Success — what is it beyond patriarchal values?
In the 1994 one of my clients — a multi-millionaire invited me to a Success Group. I had a part-time business, though technically what I do is not a business but a service.
My services were starting to become attractive to people; I was becoming known. starting to become known. But at the time I was marking my success as the amount of money I was making. It wasn’t that much in the beginning.
I didn’t feel successful so what was I doing in a success group?
The other people in the group seemed more successful than me so I continued to wonder why I was there. It wasn’t until my client relayed to me that he observed me as a “man with a purpose” that I realized success wasn’t about the money.
The purpose came on February 6, 1990 when I was called to ask a question: “God, what am I supposed to do with my life?” I did not know why I asked the question. In retrospect I can see that I was stable enough on the path of my inner work so I was ready to take a next step. I thought that I might have a dream about my purpose.
There had been no dream upon awakening. I felt groggy and not ready to leave my bed.
A being entered through my groin and curled up into a ball in my stomach. Then a full name came to me. It was the name of a woman whom I had met about a month earlier that I had instantly disliked. She was a prominent woman in the community so I thought she would have an unlisted and/or unpublished telephone number.
I went to the phone book thinking I would be let off the hook and not be able to call her. But I found her phone number. I dialed the number. She answered and I identified myself.
“I know what I’m about to say sounds crazy, but…”
I relayed the experience that had just happened.
She said: “I’ve been curled up in the fetal position and I have been thinking about killing myself.”
At that point I made her promise that she would not harm herself in any way until we could meet two days later and work on something life affirming — or something like that.
We met, she told me what had happened to her over the holidays. I had gathered the names of therapists and groups in town from my friends at work (the crisis resident treatment house) as resources for her. I spent four hours at her home listening and responding.
At the end of my stay I handed her the resource list and she said after declining the resources: “The universe put you out there to hear my call. That’s what I needed to start going again.”
We became friends and colleagues.
I began a healing practice.
Making money is a side effect of what I do and not the main goal of the service. I would venture to write: I live modestly, rent my home and having been raised as a Connecticut Yankee I have learned to live frugally.
I was learning to unplug from patriarchal practices and capitalism into a new kind of living and work. It was (is) work that sustains me and works in part through the principles of quantum entanglement. The problems are challenging and the work once a pathway becomes clear is as easy as breathing. I feel so blessed to be able to blend heart knowing with body knowing and with mind knowing as a single force for healing.
Success is not about money, though it’s good to receive money for the services I provide. Success has come through my purpose of assisting people to heal and to relieve suffering. Being aligned with this practice of healing completes me and reveals to me a future without money — in a truly new world of cooperation where fear and greed have been overcome. This is success.
