Book

Telling the Truth

I recently had a phone call from a dear friend Marion, who had just finished reading my book, (which she loved – I have to get that in there!). She told me she felt as if I was talking specifically to her the entire time she was reading Messages.

Marion and I talked about many aspects of the book, but our most important conversation came from her question, “when did ‘Truth’ first become important to you?”

“That’s a hard question to answer right off the cuff,” I said, “but I think I’ve always cared about ‘Truth.’”

As the hours went by after our conversation, my memory began to improve. Now I had a more accurate answer and it was deep and difficult for me even to remember.

I am the daughter of an alcoholic. I’m not going to go into my story; I want to let that one go. But I mention it here to say that often in my life I told white lies to keep everybody (especially my father) happy, okay with me and peaceful. I considered it telling the truth until I read a book by Scott Peck called People of the Lie.

Because I was so grounded in the belief that I always told the truth, I initially was offended by the book. Peck claims that most people are liars! “NOT ME!” I demanded, put off by the very idea. It wasn’t until I delved deeper into the book that I began finally to SEE that I was one of those people. In my life, because the lies I told were “white lies,” they were okay; they didn’t hurt anyone. But in Scott’s book a lie is a lie. Period. My “white lies” were not the truth, therefore they were lies. This book had a tremendous effect on, me as all of Scott’s books do, and so I began to practice being as aware as possible of my “truth telling.”

I had an altercation with a friend, Alice; the reason and circumstances behind the altercation are not important, but in short, Alice saw behaviors in herself, as I told my story, which bothered her. She apologized after the incident, saying, “what bothers me the most is how much I betrayed myself by that behavior!”

I was quite stunned with her comment and kept turning it over in my mind. Because of it, I truly became aware of the meaning behind Peck’s teachings. I began to realize that whenever I acted or spoke in opposition to my own beliefs or values, such as not saying the exact truth, I was betraying no one more than I was betraying myself. WOW!

That moment altered my behavior for the rest of my life. I am no longer willing to lie to protect anyone else – to protect myself – or to cover anything up. It isn’t worth the self-betrayal. I tell the truth. If I don’t I am betraying no one more than I am betraying myself. If I don’t like what I’m saying, that’s what I need to look at! It is too expensive to not tell the truth, and my soul wants my integrity.

Right now, my honesty is the most important thing to me; I find that very interesting. I want honesty and integrity in my politicians, I want it from my friends and from my family, as much as I want it from myself. Marion told me another precious story recently. She recalled a time that her daughter, at a very tender age, cut up a family house plant. Marion spanked her, making it very clear that the spanking had nothing to do with her damaging the plant, and everything to do with the fact that she lied. She shared, “My daughter tells that story to this day when she’s lecturing to students.” The consequences of her action – of her lie – stick with her to this day from that one lesson. Lying causes pain.

Attending my son Carl Daikeler’s annual summit of his company Beachbody in Las Vegas this past weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to witness how often and the way his coaches responded to him – what he said and did; what he told them. The comment I received most often from other attendes was, “he’s got so much ‘integrity.’” Each time I heard this, I smiled and nodded, for I know the true value of integrity, and I saw that they appreciated it in a person.

For now, I strive to continue to be completely honest and hold myself with complete integrity in everything I do. To me, integrity and truth are the same thing.

Truth is who I am.

Who are you? What do you hold to such esteem? How did that develop for you personally?

Know who you are and everything will fall into place!

I had no intention of writing a second book. I didn’t even intend writing my first book for that matter. I’d had three wonderful children, a successful interior design career (including television), and a delicious life. But strange things kept happening during the writing of the first book. I kept getting MESSAGES!

But let me back up, as it’s important to tell you this. The first book I wrote, What Color Is Your Slipcover? published by Rodale, was written after years as a successful interior designer. Early on, I became very disenchanted with the shallow direction of trends and “dynamite design,” compared to pursuing a more profound understanding of the idea that creating a home was; it is a ddeep, inner, sacred and personal experience. Additionally, few of my clients or students even knew what they liked! The doctor in me fashioned tons of questions and exercises to get people in touch with their heart – their deepest loves and needs – hoping to enable them to become a partner in their design and allow their homes to become powerful spaces that inspired them every day. I even dreamed that all of this would lead to a better world, inhabited by more secure, deep and empowered humans – humans filled with great identity and self expression. “Totally appropriate,” I thought.

