Nov 20
10
In The Beginning (22)
TWELVE
The big day had arrived and I just couldn’t calm the butterflies flitting around in my innards. Truth is I didn’t want to. The arrival of the flight from Dallas/Fort Worth had just been announced. Am I going to be able to keep myself from jumping up and down like a ten year old with all the excitement I was feeling and totally embarrassing myself when I actually saw him?
I stood a way back from all the people waiting around the gate. At Kona they don’t have those enclosed gates and walkways thought of as “normal” in most airports, including the one in Hilo, on the other side of the Big Island… just the stair platforms that roll up to the side of the aircraft like many Caribbean islands have as well. The Kona airport is just, well, outdoors.
People were exiting through two doors. Two hundred people must have already deplaned when I saw him at the forward door! White “t” shirt, faded jeans, and a dark blue belt, just as he had described. I wasn’t able to make out what his shoes looked like, but with the gray hair cut a little longer than military style, I knew it was him. He was certainly good looking. “Calm down Suzy,” I muttered to myself.
I remained quite away back until he caught sight of me and walked over and put his computer case down and opened his arms wide and I never, have felt anything so good. Like an idiot, and against all my previous self-directed exhortations to be calm and act “cool,” I murmured loudly enough for him to hear, “Oh this feels way too good.”
He held my shoulders and stood back, “Will Barry said you were beautiful, but I didn’t expect a goddess …good grief, Jeanne, I don’t mean to come on to you, but oh my, can we have another one of those hugs?”
It felt even better the second time. “Let’s find a place to sit down,” I practically gasped and we found a bench – “Please tell me, that the same thing that has happened to me has happened to you. I feel ridiculously forward, but let’s get it over with, if you’re going to reject my overtures do it now, I’ll live with it.”
He grabbed my two hands in his and held them gently, but firmly and I felt an electric-like current pass between us. “Reject your overtures!” he exclaimed, “good grief, I haven’t looked at a woman for over twenty years and I’m totally smitten. Jack, Bob and Will all told me to get ready to be swept off my feet, that you were gorgeous.
“Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – I asked if something was going on and, Jeanne, I felt a total release …and I knew we were going to click – but I didn’t expect it to be immediate and simultaneous for both of us …not at my age and after all these years.”
“We’re the same age,” I said, a bit sardonically, trying to keep my voice calm, and failing miserably. “I haven’t been kissed in over 25 years, would you mind terribly breaking the ice?”
We sat on that bench for at least fifteen minutes “making out” like a couple of high school kids; later telling each other that it seemed so natural, while knowing that it was ridiculously unbelievable. “I feel like I’ve known you all my life and that I have been in love with you forever …oh, Brad, am I scaring you to death?”
“No, I’m relieved. I can’t get over this, a stunning woman who wants me as badly as I want her. I just hope this doesn’t cool off.”
Brad put one finger alongside his nose pointing to his eye, with the rest of his hand covering his mouth and bent over, shaking his head in bewilderment. Then he recovered, looked at me with a lop-sided grin that I immediately fell in love with and would melt every time I would see it in the future.
“Jeanne, this is perfect, you are perfect. Can we do this one more time before we go get my bags? Gently, but perfectly we kissed again …then we walked hand in hand out to get his bags.
“May I tell you something?” I stopped him and looked up into his face, he waited expectantly.
“I just thanked our SPIRIT-PARENT for arranging this so perfectly. I’ve been going nuts for several days, not knowing what to expect from myself or from you.”
“I have to correct one thing, you said to me in your e-mail, Jeanne …and this is not to help your self-esteem because that is all ego nonsense anyway, and our perceptions are all based in that realm …however, you referred to yourself as “gangly” and a lot of women who are tall feel that way about themselves and I generally agree with the perception.
“Many tall women are awkward at best which fits the ‘gangly’ description …now this is my perception so admittedly it is suspect, but then maybe not. You are not gangly, you are not only beautiful in any man’s eyes, as evidenced by the raves about your looks out of all the guys back home in Florida, who told me you were a WOW to look at …you are statuesque, you walk with absolute grace and I am head-over-heels in love with the way you look from head to toe.
