A Note From The Editor...March 2003

My great-great-grandmother lived on a dairy farm.  She loved flowers, especially her roses.  In front of the small, white farm house, she planted seeds each year.  If the soil, weather and insect gods smiled down on her in the right proportions, she was rewarded with a lovely display which warmed her heart and soul.

Trouble began to brew when her husband decided that the flowers and seeds were frivolous for a farm.  He insisted that she spend her time tending to the vegetable garden, the house and the children.  He refused to buy flower seeds or plants for her.  Deciding that cow manure, in overflowing supply on the dairy farm, was better used in the fields for fertilizer, he refused her even a meager supply for her roses.

She was, by all accounts, an honest and thrifty woman.  She bowed to her husband in all things.  But this beauty, this love of flowers, made her bold.

Late at night, while her husband slept and dreamed of greater milk yields, she crept out to the barn and stole manure from the large pile.  Silently in the darkness, she worked the manure into the soil around her precious roses until the soil and manure became one.  She smoothed the surface of the soil, covering any tell-tale signs that manure had been added, washed her hands, and went to bed.

The roses that year were the best ever.

In our search for truth and beauty, we often run across manure -- unappealing things, people or events.  But behind the facade, there are life lessons to be learned:

Peace,

Karyn 

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Upcoming Teleclasses and Chats

Messages from The Other Side

It'll be a message-packed seminar and, with the help of a few brave souls from the audience, Dr. Lauren prove that anyone can give a message. (Well, the brave ones at least...) It's just another way to document that our loved ones are around us all the time -- and that YOU can learn to decode their messages.

So while you may not get a message --although she'll try to reach as many people as she can in the two-hour session-- you WILL be part of a very special event certain to touch your heart, and possibly open it to a new level of understanding this amazing universe we live in.

Messages from The Other Side will be held in a theatre in Hamilton, NJ --yes, the kind you see movies in-- to give Dr. Lauren good sightlines to people in attendance, wherever they're seated. A video/CD signing will follow the event.

The location is just off I-295 and easily accessed from the South Jersey & Philadelphia regions, as well as the Princeton metro region. If you're taking the train, it's just a five-minute cab ride from the Hamilton station on the NE Corridor Line, New Jersey Transit--about 1 1/2 hours from NYC's Penn Station.

If you'd like to attend, the advance ticket price for general seating is $40. A limited number of VIP seats are available for $60. All tickets must be prepaid to ensure a seat. If there are any seats remaining, at-the-door pricing is $45.

PLEASE NOTE that we are limiting attendance to increase your odds of receiving a message from the Other Side.

Tickets will be available soon. To be placed on the waiting list for tickets, send email to:

Rachel@DrLauren.com

or call 609-430-9300 and leave contact information.

Calling

by John Leslie

With a Ph.D. in chemistry, good public speaking skills, a strong desire to "make a difference", teaching science to teenagers seemed like the ideal choice. And, there was a crying need for teachers in science.

So, I found out all I could about teaching: I learned the requirements and qualifications, all the hoops I would have to jump through. I talked to teachers and administrators, looked at web sites, read books. All I learned seemed to reinforce the idea that teaching was right for me. 

And, there was something gnawing at me inside, a felt sense of disquiet, something not quite right. As I hung out with "being a teacher", a wave of something like anxiety washed over me. The physical sensation was a bit like nausea. Was this indeed my true calling? 

I figured that it was one of two things: either my Gremlin was trying to undermine my need to make this huge career change, or my Wise Inner Self was telling me that this was not my calling. I was determined to find out which. 

I talked to one teacher/administrator who only asked me questions, one of which was, "When did you discover that you had passion for teenagers?" I remember feeling stunned by the question, and when I recovered, I knew that I did NOT have passion for teenagers. 

I also volunteered to be a judge for a large international science fair. One of the perks for being a judge was an audience with a panel of several Nobel laureates who were there to inspire the kids. In the Q & A session many of the answers focused on their "passion for science," their inner urge to unlock the secrets of the universe. Suddenly I realized that I did NOT have a passion for science. 

No passion for teenagers, no passion for science, high school science teacher: what’s wrong with this equation? 

There I was, having almost convinced myself that teaching chemistry was my calling, suddenly knowing with complete clarity and certainty that it was not. I had placed all my emotional eggs in one basket, and I was left with no clear prospect for my future career.

Instead of feeling despair at this dead end, I felt an overwhelming feeling of relief and elation. The clarity and certainty of knowing such an important truth about myself was liberating. Later, when I discovered life coaching, I learned with equal clarity and certainty what my true calling was. 

What is your true calling? 

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