Observations
of Life.
Observations
of Life.
In the summer of 1972, hurricane Agnes came through central Pennsylvania. At the time I was a young 20 year old man and was working as a construction laborer, earning money for college like many others my age. When the hurricane hit, work stopped. Just about everything came to a standstill. For several days, just traveling a few miles was difficult due to the flooding of the Susquehanna River and adjoining streams.
I really was not looking forward to going back to work, throwing around cement blocks and bricks to bricklayers. Not only was it physically demanding work, the summer heat also took its toll on the body. Even though I was young and strong, for some reason or another, I just needed to do something different. I knew after the flood waters receded, the company I was working for would have plenty of work for me. But I decided against it. Again, for some unknown reason, I felt that there was something else for me to do.
One thing that may have had an impact on me was that during the flood, like many other young people looking for purpose in their lives, I too had volunteered with the local Red Cross in the Harrisburg, PA area. At the height of the flooding, shelters were being set up at schools, churches and other places where they could accommodate those whose homes were flooded. I happened to be driving a red Ford pickup truck at the time and offered to help where I could. The officials asked if I could guide the local National Guard units that were transporting truckloads of old army cots to the shelters. I jumped at the chance to help and with that, I taped two red banners to both side doors of my truck and set out to meet up with the National Guard. I don’t remember how long we weaved our way through the higher elevations of Dauphin County, PA, but eventually we got through to all of the dropoff points where we were needed. I don’t remember how many trucks or how many stops we made, but it was a long rainy night. For about three days, we, and dozens of others went back and forth to the Red Cross headquarters, doing whatever we could to help. Eventually, they told us to go home and get some rest, that things were well under control.
But after resting for a day or two, and not seeing a clear direction, I still did not want to go back to the construction work, so, I did other odd jobs. I helped some businesses clean up their facilities and some friends clean up their homes after the waters finally went down. And after that, did some other odd jobs for some other people. Eventually, and I will have to say, there must have been some Greater Power involved, I started to look in the newspaper for work and found an ad for a camp counselor. This Greater Power took me to a summer camp for disabled children and adults. This Force took me and made me give more of myself than ever before.
Now I have never been one to shy away from the disabled or be disrespectful of those who have had a different physical burden put upon them, but I never had to face it in them day by day. My job was to aid in all ways they needed physical help to enjoy a camping experience. This included dressing and bathing the campers to some degree or another. For some it required helping the individual with going to the bathroom or even changing diapers on grown men. Our campers ranged from elementary school age to adults in their thirties and forties. Most had just physical limitations, while others had mental difficulties, too.
In doing all of this, I shared with the campers who and what I was. In return, I, along with other counselors, learned more from them about love and respect for others and to appreciate all of God’s gifts given to us. I learned a lot about myself that summer. It also showed me that I still had a lot more to learn.
But there was one other thing I learned that summer. It was not so much as to what direction I was going to go. It was that you have to go out and do things before you can know where you want to go or what you really want to do or not do with your life. And by the help of God, I was experiencing a wonderful life to do just that. I saw that my life’s path was not cut in stone, but consisted more as directions with visions of possibilities. And even though I was pursuing a career in law enforcement, things could and would change.
Now I don’t know if it is what some might call fate, synchronicity, predestination or just the hand of God moving the world just for me. But beginning with the hurricane, the flood, the idea of working and not working certain jobs, and even reading the paper on that given day led to one more important thing. Again, it is as if I was guided to go to that camp and learn from the camper, but there was another reason for me being there at that time in my life. I was about to cross paths with someone very special.
There she was, Patti, leading the singing in the dining hall after meals. Then I would see her as she pushed one of her campers around the blacktop to some music as if dancing. Eventually one night when all the campers were in their cabins, set for the night, I met her and we talked. I probably tried to be funny and she probably laughed. Eventually we would take some late night walks and talk some more. Our free time was limited with short nights and long days of caring for the campers, but we began to touch each others’ souls.
Through that summer and into the next year, with ups and downs we learned more about each other. As for me, I knew I had to make a change in my life and with her and through a common faith, I learned to become a better me. I was still not perfect by any means, nor would I ever be, but to give credit where it is due, I know I would have made many more mistakes in my life than I would care to admit.
But as I look back, several things come to mind as I retell this beginning about us. First, I was ready to change. Second, I was willing to do some things that were difficult to experience my personal and rather unusual odyssey. Third, my faith, our faith, helped to bring it all together. It was not without problems and difficulties, but we prevailed over the forces that would separate or defeat us in our union of spirits.
