When is a Labyrinth like Writing and Publishing?

Last weekend I attended my third San Francisco Writer’s Conference, a wonderful event for “dreamers” with the vision of writing a book and having it published. As one of those dreamers, I attended classes to learn how to accomplish my goal of becoming a published non-fiction author. I highly recommend this conference for any and all serious writers, and the quality of the lectures improves every year.

After three days of socializing with fellow writers and learning from experts in the world of publishing, I left the conference, which was held at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco. A friend of mine had told me to stop at Grace Cathedral, which sits at the center of Nob Hill, and walk its labyrinth. Since I had never done so, I thought it a fitting ritualistic ending to my conference experience. Plus, the weather was beautiful and it was a perfect day for this activity. (On rainy days, you can walk the labyrinth inside the cathedral instead of the one outside.)

As I entered the labyrinth, I tried to quiet my mind, which was still filled with the excitement of meeting with agents, learning how to promote myself as a writer and stories of successful writers. I walked slowly, focusing on my footsteps. I must have looked a bit strange, since I was carrying a large vase of flowers, which I had "purchased" from the dining room with a donation towards the conference student scholarship fund. I imagined myself as a priestess carrying her offering towards the center of the labyrinth. As I progressed little by little, moving steadily toward the center, then doubling back and moving away, then meandering along the outskirts of the maze, then back again towards the center in a snake-like fashion, it dawned on me that the labyrinth provided a perfect metaphor for the publishing business. To many writers -- myslef included, it seems that success is hidden somewhere (at the center) but the path to the goal of a published book sometimes take strange twists and turns and seems to lead us away from our goal. Sometimes we seem so close; in fact, we can see the center (a published book) as we walk just along the goal's edge, but then wefind ourselves led far away again to the edges of the labyrinth. And sometimes we are too far away to get a good look at the center. Plus, it seems to take perseverance and patience and determination – traits necessary to succeed in publishing -- to make your way 'round and 'round the labyrinth to the center point.

I did make it to the center of the Grace Cathedral labyrinth. There, I paused. I waited. (In the center, you are supposed to get a message or the answer to a question posed at the start of your walk.) I hadn’t posed a question; I’d asked too many during the last three days. In my head, the Still Small Voice said, “There’s nothing to do once you go in but to go back out.”

“Ah…just like writing,” I thought. You have to go inward to discover what you will write, to formulate your thoughts and assumptions, to find the inspiration for your ideas and the insights for your unique angle. And then, you must look and move outward. You have to begin writing and do whatever it takes to put that writing into the world for others to read.

I began walking again, this time away from the center of the labyrinth and back towards the entrance – now the exit. I retraced my steps, something I've done more than once during many a writing process. I made myself look up, not at my feet. I had to see where I was going, as any writer must. I had to look ahead. I walked now with anticipation and eagerness, like a writer in the flow, knowing what I want to say, how to say it and how to get from the beginning of the article, chapter or book to the end.

Yet, sometimes the writing process takes us in a different direction than we plan…just like the labyrinth. We think we are almost done, and then we turn a corner and head in another direction. We think we are close to the end, but we find ourselves as far away from the exit (the last words of the writing project) as we can possibly get. So we keep on writing, editing, revising, rewriting, until we weave our way out of our writing and into the world of published books. It seems the labyrinth represents a perfect metaphor for writing as well.

I left a carnation in the middle of the labyrinth…my offering to the publishing god or goddess or maybe to my higher self (the Still Small Voice), who always leads me in the right direction or to my inner priestess, who can not only invoke the Divine into a sacred space – like the center of the labyrinth – but also help me manifest my heart’s desire – a published book (or books).

When you are finding it difficult to write, or need an answer to a problem, take a trip to your nearest labyrinth. Pose your question or request before you begin. When you reach the center, see if an answer comes to you or an inspiration for your project. If not, keep walking and the answer will meet you on your way out. For more information on labyrinths, check out my article on the subject: http://www.consciouschoice.com/2002/cc1501/localgardens1501.html.


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The Secret – Not So Secret

Last Thursday I eagerly settled in to watch Oprah Winfrey host a show about the book and DVD called The Secret. She was hosting a guest panel of five people, including Jack Canfield (author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series). All of these men and women, who are featured on the DVD, literally were beaming with happiness and excitement about being on the show. (Well, who wouldn’t be excited and happy under those circumstances? Oprah makes the careers of many, and authors in particular salivate at even the idea of being a guest on her show. I know I do. Such an appearance can be the difference between a slow or a best seller. As a writer, I’m keenly aware of Oprah’s influence and power.) However, I, too, was beaming. And as I watched and listened, tears came to my eyes.

