Flow 5.13 Follow the image of joy
That’s when I saw her. A vivid moving image of a woman, only slightly see-through - like a ghost (but it wasn’t a ghost). It was … me!
It was early morning - pre-dawn. I came into the kitchen, thinking about last night’s dream. I was still in the dreamy, receptive state between sleep and waking. I was standing at the kitchen island near the stove, thinking about breakfast - about tea and whether to drink it black today or maybe add a little honey, a bit of cream.
That’s when I saw her. A vivid moving image of a woman, only slightly see-through - like a ghost (but it wasn’t a ghost). It was … me!
As I watched, the other me walked to the sink, turned on the tap and filled a glass of water. She drank the water. Then she disappeared.
It’s me! I realized but it’s me as I will be, as I could be - but twenty seconds ahead in time. I was a kind of suggestion.
This had happened once before.
Eighteen months earlier, when I’d finally (after much waffling) made a decision about the yoga teacher training. “No,” I’d told my teacher that day. Even though I wanted to do the training - I ached to do it - but we couldn’t afford it… and anyway, what’s the point? I’m too old. It’s too late.
A few minutes later, I was pulling sweatpants over my yoga tights when I saw a moving image. It was me, walking into the studio office and handing a check to the director of the program, saying, “Yes.”
I gasped - because wow! but also, I knew, deep down to my toes, that I was being guided. I walked to the office. I handed my debit card to the program director. “Yes,” I told her. “I’m in.”
Who is this woman that has visited me, as a visible image, twice now?
Let’s call her “Future Me” - or better yet, let’s call her “my joy-self” — a vivid projection of my own consciousness that cuts right through the waffling and indecision. She knows what I want, knows what I need, and she’s so determined to TELL ME that she appears before my eyes. When my joy-self shows up, she’s come to alter my course.
How strange, then, that her second appearance wasn’t about a life-changing yoga training. It was about a glass of water. What was going on?
Follow. Do as she does.
Oh, of course, I realized. This is a lesson. The guides are showing me something.
Follow. Do as she does.
Okay. I walked from counter to sink. I filled a glass. I drank. Now what?
A memory flashed. It was years ago. I was at Panera Bread working on my first book, Sea of Miracles while my children were in school. Or maybe I was reading mail for the magazine column. Either way, I was writing about miracles. That’s what I did for a living back then.
Anyway, I was thirsty so I got up to pour myself more iced tea. I drank it by the gallon back then. Black tea. No ice. And they’d just put out a new batch.
I filled a tumbler with warm, recently brewed black tea and…
“Too much tea isn’t good for you,” the man beside me, a perfect stranger, said. “You should drink water. I drink mine with a squeeze of lemon. Your body will thank you. Have water. Then, drink the tea. All the tea you want but water first.”
He spoke with such authority - a familiar authority. Who was he? There was something about him, it was as if he knew me. Did he? Know me? I turned to face him.
Wow, he was odd looking. Messy pile of greying hair. Flip flops. Hawaiian shirt. plaid shorts. Strange look for winter in New Jersey.
Because I’d been reading angel letters for several years, I knew that angels can take human form and that, when they do, they often choose ridiculous clothing. Weird hats. Period costumes. Flip-flops in winter.
Maybe they do this to get our attention. Maybe they just have no clue how clothing works. Whatever their reasons, weird garb is a hallmark of encounters with embodied angels. Another hallmark: they disappear. They are standing there, lecturing you about water. You look down - only for a moment - and they’re gone.
Like the stranger in the Hawaiian shirt. He was there. He was gone. Oh, I realized. I just had a visit from the angels.
So, why did this story pop into my mind as I was telling you the other one. Because the angels have been after me for YEARS about water. A single glass of water.
I am 29 years old. I am with world-famous psychic MB Dykshoorn. I have come to ask him: Will I ever have a baby? One of the first things he tells me is: “You need to drink more water. You are so dry.”
In fact, before I go any further. Give me a sec. I need to get a glass of water.
These memories and visions - the woman by the sink, the woman at the yoga studio, are messages from the angels AND they are projections of my own consciousness. They are images of a joy-self, the image of a woman making a clear choice.
The first time, my joy-self led me to say yes to the yoga teacher training even though another part of me said: It’s too late.
The second time, my joy-self led me to drink a glass of water; even though tea - and not water - was her habit in the morning.
What’s the difference between these two me’s?
One follows joy and one says, Oh well. Who cares?
One trusts guidance. The other one, meh.
Which one am I?
I am the one who contains them both. I am the one who chooses which to follow: the Joy-Self or the Meh-Self. Whichever image I choose, I will become her. This is how it happens. Follow Joy or follow Meh.
What other choices are here?
Take a walk in the farm or… meh? It’s too cold.
Start a new class on Sundays? or . . .meh, it’s too hard.
Go back to Chartres in August or . . . meh, I don’t have the money, the time.
Grant myself a Personal PhD or . . . meh, no one will believe me.
Live in California for half the year or . . . meh, I can’t figure out how.
Things that look like obstacles when viewed through the eyes of the MEH-Self become invitations when we see them through the eyes of joy. When we CHOOSE choose them rather than letting them haunt us
Today,I followed the image of the possible me all day. I drank a glass of water. Then, I moved my body as she moved hers. I ate what she ate. I loved what she loved.
She led me well. She led me here. To this moment.
I trust her to guide me - toward joy. Just as I trust the other me toward meh.
I follow the image that I want to make real. It’s up to me. I’m free.
The Guides say,
Every moment offers choice. Every choice is a branch. The world branches endlessly. bifurcating, diverging at endless forks in the road. All things are always in process, always changing. All creation is endlessly transforming, branching. Which way will you choose?
Play. Dance. Let joy have you.
When you engage the flow of joy, you illuminate your life. You become joy. You become flow, love emerging. Now that you have tasted who you are and what you are, allow that to flow - let the love that you are become your way, your work, your life. Play with time. Dance with mastery. Learn to ride the tides of your own emotions.
Engage uncertainty. Let it lead you to the electric fence inside yourself - the fear and anxiety that has held you back. Re-engage and flow past it. Seeing that fence for what it is - illusion. Seeing that electricity for what it is - your power, the flow of life force moving. The sparkle of life force, inviting.
As your body knows what to do with water - it knows what to do with power. Let it flow.
All of this began with a vision. A woman, drinking a glass of water. All of this flowed, as everything flows, from an image and from that image, a choice.
Flow the dream into an image. Follow the image into the world you want to live in. Step inside that world and live the life you have dreamed.
Follow the image of joy.