In order to know how to cultivate this “inner blueprint,” I knew I had to really be deep in my questioning, so I kept doing the process on myself. Over and over I attempted to get in touch with what I loved. I was constantly testing, urging and challenging myself on what it was that proved the sacredness of life to me. What did I need every day in my home to strengthen my identity? Who was I?

Well, believe me, working on myself that deeply was expanding me into a place where I was bigger, more intuitive, insightful, aware and awake! In this state of being, the universe was responding with synchronicity beyond my wildest dreams.

Suddenly, VOILA! Things started happening. Being so in touch with myself, I became aware of everything around me. I was “receiving” guidance that applied to me specifically. I began to know what was going to happen a few moments into the future and I began to consistently get inclinations regarding what to do next. It was crazy, I got MESSAGES of who was going to publish the first book, who the editor was, how soon I’d hear from them, and what to do next (all of which are stories in the book). I’d been somewhat intuitive throughout my life, but nothing akin to this.

I learned to listen. I learned to watch for signs. I learned how to interpret things that were happening around me. I was becoming a much different, bigger and more magnificent me. I liked this transformation!

As I shared my stories with great delight, I eventually knew it was important that others know what I was experiencing and seeing. My good friend Barbara said to me, “you need to write your stories down.” As I began to write this second book, particularly helpful books showed up. I came acroos quotes from like-minded individuals, unknowingly attended lectures that gave me affirmations for the reader, had experiences that confirmed synchronicity and met persons who added depth to the writing. MESSAGES was basically writing itself!

And so I bring you MESSAGES, Flowing With Synchronicity.  You’re going to love it! You deserve to have all of this – all of the experiences I have had – happening to you. It will lead you (us) to a better world and a much deeper spirituality!

Messages: Flowing with Synchronicity

Questions?

If someone told you that they had dreamed you were living on a river property that was for sale, would you go look at it?  If you loved it, would you be open to buying it even though you’d had no thought of moving before that moment but you suddenly felt called?  Would you trust you’d be shown the way to do it BECAUSE you loved it? Or would you get stuck in doubt or other’s opinions and not be able to honor  or even hear your own desire?

Do you live your life on the edge of possibility or within the belief that anything is possible? Do you listen to the signs and escorts that are guiding you to your highest level of being? I know It takes practice, and patience, contemplation and trust. A lot of us want to live that life. If you decide you want to live that way, it can become an adventure beyond description. I believe those who commit to following their bliss rarely ever go back to old ways of wanting approval or always playing it safe.  If they do go back, they begin to ask questions again. Questions such as, what is holding me up?  Am I afraid?  What or who don’t I trust?  Don’t I think I’m worthy?  Why am I unhappy again?

In my life I kept being told to trust “abundance” and the belief that life is limitless.  I wasn’t clear on what it meant.  I did like the sound of it though, so I listened carefully whenever those words were spoken, or written on a page.  I liked being spontaneous, but I didn’t trust my decisions.

Have you learned to be spontaneous?  Do you flow with synchronicity or trust your choices? Do you experiment with life? How would you live your life if you discovered that you could ask for something to happen, quietly in your heart, and it would manifest without much effort very soon.  Would you move forward trusting information that showed up in your thoughts?  Would you use or trust the information?

What if you experienced a sprained ankle that put you in the ER one day and you entertained ideas of how to move through this in an alternative way? Could you do it?  Would you trust information of how to deal with this sprain that came to you through your thoughts?

Life is magnificent.  We all are magnificent.  And everything on the planet is attempting to reach us AND teach us how to live this way through messages and synchronicity.  We just have to take the leap, and ask the questions. We especially need to ask the questions of our selves for those are the answers that will show us what is preventing our YES… the yes that places us IN THE MIDST OF OUR OWN POSSIBILITIES, OUR OWN AMAZING DESTINY.