Woman, Find Your Voice, Vision, Power

What does it take to get someone to pick up your book and want to read it? This is a very good question for a first time author to ask. So I jumped in and decided that it would probably be a "catchy" title---hmmm---ok, what's next if that doesn't work? Well, maybe a very colorful cover. Let's see we're over the first hurdle. The book is now in your hands. I invite you to keep on reading.

My purpose for writing this book is to create a tool of empowerment for those who read it. I feel that a lot of the information in this book was inspired by an Asian Goddess known as Kwan Yin. She is the Goddess of Compassion -- she "hears the cries of the world." Four years ago, I woke up to "the dream" and heard the words "go get a small tape recorder and start speaking." The words that were spoken that day are the ones you will read in this book. It has taken many people telling me I needed to write the words down -- that I needed to make them available for women to read. It is my belief that the words in this book will make an impact on your life.

The ideas, beliefs, and exercises in this book are not new. They have been presented in numerous ways to humankind in the past. What makes this book unique is the way in which it presented itself to me. The teachings have all come to me through my life journey. I do not know where they have all come from, when I started using them, or for that matter, how many lives already have been impacted through my teachings of these materials over the past 35 years. I do know that the morning of the dream something was different -- it was as though the ideas, the tape recordings, would not leave me alone until the book was written. Maybe it was the energy of Kwan Yin continuing to pursue what she knew needed to be put in writing. Thank you Kwan Yin for your persistence in my thoughts.

The contents of this book are about finding yourself.

Excerpt:

There is another story that goes along with the dream that I will share with you. Alice came into my life about 30 years ago. She was responsible for introducing me to my first teaching job. The summer after I graduated from college, I was working at a country club as a swimming coach and pool director. Alice was one of my best swimmers, about 15 years old, and getting ready to start high school. She was always hanging around the pool and loved assisting me with various jobs. One day Alice saw my college graduating tassel and asked "what high school did you graduate from?" I smiled and said that was the tassel from my college cap. Of course, she wanted to know what I had studied in college.

After sharing with her that it was physical education and health education, she said her mom was a teacher at a nearby school that needed two physical education teachers. You can imagine my surprise when I heard this because it was August, and my walls were now plastered with rejection letters to jobs I had applied for around the country.

I had decided to join the Air Force and was supposed to go to the recruiter either that day or the next day. By joining the Air Force I decided I could pay my way and make an income, at least at that point in my life. Alice said that her mother was playing golf, and maybe at lunch I could meet her and talk about the jobs.

Within 48 hours of talking with her mom, I had a job. It was all because of Alice and the sharing that we had done. I am eternally grateful for that conversation all of those years ago that started me on the way to a tremendous life in education and coaching. Now here we are 30 years later and I am waking up from a dream that once again envisions this young lady. This time she is expressing extreme sadness in her life. This time I have an opportunity to help her.