“That being said, you have the most beautiful face on earth and I want to kiss that pretty rosebud mouth of yours again and look into those fascinating green eyes …he put his hands gently on both sides of my head and gazed into my eyes …then kissed me so gently, yet I was overpowered, not by Brad Cullen, but by the pure love of SPIRIT pouring through him.”
“Oh, Brad, Spirit told me this is ordained and it has just been proven.”
“What a perfect term, my love, we are ordained and have been from the beginning. Did you sense it during that first interview? I sure didn’t, it didn’t even cross my mind.”
I merely wagged my head back and forth to signal agreement. “You know, Brad, one of the first things I learned from Spirit, through you, was not to put any man or woman on a pedestal in a spiritual sense …and that, somehow, strangely seemed to confirm that I didn’t need physical love and that staying single was perfect for me. I think what I’m being shown is that we both had to be thoroughly prepared for this and have been. I have no sense of regret that this should have happened sooner.”
“That is a wonderful thought, direct from SPIRIT and back to the words I believe you’ve been given to describe us being together, it is ordained. “Looking at me in total absorption again, he said, “nope – no regrets about the past at all, this is perfect, you are perfect for me in the NOW.”
“So is our working together, Brad, and it extends to a whole group of people here in Hawaii – four of which you will meet this coming weekend. By the way, they follow your website and they have quite a story to tell you. Our work with and through them is ordained as well. I first used that term during my plane ride between L.A. and Honolulu with a man named Jeff Barrett, one of the four who will be meeting with us. SPIRIT had me say ‘it is ordained’ that we would be getting together with them.”
“Kiss me again, I’m not sure where this physical stuff is headed, but all of a sudden I am totally identifying with Darlene – as you presented her physical awakening in your novel, Leapfrog, which I just finished reading last night.”
He looked as though he wanted to say something in response, but stopped and kissed me much more forcefully with an embrace that made me feel totally surrounded by love. I am fairly certain not very many people have experienced this kind of love. Darlene and Jack Adams would know exactly what I meant.
“You know, Jeanne, he finally started, I have been criticized a great deal for going into all that sexual detail in Leapfrog – but I knew I was supposed to include it and had Jack and Darlene read the draft as well as the others in our group to make sure I hadn’t gone overboard – Spirit gave the okay and everyone in the group confirmed it. I’m feeling the same thing now.
“I’ve been celibate ever since my wife left me, not really by choice – if I was going to be concerned about anything it would be sexual performance …I’m a total novice; so I guess what I’m saying is that I hope your expectations aren’t too high in that arena. I can’t say that I’m not aroused, because to use the common parlance, you turn me on …” he stopped talking and took a second to smile …the most endearing, loving, almost helpless looking, lopsided grin I’d ever seen.
“Holding you and kissing you fulfills every physical need I can imagine at the moment. I’ve never known such love on the physical plane; and it is exactly why all of us felt that Darlene and Jack’s story needed to be shared in explicit detail. Wherever our relationship is headed, I know that we will be together in every aspect of our lives …you aren’t getting away from me ever; that’s a warning.”
“If you think I want to get away from you, you’re crazy. I’d keep you just for the long-winded compliment you unloaded on me a few moments ago. Any woman would have to keep a man expressing such eloquence… in other words I’m not crediting you, the man; I’m saying SPIRIT gave it to you. Brad, I feel like I’m living and alive physically for the first time in my life. We’re both old enough that we can talk about sex and I suppose at some point we ought to …however this whole next phase of our lives is summed up by ‘it is ordained’. Let’s just be led by Spirit… I’m looking forward to loving you forever.”
“Hey, I think we just exchanged marital vows,” Brad said lightly, “but to be practical for a moment, I think we’d better go grab my bags before they take them to lost and found.”
Posted in In the beginning by .
Nov 20
4
In The Beginning (21)
ELEVEN
I called Auntie Em as soon as I came in the door and asked her if I needed to call Sid for permission to use the other bungalows for guests, or is that something she could take care of. She assured me that Sid had already told her to accommodate me in whatever way I wanted or needed.
