A life inspired: in memory of my Dad.

dad and I 300

As I’m grieving, I’m also remembering so much about my Dad, our time spent together, our laughs, and our tender moments. Here’s one of my favourite pictures of us. He truly was a great guy, and he could make me laugh like no one else ever could. I miss all of this, and I always will. I think people we love always stay in our hearts, even if they’re physically no longer with us.

He wore a lot of different hats in his lifetime: a university professor, a scientist, an author, an activist, an adventurer, a world traveller…I could go on. The point is that he lived his life to the fullest, and I’m so proud of him for everything he’s done.

He’s always been my hero, and I learned so much from him. I wanted to share some of this with you, because it all adds up to a recipe for ‘living a life inspired’, which most of us desire and strive for.

Have the courage to go beyond your comfort zone: You know that saying ‘Life begins right outside your comfort zone’, right? That was definitely my Dad’s mantra, and it became mine, as well. I remember when years ago I got a contract job for the Cayman Islands Government, and was wondering if I should accept it. It meant I’d have to relocate all by myself to a different country I hardly knew anything about, and where I didn’t know a soul. I asked my Dad what he thought, and I’ll never forget his answer: “Well, I can’t tell you if this is the right job for you Julia, but if you don’t take it…you will never find out.” Such seemingly simple and obvious words, but they made all the difference to me. I took the job, because of what he said. It wasn’t an easy move, but also turned out to be one of the biggest adventures of my life! I ended up living in the Cayman Islands and working as a Business Systems Analyst for over four years, and loved it. A couple of months ago I had a chance to tell my Dad how much his words had meant to me. I’m so glad I did. Thank you Dad!

Drop the excuses…and go for it: my Dad has always been a role model for me of how pretty much anything is possible if you want it badly enough. He’s always been an eternal optimist, pretty much to the last day of his life. Nothing was ever a deterrent, least of all lack of cash on hand. My Dad was a master at using credit to his full advantage, and he always paid it back. That’s how he financed our unforgettable tour of Europe for my eighteenth birthday years ago. That trip became the inspiration for my travels later in life. Who knows what my life would have looked like, had it not been for that adventure. Life is so short, and then it’s gone. Live it to the fullest every day!

Take an active role in your community: my Dad was always involved, be it in the student community at the university he taught at, or the Polish community in Montreal. He was a great proponent of democracy, equal rights, integrity, and a fair deal. He was a pacifist, and had an incredible talent for dissipating conflict. He was a humanitarian in every sense of the word, and I am so proud of him for that. He taught me that everyone has a voice, and has a right to use it; that it’s not only our right, but our human obligation to stand up and tell our truth, even if our voice may not be the most popular one. Our world today really needs people who are willing to speak up, who have the courage to do so.

Let your brilliance shine through your work: my Dad never stopped working, even though he retired almost twenty years ago. He always had at least two or three project on the go at any one time. From the new climate change theory, or the new method of playing Bridge, to writing his auto-biographical book, his mind was always actively working. He wanted to leave a legacy, and he accomplished that brilliantly. His interests and passions were vast, and his curiosity endless. His body might have got weaker with time, but his mind remained as sharp as ever. He always impressed me and inspired me with his relentless pursuit to extend the frontiers of human knowledge. I’ve learned that we all have our unique brilliance that we need to share with the world. It’s our right and our obligation.

I wanted to share these few memories of my Dad’s life not only because it helps me grieve, but also because I’d like his life to be an inspiration for others. He would have liked that, even though he was a very unassuming man.

Those who leave us get to live on in our hearts and our memories, as we carry them forward and honour them in this way. They’re not forgotten, and their legacy is not lost. Each one of us is a living, breathing cell of this vast Universe of ours. As an old cell dies, a new one is born, and the memory gets passed on through the DNA. Nothing is ever lost.

Rest in Peace Dad. I love you.

“The Greatest Gift of All”

Feeling ‘off’

Today was a bit unusual, here on ‘planet Julia’. I woke up this morning, feeling decidedly ‘off’. Now, I’m sure you can relate to this feeling, as most of us have one of these days now and then. I got up, had a shower, had breakfast, and was about to start working on my business, as I do most days. Except today I felt completely unmotivated, and found this deeply frustrating and troubling at the same time. I mentally ‘tried on’ all the things that possibly needed my attention, but only felt a wave of nausea welling up. This alone would be disturbing to anyone, under any circumstances, but for me today it was especially so. Why? Because I’ve thought of this work as my true calling, and have been preparing for it most of my life, in one way or another. I feel it in my gut, in my bones. After a life-long search I finally thought I knew exactly what I was put on this planet to do, and what my purpose, with a capital ‘P’, was! I thought it was going to be smooth sailing from now on. And now this!