My journey, rather our journey is not over. Everyday I am thankful that I do not take this trip through life alone. I have my partner in life and together we partner in our faith. We make plans and do what we can to make them happen. When they do, we give thanks. When they don’t, well, sometimes they just don’t. But we never stop enjoying the journey. We now have grandchildren who in their own way are beginning a journey which we are a part of. We hope that their journey is blessed, adventurous as ours and that we can enrich it in any way we can.
Finally, as you read this, you may wonder how this applies to hypnosis or for just making change in your life. To make change, with or without hypnosis, you must want the change to happen. Unlike fantasy stories, change does not happen magically with the wave of a wand. Nor is hypnosis magic, but simply a tool to help in this change. Sometimes the change happens quickly and easily, but most of the time it does require work on your part to make it happen. But with proper tools like hypnosis, the change is possible. Finally, you still have to have faith in the possibilities. Having faith, a faith, makes the intolerable, tolerable. I hope you will give it some thought.
Books We Liked.
I do a lot on the computer and spend some time on the internet almost every day. E-books are a phenomena of the internet. They are shared and sold over the internet. You can read them on your computer, a hand-held device or print them out if you like. I have purchased and received a number of e-books. Many times they are given as premiums with other offers on the internet. Overall I have not been terribly excited about them. Many lack substance and are done by those less qualified to write well. But once in a while I am pleasantly surprised. This month I want to share with you, Business Black Belt by Burke Franklin. Franklin is a software developer and President of JIAM. They make software to help people develop business plans, marketing plans, publicity plans and more. Being a businessperson that uses a computer, I have purchased several of their software.
Recently I received an email for JIAM to update my registration information and for doing this I received a copy of Business Black Belt as an e-book. As I read it I found it to be straightforward and full of great informative insight into his views on business and entrepreneurism. Even though I normally would not spend much time reading a book on my computer (I normally print them out), I found myself reading page after page, hearing his words as if he was telling his deepest thoughts and insights into business.
Again, normally I would not be sharing anything about an e-book, but I felt this one was different. I want to do more this month. I contacted his office and asked if they would let me share the e-book with my readers at no charge. Burke Franklin himself called me and graciously agreed to do it. So to get a copy of this book for yourself, all you have to do is go to the main page of our website www.willardhypnosis.com and click on the link in the right hand column for the FREE BOOK – Business Black Belt and you will be taken to their website and you will be able to get your own copy free. There is no obligation to buy anything and no strings attached. You can share the link with others if you wish. I highly recommend the book and suggest you do it immediately, as I do not know how long the link will be active.
Quotes we
liked.
"At the age of 20, we don't care what the world thinks of us; at 30, we worry about what it is thinking of us; at 40, we discover that it wasn't thinking of us at all." Unknown. This is one of those quotes that is just fun and as you read it you may just find yourself laughing at yourself a little, just because it so true. What do you think should follow for 50, 60, 70?
What
to expect.
Many times there will be those who say they cannot be hypnotized because of a past experience that was not just right for them for it to happen. When this happens, they are, in a hidden way, hypnotized into believing that they cannot be hypnotized. They will profess adamantly that it cannot be done, when in reality, they would probably go into hypnosis quickly and easily if conditions would be just half right and they would give it half a try.
Interestingly enough, children are probably the easiest to hypnotize. They take themselves in and out of hypnosis all the time. Without repressed imagination, they enter a world of wonderful sights, sounds and feelings as they play pirate, or pretend they are the next football star, or walk around in mommy’s or daddy’s shoes imagining they are grown up. They don’t hold anything back and live it as if it was real. And with this wonderful imagination, they can be guided more quickly and easily into hypnosis. And why would children need hypnosis? They may need it to help with bed wetting, thumb sucking, study habits and much more. It is not the cureall for every child’s problems but it may just be the answer when other means don’t work.
For more information on hypnosis and how it can help you, call us at 717-872-7561.
We hope you have enjoyed this issue of Enlightenment. The time we spend writing and rewriting it helps to remind us why we do what we do, which is to be in service to others both professionally and personally. By also sharing these observations, ideas, and information, we also learn new things. Please share this newsletter with others who you feel would enjoy and/or benefit from it. If you are receiving this newsletter secondhand and want to receive your own copy, just send us an email and we will put you on either our snail mail list or email list. So until next month, best wishes to all.
Roger & Patti