I heard, “Leapfrog part two has been launched,” and was musing about that and then I heard the word, “Finally” …Then a very clear picture of Darlene Adams formed in my mind …and I immediately knew it was important to call her.
“Hello,” a familiar, cheerful voice answered.
“Well,” I said thinking what a coincidence that Darlene would be the one to answer out of all the other people that might have answered the phone, “this sounds like Darlene,” I said, confidently, sure that it was she who had answered the phone.
“Well,” said the voice, mimicking my tone, “I get that a lot, but this is her youngest daughter, Debbie, who’s this?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Debbie, this is Jeanne Stockwell, I saw you upstairs in the building the other day with your brother and sister, but you guys disappeared before I got the chance to meet you.”
“Aha, the other woman who is stealing our Brad from us,” she giggled.
“Oh it’s nothing like that,” I stammered, totally taken off-stride.
“Hey, don’t be so sure,” she said cheerily, “and you could both certainly do worse, Jeanne and I’m just messing with you. I’m the clown of the house, you know,” …she hesitated and then spoke very seriously, “Jeanne, I think you better be open to anything – is what I’m getting …uh let me go get mom, nice meeting you.”
“Nice meeting you too,” I said, and realized I was talking to a phone that had already been set down; thoroughly unsettled by what she had said, that is, that I “had better be open to anything” …Brad and me? Surely not, I thought with a force that shook me. Oh my, something isn’t going on there, is it? …I prayed, almost in desperation and the words struck me again from this self-admitted tease, “Jeanne, I think you better be open to anything is what I am getting.” She had said these words with authority and meaning.
“Hi Jeanne, so glad you were able to call me,” Darlene interrupted my other troubling thoughts.
I immediately told her I had just got back from a whirlwind, round trip to Honolulu, and had just walked in the door and had heard the words, “Leapfrog part two has been launched,” and a pause …then I heard the word “Finally” and that I had then seen her face in my mind and knew I was supposed to call.
“Well that is interesting because we had quite an experience here a few nights ago and after it was all over Debbie said those very words, ‘Leapfrog, part two, has been launched’ and that was followed by Rachel saying, ‘Finally’. Jeanne, what makes it doubly interesting is that the meeting had begun with Brad showing us a copy of the book offer from the publisher, that you had forwarded to him He wanted to get confirmation from all of us as to whether he should accept it.
“Rachel said something like “It is finally starting” …which precipitated some of the weirdest stuff from Spirit we’ve seen around here for quite awhile as a group. I’ll try to piece it all together and put it in an e-mail to you, so you’ll have an idea of what I’m talking about.
Abruptly switching topics, Darlene continued, “Debbie just told me she thought she had upset you, Jeanne, what was that all about? My daughter can be a strange mixture of spirit and just plain impish humor at times.”
“She’s a delight,” I responded immediately, “but she is also very perceptive. And what she said troubled me. It is something I prefer to get clarity from Spirit about before I talk about it …I hope you don’t mind.” Now I was the one to quickly change the subject, “I want to apologize for not keeping my word to call you earlier …”
Darlene cut me off and assured me that everything was perfect and not to worry – “We are, of course, upset a bit that our man Brad is running off to be with some woman for a year,” she stopped herself with an almost identical giggle to Debbie’s. I got the go ahead from Spirit to talk to her about what was bothering me.
“Okay, Darlene, I was just given the freedom to talk to you. That is exactly what troubled me …and let me tell you exactly what and how Debbie said it. She made the flippant remark just as you did right now about my being the other woman stealing Brad away and I, not knowing Debbie, said: ‘Oh it’s nothing like that’ – the troubling part was she hesitated and then said in absolute seriousness, ‘Jeanne, I think you better be open to anything, is what I’m getting’ – and put the phone down to go get you.
“What I almost said aloud was: ‘Brad and me? Surely not’ and something clicked that it is almost surely to be …Darlene, I have not even had the mildest romantic interest in any man for twenty-five years and I’m certainly not interested now. I just told some people last night that I never use the word prophetic just after I used it and …well, there was something definitely prophetic about what Debbie said and now you …and frankly it scares me.”
