November 3rd, 2014

Oh Elaina, sometimes I just shake my head at how clueless you are. When you started this letters project you had some practical goals. The first goal, like most writers, was to find a way to bring your work to a wider audience and get more eyes reading your words. The second goal was to find ways to optimize a website and learn how to market it to a wider audience. You have your own author website you don’t do much with because you only have one book published. Now that another will soon be out, you figured it was time to learn. While these are worthy goals, they are limiting.

It hit you last night as you were thinking of all you’ve learned in the past few weeks, the ultimate goal of this project is to develop a deeper understanding of self, of life, and of energy and spirituality. While the outward manifestation of this might be a well visited website, the real culmination is this idea of unity between people, lifting each other up, and supporting one another.

Last week while you were on vacation,  you stood on the shore watching the waves come in. You met each wave by bracing yourself against its impact. You held yourself rigid, letting them crash into you, and struggled to maintain your stance as the receding water swept the sand out from under your feet. With each ensuing wave, you experimented with how to receive it: arms akimbo–daring it to knock you over, in an angled fighter’s stance, sitting down–accepting the impact, and finally, you went deeper into the water and moved with the waves, bobbing and greeting them with open arms, feet off the ground, allowing them to move you and bring you back to shore.

Playing in the waves exhausted you, but by the end, you understood how to use their energy to carry and lift you. Fighting against the energy brought nothing but instability and fear. Going with the flow brought you peace and ultimately brought you to shore and back on solid ground. You believe all of life is connected through energy and how one receives the energy determines the path one follows. We can fight against negative energy hoping to maintain our footing, or we can push past it and use the energy to lift us up and carry us to solid ground. By starting with those practical goals about writing, Elaina, you almost missed out on the opportunity to have more.

Meaningless coincidences do not exist, not for you. In every interaction there is a message or lesson, whether you are the receiver or the giver of that message is rarely known until after the interaction.  Accept it or not, we are all connected. We can call it God, energy, spirituality, or some higher plane of existence, but you learned this week to allow the energy to carry and lift you, not knock you on your ass.

Having goals is a good thing, as long as they don’t limit you. Keep yourself open to the energy around you. Go with the flow of it, even if you’re not 100% sure where it’s taking you, trust that you will find yourself where you need to be. Even in times of tumult, like the waves, always, always, always, find a way to let life lift you up, carry you, and inspire you to greatness.

You are on your way to incredible happiness. Ride the waves, Elaina. Open your arms and sail.