THE SILENT CONVERSATION

I remember the silent conversation. It was very clear and to the point. And, at the time, I was sure that someone had made a mistake.

"You are going to write a book, and we are going to help you," they said.

When I say that those words came from out of nowhere, I am not exaggerating. They not only took me by surprise, they nearly made me drop my coffee cup. Still, I listened. I waited to hear the details. I sat in silence, waiting for more words, until I realized that they were waiting for me to "say" something.

"You must have the wrong person", I said. "I haven't written anything in years".

Looking back, I may have said that outloud (twelve years is a long time; the details are little hazy). But, back to the conversation.

"And there's something else you should know"(as if they didn't)." I'm a terrible procrastinator, my follow-through skills are worse, and I'm really, really hard on myself", I said, thinking I had just let myself off the hook.But it wasn't going to be that easy.

"Perfect", they said. And that was all they said. That was the end of the conversation.

That was a long time ago, and we did write that book together. Actually, they wrote the book. They whispered nine chapters worth of spiritual lessons to me., while I took dictation. And when I wasn't learning from them, I was experiencing those lessons in "real life". In fact, every circumstance of my life was teaching me the same lessons. Sometimes I recognized my "teacher". Sometimes I felt like I had wandered into the wrong classroom.Sometimes I wondered what, exactly, had I signed myself up for.

But that was then; and this is now. And now, I'm a different person. Now, I don't have to wonder anymore.