“Here’s what I’m getting, Jeanne, it is the Liar who is giving you a fright. There is nothing to be frightened about. Brad has been celibate ever since his wife left him, twenty plus years ago. He, Colin, Bob and Vic are all celibate, but none of them are committed to it except they all know they want nothing to do with a relationship unless it is ordained …now there’s a strange word, only in that I never use it” …she interrupted herself, “if something happens between you and Brad, you are both mature adults and you are both committed to following SPIRIT, but if it is ordained by Spirit, then it will be perfect. By the way, my lips are sealed, unless I am led to say something.” She giggled just like Debbie again.
“So, go in peace, woman,” she said lightly and we exchanged a few more pleasantries and rang off.
“It is ordained,” I heard loudly and clearly – there were those words again.
“Are you telling me something,” I asked aloud.
“Do not refuse what I have arranged which will be perfect and for my purposes and for your joy.”
______
Auntie Em called saying that she was going off island for the next several days and she wanted to bring the keys over for the other “hales” She would do a quick dusting and vacuuming so whenever my guests arrived the units would be ready. She brought the keys and showed me how to identify which key went to which bungalow and then led me out to a large bank of storage cabinets along the left side, in the garage where the Lexus was parked. The cabinets were full of extra linens, extra towels and other supplies if needed. There was also a washer and dryer at the back of the garage next to a cabinet loaded with laundry supplies. She did laundry every Wednesday, including any personal things. “There they are, when and if you need to wash something out,” she said, pointing to the washer and dryer.
She told me that Milton (the caretaker) had been alerted that she would be gone and she assured me that he would be ready and anxious to help out if I needed anything or had any questions.
After she left, I had that feeling of absolute gratitude that everything had been worked out so perfectly by my SPIRIT-PARENT.
I settled down to get organized for Brad’s coming and made some notes about some suggestions that were coming to me how we might want to structure the interview and how to join the two parts of the manuscript together for the book and knew I had to wait for him to arrive before I got too far involved in my thinking.
I turned my thoughts to writing the series of articles for the magazine and fired off an e-mail to Al to let him know I was beginning the series, “On a Spiritual High/Change Your Focus”. I requested some time-line guidance so that I could fit it all in with doing the interview and writing the book with Brad.
Brad …there it was again. I remembered the conversation with Debbie and then her mother… the “other woman” bit and SPIRIT’s exact words. “Do not refuse what I have arranged, which will be perfect and for my purposes and for your joy.”
“Well,” I said out loud, “whatever YOU are going to work out, YOU are going to have to work it all out.”
All of a sudden a giddy feeling came over me. I thought back to when I was sixteen and had a crush on a very good looking boy who was a senior in high school – he had called me, a sophomore, to invite me to the senior prom. He also asked me to dinner and a movie that coming Friday. Why would I be feeling like that? I didn’t even know what Brad looked like. This is ridiculous, but I couldn’t shake the feeling and we both had just turned fifty (somebody had mentioned this back in Jacksonville) this year. Surely, I thought, he won’t have any feelings like I’m experiencing.
He would be arriving on a non-stop from Dallas/Fort Worth directly into the Kona airport on the following Tuesday afternoon. I forced myself back to writing the first article in the series for Destiny.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the bell signaling an e-mail:
Subject Line: READY OR NOT
Scheduled Arrival: Friday, 11/16 on Hawaiian Air #158 at 2:03 p.m. …The four of us will be raiding you — booked on the noon flight back to Honolulu on the following Monday.
Are we ever stoked! Call me or I’ll call you. For now, gotta go.
Love you, Sis,
Rob
I could see her in my mind’s eye. Roberta-the-delight …such a lovable little package; I felt not an ounce of anxiety about their coming, Spirit will arrange it all perfectly. What, though, was to be arranged, ahead of their coming, between me and Brad, I wondered …I had to remind myself several times to quit being like a dog chewing on a bone, Spirit would arrange that perfectly too …I realized then, that I didn’t want to relax about it …I’m starting to hope for something to spark. Sheeeesh, I’m fifty years old, I reminded myself. My internal argument began: “Well, maybe it’s high time for something to happen to this old bird. Then, stop expecting too much or expecting anything, whatever will be, will be …and so on, the eternal, internal babble.