(By the way, a similar panel from The Secret appeared on Larry King not once but twice! This was amazing to me as well, but I missed both shows.)

No, the show was not one of those tearjerkers that Oprah is known to air. My tears were of amazement…amazement that the spiritual or metaphysical principles I was taught some odd 20 years ago had finally, finally gone mainstream. Oprah, too, said she had known these principles for many years. And at a Chabad class I’m attending, this week’s class included related information. And I’ve heard teachings within Christianity that speak to these same truths. A channeler on a CD I was listening to in my car last week was discussing similar ideas. And I’ve found the same lessons within Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. In fact, this secret has been around – and known by many – for eons. (I might mention that those involved with The Secret do agree with this fact and state so plainly.) The secret is not new. It has simply never been widely broadcast – which, I guess, made it a secret – until now.

It is this secret that I’ve been so jazzed about for so long. It is this secret that I’ve incorporated into my Jewishly-oriented writing and teaching. This secret represents the foundation for the work I do as a Kabbalistic conscious creation coach.

So, what is this secret? It’s the combining of thought, feeling and action to manifest our dreams. It’s the experiencing of what we want and the goals we set as if they existed right now in this moment. It’s the way the Universe, science and God bring us the things we desire. It’s the Law of Attraction, an undeniable truth that says that what we think is what we create, what we focus our attention upon expands, what we put out into the world is what we get back, what we feel creates a vibrational pull that attracts like vibrational things into our experience.

Okay, some of you are bound to be saying, “Baloney. I didn’t create that car accident I was in last week. I didn’t create this weight problem. I didn’t create the cancer in my body. I didn’t create a cheating partner. I didn’t want these things.” It’s hard to believe that we could have created such unwanted events, but the fact is that sometimes we do. (This, by the way, is where we have to be very careful not to take on what used to be called “New Age Guilt.” Now it can be called “The Secret Guilt.”) We don’t have to feel badly that we might have caused something bad to happen. We need to realize that not all our thoughts are conscious ones. And it doesn’t matter to the Universal law that one thought is conscious and the other unconscious. It only matter how strongly we think that thought and how often. The strongest most frequent thought wins in this game.

Plus, it’s not just about thoughts. Those thoughts generate feelings. And the feelings, like the thoughts, have an energy. That energy, much like a magnet, attracts things towards it, pulls them in, closer and closer – things with the same energy. So, if you feel angry or depressed all the time, your energy will draw more things into your life with those same basic vibrations.

So, what’s a girl or guy to do? We’re not always aware of our subconscious thoughts…duh, they are subconscious after all. True, but we can be conscious of our feelings. And we can change our feelings by focusing our thoughts on things that make us feel good. Esther Hicks, who channels “Abraham,” says to pet the cat when we feel sad. Do anything that changes your feeling to a more positive one. Go for a bike ride. Meditate. Take a nap – a surefire way to stop thinking negative thoughts for a while!

Yes, it’s hard to feel good when we are stuck in a traffic jam, someone just rear ended our car, our spouse just asked for a divorce, or we just got fired. Yet, we have the choice to feel good.

I remember being told, “No one can make you feel a certain way. You choose to feel that way.” So, choose to feel good anyway. Rebbe Nachman of Bratslov taught that we should be happy at all costs – even if we have to “fake it till we make it.” This was the best way, he said to be close to God, to access Divine energy and flow. And, of course, being in that flow helps us manifest our desires and goals.

My class at Chabad today we were taught not to let circumstances get us down. Be happy anyway. “Don’t worry, be happy,” as the song goes… We were taught that our thoughts, indeed, have the ability to change outcomes. By being joyous, the book and teacher said, we attract good things. We become a magnet for the positive by radiating positive energy. Plus, we don’t stay stuck in the negative circumstances. We pull ourselves out, don’t allow ourselves to wallow in the bad things in our life, when we become joyful no matter what.

And remember, that sometimes bad things happen for a reason. Some things are out of our hands. On some level there is a Divine Plan. We have free choice about many things and maybe not about others. We do have free choice about our thoughts and our feelings, so choose positive ones so you create more positive outcomes.

And sometimes there is a lesson in the hard circumstances that befall us. Sometimes we couldn’t have gotten to where we are now if it hadn’t been for the trials and tribulations we went through before hand. So accepting the events of our lives and continuing to move forward represents a positive action.