‘Is this my true purpose?’

Now, you don’t know my story, because I haven’t told it yet, and I’m just going to skim the surface today. Suffice it to say, the past two years have been truly unusual, and deeply transformational. I know the word ‘transformational’ has been somewhat abused lately, but until I come up with a better one, it’ll have to do.

So here’s the thing, the gifts that have been bestowed upon me, were totally unexpected, magical, and a huge surprise to me, and everyone who knows me. The gift I’m talking about in particular is the gift of ‘remote’ energy healing, the ‘Pure Light Energy Transmission™’, or ‘PLET™’ for short. It came to me suddenly, as if by magic (well…actually by magic!), together with all its symbols, and the name itself, just over a year ago. It’s been thoroughly tested on my friends, family and clients, and everybody got from it just what they needed. Then a whole 12 step program appeared, in pretty much the same fashion, with its name of the ‘Ring of Love and Light 2012™’. Note the words ‘Love’ and ‘Light’, in particular. It’s been overwhelming, amazing and ‘wow’, all at the same time!

So, what could possibly be the problem today? Well, turns out you can’t just get a gift or two, wrap them nicely, present them to the world, and everything will read like a fairy tale from then on. You have to ‘grow into your gifts’, they have to become a part of you, or so I was about to find out. Truth be told, I have been feeling this ‘ridge’, this ‘discord’ in my psyche for a few weeks now, but put it down to the rainy weather and lack of sunshine (always a handy excuse for a lot of things!) I was pretending that the huge white elephant in the room wasn’t there. However, this morning it hit me that elephants are hard to ignore! So I was upset, not only because I never expected to feel totally unmotivated, while doing my ‘dream job’, but also because panic was starting to set in. What if this was NOT my purpose, what if all of this was a figment of my imagination? What if nobody needed what I had to offer? Yet deep inside I knew it wasn’t so, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

‘The aha moment’

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been talking to my trusted Source (aka God, Divine, Universe – pick one closest to your heart) for over two years now. In fact, that’s how it started, when in a moment of total despair I cried out for help, and it was given. I’m telling you this because that’s what I was doing this morning, as well, asking for help, for clarification. Asking for the understanding of what was happening, and what I was to learn from it. Only it wasn’t as polished as it sounds, in fact it was quite messy, as best moments in life tend to be.

Not even fifteen minutes passed by, when I suddenly had a very clear vision of what my work was all about. Love, that’s right, the big ‘L’ kind of love, getting us all to reconnect to that ‘juice of life’ pulsing through our veins , the Universal Love that binds us. Hallelujah! This felt like a true epiphany to me! I’m sure you’ve had a few of those in your life, so you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s like I knew this (the Ring of Love and Light…duh), but in that moment I really KNEW it, with goosebumps and all . It’s as though up to then I wasn’t quite connected to it, still a bit shy, not quite ready to shout it from the rooftops. It all changed in an instant! Right away I went over to my other ‘trusted source’, my facebook fan page, lol, and posted a challenge for myself and others.

‘The I love you challenge’

This is what I wrote:

“So important to tell people closest to you how much you love and appreciate them. NOW is the time. We never know what tomorrow brings. I would like to challenge myself and you to tell everyone you love, how much you love them. Do it today, whether in person, by phone, email, skype, text…or whatever. Go! I’m going to start right now!”

And I did…I told twelve people how much I loved and appreciated them. What a great experience this was! My heart was overflowing, and still is. This isn’t the first time, of course, I told people close to me I loved them, but it was the first time I did it with such an open heart, and with so much emotion flowing through me…and so many people all in one day. So liberating, so humbling, so human. If you are one of the people close to me, you got one of those messages. Did it make a difference? Did it change the flow of your day in any way, however small? Sending love, and receiving it back, sure changed not only the course of my day, but I’m pretty sure, the course of my life. I don’t feel stuck any more. Once again, I feel in total alignment with my calling, with my work. Once again, I know with every fiber of my being, that Love is the greatest gift of all. It is given to us, just as life is given to us. It connects us to ourselves, to one another, to the Universe, to the Divine. When we are aligned with Love, we stand in our power, and the greatest treasures and mysteries of life are revealed to us.

I extend this ‘I love you’ challenge to you, as well. Actually doing it is the only way to experience the transformational power it holds.