In an e-mail Brad had “warned” me that he would be dressed in his usual Florida casual attire, so he’d be easy to pick out of the crowd. White (he’d hoped wouldn’t be stained by then) “t” shirt, faded blue Levi’s, a dark blue, woven, cloth belt and leather sandals. He was six foot, two, short cropped and thinning, salt and pepper (mostly salt) hair and no other distinguishing marks.
I had written back that I’d find him and that I would wear beige walking shorts, white sneakers and a green and white short-sleeved, Hawaiian blouse. At five foot ten inches, I would most likely be the tallest, gangliest looking female around.
I hope he won’t be too disappointed with the way I look, I thought, then practically yelled at myself to stop it!
Posted in In the beginning by .
Oct 20
29
In The Beginning (20)
TEN
“Tell us what Brad Cullen is like in person, Jeanne,” Walt finally broke the silence. I’ve written him once or twice because of things he said on his website and the personal responses he sent back were incisive and to the point. Jan has written him several times and he always responds with spiritual sensitivity, does that come through from him in person?”
“Walt, that is so funny! I’ve never met the man in person – we are scheduled to meet next week over on the Big Island to begin working on a second interview for which we have already been offered a contract and a book deal from a publisher. That is, of course, exciting to me also, after all these years. .I conducted the first interview, via e-mail exchanges; this one will be a collaborative process with Brad in person.
“I was just back in Jacksonville thinking I’d meet Brad there and we didn’t connect because he made an unexpected trip to Toronto on business. I had to leave Jacksonville several days ahead of what I had originally planned, the day before he returned. The only way I know Brad Cullen is the same way you know him …by what he writes.
“Now here’s what is strange. I have been more excited about the five of us getting together tonight than I have been about the writing project or finally meeting Brad in person. The reason being is that our meeting here tonight …and Jeff and Rob, I believe, will verify that this has been confirmed prophetically, so to speak – and I don’t think I’ve ever used the word, ‘prophetically’ before in my life, but what Spirit has shown me clearly is that tonight is the beginning of something that is going to spread throughout the world.
“Brad’s and my writing will fit in somehow, but this, right here and now, between the five of us is just the beginning …the core beginning. Does that make sense to everyone else as much as it does to me?”
“You said that Rob and I would confirm it, Jeanne,” Jeff said while looking briefly at Rob for confirmation and she nodded her agreement. “The four of us have never talked about what the broader ramifications may be; how we’ve been led out of organized Christianity to embrace the Spirit as our only Leader and Teacher. It was Walt and Jan who introduced us to the Baptism of Spirit and the deeper meaning over and above what our church experience previous to that had been. I told you on the plane how it was also these two,” Jeff waved his hand toward Jan and Walt, “who introduced us to the manuscript you compiled from interviewing Brad. And look at what his writings have opened up for us, particularly his emphasis on not putting any weight to what he is saying, but to go directly to our SPIRIT-PARENT for guidance.”
Jeff’s words led to a long and meaningful conversation about what we felt we collectively agreed upon and jointly understood. All in all it was quite productive and helped us to bond in our sense of unity and oneness.
One interesting thing to me was a question raised by Jan. She asked if I had read Brad’s novel also titled Leapfrog, recently published by Ryan Bruce. Ryan made it available to freely download from the website he had developed.
I admitted that I hadn’t read the novel and asked them all if they felt I should. They all agreed that it was an imperative for me and, while Brad admitted that it was fiction, he had also stated that it was based on real life events. Rob added, “From what Jeff got out of your and his conversation on the plane, some of the characters in the book, as well as the building, also mentioned in the novel, are actually in Jacksonville. Having all of those things in your mind will help facilitate the new book being a sequel to Brad’s first one; you know …if that seems important to you.”
