’t keep me from pretending to be there. I drew pictures of the ocean in school and I talked about it whenever we had recess. The dream continued for years like this, even into my young adult life, I would talk about Hawaii to others, and tell them “One day I will be there.”
Yes, one day I will live in Hawaii!
Having only a GED for an education, it was hard to make ends meet for many years, being a single Mom of one son, I had to work hard and long to make ends meet, and even then the government assistance was a blessing each month. I don’t remember thinking of Hawaii during these years, being occupied with work and raising a son alone, seemed to take all of the energy and time that I had. Even though I did have a social life and did have many so-called “good times”, I never seemed to be fulfilled, or it seemed that something was missing. All though I attended several churches throughout my life time and once for a few years I was a young peoples’ leader at the church, this feeling remained with me throughout my young adult life, and only until about the age of 45, did I finally mature enough and had began to pay attention to my inner self to realize there has to be more than sex, drugs and rock and roll in this thing we call life on Earth.
Several years ago, I had met some friends that seemed to be so different than others I had met in the past – although different in many ways from others, there seemed to be a connection between Gene, Joni and myself. We got together often and drew closer each year, facing our challenges and helping each other whenever possible, but mostly being there for love and support through all the years. At the time, I wasn’t sure what it was exactly that I was attracted to, was it that they were or seemed so successful and happy? Was it the fact that they were very popular and everyone thought highly of them? What could it be that kept me close to them all these years? I have come to the realization that it was not their good looks, or their success, even though I still admire these qualities in both of them, it was something much more than that. They held the ticket that I needed in my life.
Gene being a good ole Southern boy, we talked of God and of the spirit world often. I remember being at his mothers’ house and having the time of my life listening to him play old time religious songs to his grandmother on the front porch – just like they did in the old days. It was a time I will always remember, actually anytime I hear religious songs, it made me feel special, and to this day it still brings a tear to my eyes. As time went on and I learned more of Gene and Joni, I noticed that they never looked worried or stressed, even though I know as a person that in today’s world, we all have worries and stress, but somehow they seemed to handle things very well. What is their secret?
When September 11 happened, I was one of the thousands of people that were emotionally disturbed by the fact that our freedom was at risk – we had been invaded by a foreign country! How could this happen? Where were the people that were suppose to protect us? Is this the end of the world as we know it?
Being severely depressed, I found myself out of work and with the economy at the lowest ever, I was lost in my own world, I didn’t know where to turn or what to do about all of the bills that were accumulating on my desk. I went on interviews, but never landing a decent job – I know now it wasn’t in the plan for me to work then. If only I could have a decent job, if only I wasn’t depressed, if only I had some release of this misery I was in. Where do I find the answers? I prayed for money, love and release, but nothing seemed to work, or did it? Had I not been in such a depressed state of mind, maybe I would have been still and listened to the spirit inside of me that guides me each day. How dare I not trust the spirit inside! How dare I not pay attention to what the voice inside was trying to tell me!
I remember asking Joni one day “How do you always have everything you need”? To me it seemed they had everything, a house, a car, jobs, etc. To my surprise, and this was I think the first time I heard her say things of this nature, she answered “You have to visualize”, not to mention she had told me on several occasions that I need to learn to relax! Relaxation and Visualization – what in the world is all this? (I always thought that this person in heaven called God would do everything for you, all you had to do was pray and you could have anything, I didn’t know at the time that God was inside of me.) How can you relax when you have no job? How can you visualize things you want and need when your history seems to prove that everything that is good never lasts? At least this is how it all seemed to me at that time, but little did I know, the universe had big plans for me – and it all started with a little book that Joni had told me about “Creative Visualization”. I never was much of a reader, but I decided to trust my friend and I began reading the book.
It took me several attempts to relax and learn to meditate, but after conquering this major challenge, the visualization challenge was still ahead. I tried and tried to visualize good things as the book suggested, but the negative thoughts kept coming, will I ever succeed at this? After a few chapters in the book, I had to read them over and over, and I visualized having a job, one of the first things on my list, to my surprise, it seemed to be working! I did land a temporary assignment on the other side of town, but then I didn’t visualize where the job was, I just visualized a job! Since I had a job, I believed I had found the key to success, visualization – little did I know that this was just the beginning of my lifetime of success.