I want to qualify this by saying that I, too, sometimes struggle when bad things happen to me…like when I accrued about $10,000 in debt over the last 2 months due to sudden “bad” things that happened (my car’s transmission went bad, we had to repair two cars damaged by a tree falling in a storm, and our dog got cancer and had to be put to sleep). I won’t say I wasn’t upset, that I wasn’t angry. But I tried, as quickly as possible, to remember that things happen for a reason. Or maybe, as my teacher Rabbi David Cooper says some things just happen….no reason. They just happen. Actually my friend, who is an astrologer, told me that the “!#?* had hit the fan” just because the stars were aligned in such a way that things were happening to cause financial isues in my life. Nothing to do about it.

Sometimes it helps me to remember that life is like a trust exercise. You have to just let youself fall backwards and trust that you will be caught. Sometimes it’s a faith exercise. You have to fall forwards and simply have faith that things will turn out all right, that the direction in which you are moving is the right one, one that will cushion you as you land. You have to have faith that despite what is going on, if you just keep moving towards your goal you will, indeed arrive.

And as for the Kabbalah of The Secret, that’s a subject for another day…and of one of my booklets! So, I’ll discuss that another time.

In closing I will mention, however, that the same friend who did my astrological reading, told me she hated The Secret. She didn’t like the fact that it was so selfishly goal oriented. It was too much about getting what you want and not enough about creating world peace and such. Well, maybe I’m shallow and selfish since I did like the DVD, and I constantly try to practice the tools it puts forth. However, I firmly believe that most of us have to get to a place where we believe our own “stuff” is handled, and sometimes that mains getting what we want or creating a more financially stable situation or the like. When we feel secure within ourselves and within our lives, it becomes easier to look outside of that small realm and try to create things elsewhere. I also believe that when we all learn how to be happy…a major goal of those who teach The Secret…the world will become a happier place. If we are all vibrating in a positive way, we will create a more positive world.

If you want to get a copy of the DVD The Secret, check out the link in my resource section.


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"Birth is God's Way of Saying 'You Matter'"

Last week I signed up for a class at Chabad by the Sea (Don’t you love it? Only in Santa Cruz, CA, can you find Chabad by the Sea) called “The Kabbalah of Character.” As I was reading the additional material for the second week of class, I was struck by the essay by Rabbi Simon Jacobson, the author of Towards a Meaningful Life. In this essay – and in his book – he says, “Birth is G-d’s way of saying ‘you matter.’ In other words, each of us matters simply because we were born. Or, we were born because we matter.

According to Jacobson, “This means you are absolutely necessary. You are indispensable to G-d’s vision of the world, chosen to fulfill a mission in this world that you and only you can accomplish. Like musical notes in the grand Divine composition, each of us has our unique music to play.”

As I was driving to class that morning – prior to reading this essay, I had been having a conversation with God. I had asked what I should do if my book proposal was turned down by the agent currently reviewing it. I was ready to just throw up my hands and go back to writing articles. (Well, not totally…but I was feeling a bit lost, like another rejection might be telling me I was not on the right path.) The Still Small Voice I heard told me to keep moving forward, keep moving towards my goal, because this was my soul’s purpose. I listened, but I was still a bit unsure. After reading Rabbi Jacobson’s words, however, I was convinced.

In fact, he shed a new light on my feelings of self doubt and my lack of self worth. First, I thought, “It doesn’t matter what I do or if I do anything at all. Just being born is enough to show that I matter.” Then, I thought, “Well…we do each have a purpose, and I am pretty sure I know what mine is. So, I should, indeed, keep plugging away at getting a book published. I don’t have to worry about how good I am as a writer or speaker or how much I know or what my credentials are. I need only do what I am supposed to do here.”

What freeing thoughts! If I stop worrying about what others think of me and of what I write and say and instead simply remind myself that I am fulfilling my mission and that is all that matters, suddenly I don’t need approval from outside. It’s enough to just do what I know I am meant to do.

That said, I am still struggling with the need to have an agent or publisher approve of my writing and what I teach through that writing. I still need to have people ask me to come speak and teach to them. Despite this, I realize that I need to just keep plugging forward. Whatever I do that allows me to fulfill my mission here in this life I was given, is all that is expected of me. I just need to keep working towards the goals that are aligned with my soul’s purpose.

Somehow, that perspective helps considerably. It gives me permission to be me, to do what I do, to simply keep moving forward. It stops me from judging myself against some external scale. I can rest more peacefully knowing that God is well pleased with me. I’m doing what I came into this world to do. And, the fact that I am even alive at all means that who I am and what I do matters. So, even if it seems like I’m taking small steps or dealing with obstacles or road blocks, the truth remains – I’m making progress. I’m making a difference.

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