I silently asked Spirit and got a definite “yes” that it was very important and shared that with them. Jeff and Rob told me they had two “shelf copies” of the novel from the publisher and if I’d prefer reading it from a book rather than on-line they’d give me one of them. I told them all that I would begin reading in bed that night and that I knew it was very important to do so, even if I didn’t fully understand all the reason for it being so important as yet.
______
We were finished eating and still at the dining table drinking coffee after what was a totally comfortable and relaxing conversation over our meal. These people were so easy to be with and I was feeling a sense of oneness and unity with them that I simply couldn’t and still can’t describe.
“You know, Jeanne, I would really like your take on something,” Walt began. “I am very careful about handing out the Leapfrog Manuscript and I never do so unless Spirit prepares the way and almost hits me over the head that the person is ready for it. Each person to whom I have given it has eventually fully embraced what Brad and you had to say – a few have taken a bit longer …some have said they thought their hesitation might be because it took them awhile to get past Brad’s total non-judgment of homosexuals; with others it was his seeming relaxed attitude toward abortion and/or reincarnation …and then the names ‘Sunno’ and ‘Novi,’ were a real stumbling block to some …all of these things were initially bothersome to more than a few people.
“Each person who has read Leapfrog has had what might be called a change of heart. Bruce Ryan, the Canadian publisher, refers to these spiritual sensations as the “Leapfrog experience”. It is an awareness of the presence and power of I AM; going through a variation of the same steps you described in the manuscript that brought you to that awareness.”
“That raises all sorts of questions in my mind …and good ones I think, Walt,” I responded, “I did hear Ryan say something like that on one of what he refers to as ‘podcasts,’ you know, those recorded website telephone interviews he did with Brad. If I remember correctly, I thought he was specifically referring to the need to read Brad’s novel as a means to have the Leapfrog experience …is that how you remember it?”
It turned out that none of the other four remembered either the particular podcast to which I was referring nor did they recall Leapfrog to be “required” reading as a means to get to the “Leapfrog awareness”. I did know it was imperative that I read it and right away.
“So then,” Jeff summed it up perfectly, “it sounds to me almost as if we need to have a definition of terms before we can even have a productive conversation among the five of us. It seems to me like we need some sort of system of thought and means of communicating some of these things.”
“That was one of the questions that was raised for me,” I interrupted, “is that what you are saying, Walt?”
“In one way yes, but in another way no, Jeanne; your breakthrough into an awareness of another dimension …which, for just a moment, let’s call ‘spiritual,’ started with an idea to write a series of articles about alternative religious experience and your own dissatisfaction with any previous church attendance, am I stating it correctly?”
“At that time, my writing career consisted of finding a topic I thought might find an audience in one of the magazines that sometimes carried my articles. I then interviewed a variety of people and developed the interviews to the point of a series that one of the magazines would run with. So, I looked at it, at the time, as a grand coincidence that this man and I should meet with the recommendation that I interview Brad Cullen on the same day, the same time I got the idea of doing a series on religion. None of this had ever occurred to me.
“Following through with that thought, it was the name of Brad Cullen that turned Jeff’s mild interest in what this old biddy had to say on the plane into an explosion of intense conversation. He wanted to tell me about the changes wrought in his and Rob’s lives through Jan and you as introduced in the Leapfrog Manuscript. All of the above I wouldn’t begin to call a coincidence, but rather an ordered plan of the SOURCE – are the four of you in accord with my synopsis so far?
“Oh, wait a minute, let me add one other piece to the puzzle,” I continued, “Sid Wilmot, the owner of Destiny, who is not merely Jewish from an ethnicity standpoint, but has practiced Judaism all his life and quite strictly, you know the hand washing, dietary laws and keeping the Sabbath …all that. Sid has read the first Leapfrog Manuscript even though it has never been officially published, other than as an appendix and, apparently referred to several times in Brad’s novel.
“Sid’s Editor-in-Chief, Al Edmund, attends a Church of Christ, Scientist, Church and is a rather avid follower and advocate of anything and everything that Mary Baker Eddy wrote. Both of these men think the original manuscript from the interview I did of Brad should be published as a part 1 of a 2 part Leapfrog Manuscript which they have suggested become a part of a sequel to the original Leapfrog Novel. Sid called the manuscript an important work and says that it needs to be distributed world-wide in as many languages as possible, Al wrote me saying this was the reason Sid was making such a generous book offer – and I have to tell you that it is the best royalty and advance offer I have ever seen from any publisher.
“When I asked SPIRIT about it, what I got was that there were to be some significant changes in both the publisher and his Chief Editor, Al Edmund.”
I heard, “NOW!” …and exclaimed, “Oh yes!” The four of them looked at me expectantly. “I was just given the okay to share something,” I began, “…and it is part of the same puzzle piece. When I checked my e-mail, right after we got here from the airport, Brad had sent me a quick note and I was excited about coming right out and sharing it with Jeff and Rob, but Spirit said not then and I forgot all about it until I just heard a loud ‘NOW!’
“The group back in Florida met last night and through a tongue and interpretation received the word that Brad was to come to Hawaii to work with me for the next twelve months. And Sid Wilmot and Al Edmund would not only be coming out of the practice of their respective religions, but they would also embrace Jesus as their Elder Brother. This was not a repudiation of either Judaism or Christian Science; they were simply coming into an intimate relationship with I AM and an awareness of the presence and power of our SPIRIT-PARENT.”
Walt held up his hand to signal he was getting something to share. He looked up and off to the right a bit: “I am seeing a huge wall made of large concrete blocks and each block has inscribed on it the name of every religion we’ve ever heard of; this is the wall that surrounds an inner garden that keeps the adherents of each of those religions from entering this garden which is shrouded in a brilliant, soft, shimmering golden mist – ah, now I am seeing the wall crumble and millions of people are coming into the garden and being restored and becoming one with SPIRIT. Each of them dissolving and becoming an integral part of the mist – this is what is beginning right here tonight.
“We are being transformed and translated into the beginning of what SPIRIT alone will do. We will no longer just be aware; we are one and need not attempt …and, in fact, must not attempt to convince anyone. They are being brought into oneness directly by I AM and Jeanne is being prepared as MY vessel to return and prepare for her mission.”
The vision and prophetic utterance, that had just over-taken Walt, caused a contemplative interlude which seemed perfect as we all sat there in stunned silence for several minutes.
Jan finally broke the silence. “I was in the middle of thinking and wondering something and our SPIRIT-PARENT just told me to share it. Jeanne, one of the many reasons it is imperative for you to read Brad’s novel, Leapfrog, is that Darlene Adams’ experience mirrors your own. You asked Brad, in the original interview, if speaking in a language that you hadn’t learned was an important part of the process of breaking through into what we now refer to as the ‘I AM awareness’. Darlene first had an assurance that she had indeed been baptized into the presence and power of our SPIRIT-PARENT before she acquired what she refers to in the novel as the special language she received with which to converse with her Friend, as she put it, our SPIRIT-PARENT. This brings me to what I was just thinking about and received the go ahead to share right now.
“The point of Brad using the term Leapfrog had to do with linear and sequential thinking. The writing of the manuscript caused you, in Brad’s mind, to leap frog over his head in certain spiritual frames of thinking and his statement to the effect… there is no seniority in the realm of SPIRIT.”
“Yes, seniority,” Walt interjected, “your writing of the original manuscript was in the year 2000. I first read it about eight years after you wrote it, Jeanne. In that sense you have “spiritual seniority,” but I received a baptism of the Spirit with the so-called evidence of speaking in other tongues after attending a Full Gospel business lunch almost twenty years ago …before Jan and I bought our first store. We were attending a little non-denominational church near where we lived, in Hawaii-Kai, at the time.
“Jan saw the huge change in me, and became very, how would you say it, Jan… hungry?”
“You guys wouldn’t believe the changes that had come over Walt …at peace, and a sense of spiritual purpose – whatever it was that had happened to him, I wanted it! He told me how it happened and bought me a copy of the book that was co-authored by John and Elizabeth Sherrill with David Wilkerson titled The Cross and the Switchblade. That really cinched it for me. Then I got the book John Sherrill wrote, “They Speak with Other Tongues,” from which I guess you could say I learned how to seek the experience for myself – I’m sorry I shouldn’t have gone on so long” – Jan stopped abruptly, and looked at Walt and simply gave a miniscule shake of her head and said: “Continue . . .”
“Well, anyway,” Walt hesitated and closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again. “Jan and I both made the mistake of sharing our experience with some of the people at the church there in Hawaii Kai and basically we were asked to leave – somewhat a parallel experience to what Jack and Darlene and their kids experienced in Brad’s novel, although theirs came as a result of talking about demons… more why I think it is important for you to read the novel, Jeanne.
“At any rate,” Walt continued, “I told the produce manager at the store in which I was working at the time and he was the one who had invited me to that Full Gospel luncheon and I told him about being asked to leave our church and why. He recommended a little Pentecostal church in Waimanalo which he told me would be supportive of our experience. Jan and I visited and felt comfortable there and even invited these guys,” moving his hand to indicate he was referring to Jeff and Rob.
“Jim Fukushima, that produce manager, called me, I think it was in 2007, and asked me for my e-mail address. I hadn’t heard from Jim since Jan and I bought our first store in 1994. I asked him what was up, and he said he’d been praying that morning about something and my name came into his consciousness. What he e-mailed me was your manuscript Jeanne. Here’s what I mean about seniority. I printed out the manuscript and asked Jan to read it. She started with the knocking and demanding until, just like you, she had sore knuckles. She broke through long before I did in hearing Spirit directly.”
My eyes strayed over to Jan to see how she was reacting to the story (she didn’t show any) and then Rob and Jeff who later explained that they had never heard this particular story before.
“So,” Walt continues, “we have seniority …first you then us, but the thing that intrigued me about Brad Cullen is that he insisted to you during your interview that there is no such thing as seniority in the Spirit realm. Both he and that Canadian publisher insist that people not get hung up on their experiences or what either of them say, but everyone needs to go directly to SPIRIT for guidance and in that sense we can and should by-pass all human leadership. Now, I am sorry that I went on and on so long.”
“Well I’m not sorry that either of you told this story. It confirms in me what you’ve all been saying about the need for me to read the novel Leapfrog. Now then, as wonderful as this time has been together and it is to be continued, I believe shortly after Brad arrives, we’ll either be coming over here …I’m just seeing a picture of the six of us sitting around at the pool at Sid’s retreat, being instructed by SPIRIT as to what is next. Is that possible? There are five bungalows over there that will more than accommodate all of us …”
Roberta spoke up and said, “I see both happening; the four of us coming over there and then, in about three weeks, you and Brad will be coming here to stay down in Kailua at Jan and Walt’s home.”
“That is exactly what I am seeing,” Jan exclaimed and Walt sat nodding his head with a knowing smile.
“Wait a minute,” I said, “do you have a place over on the Big Island too?”
They explained that I was thinking Kailua-Kona and their home was about ten minutes away from Jeff and Roberta’s and right on the beach at Kailua Bay about half way toward Waimanalo town – “Yeah,” Jeff said, wait till you see the mansion they live in, but now, Jeanne, I’m supposed to get you one of our copies of Leapfrog and you are supposed to get started reading it; Rob is supposed to take you to the airport in the morning. We are evicting you and that is what you had started to say, you need to get to work, am I right or wrong?”
“Well, it seems as though Spirit has given us a plan …first the six of us will be meeting over on the Big Island, probably the week end after this one coming up? – ah, Spirit will show you when and I will pick you up at the airport. Apparently in a week or two after that you will return the favor and pick Brad and me up at Honolulu International, right?”
Jan said that is exactly what she was seeing. Walt added, with a puzzled look on his face that Jim Fukushima (the produce manager with whom he worked so many years earlier) was to re-enter his life and become an integral part of whatever “SPIRIT was leading us into.”
Rob said laughingly that I was to get to bed and begin my reading assignment and that she would take care of making my reservations back to Kona. Each of the four hugged me good night, and I have never in my whole life experienced such love and closeness with other human beings.
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