Episode Eighty-One: The Byte - Timothy Demme

You can have conversion experiences all day long, but if you're unwilling to accept the invitation on offer, then you're missing the entire point. Tim talks about the miracle of integrity, of gifts, and how often, where we don't want to go is where we are supposed to be.

Transcript

Welcome to episode 81 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

I'm on the Oregon coast now.

It's a beautiful day outside,

Sunny,

Lots of kids,

Dogs,

Beach balls,

Sandcastles on the beach.

It's a glorious day,

But here I am inside recording this podcast because,

Dear listeners,

I love you.

In this episode,

I get to interview life coach Timothy Demme.

On his website,

He has a quotation.

He says,

The destination is more of a who than a what.

And he says that he's plotting and walking the course with you from where you are to what you were made to be.

And maybe that's why our conversation took a turn to people's gifts,

To what they're meant to do in their lifetimes,

Their life purposes.

I really strongly feel that everyone is given an invitation and many invitations through their life.

You can do or not do,

Accept or not accept the invitations that are given to you,

But each of us has a life purpose or a gift that we're meant to share with the world.

And Timothy's work is about discovering that within each of his clients and then bring it forth into the world.

We talk a little bit about that in this podcast,

About what it looks like to have those revelations at any point in your life where you're forced to confront the reality of who you are and what you're meant to do and how you're supposed to be in the world and how terrifying it is.

And I know that probably each and every listener of this podcast has at some point in their life been confronted with this choice or as I say,

Invitation.

This episode is really about the miracle of having these experiences,

These seminal moments in our life when the universe or God comes calling and asks you to wake up.

Asks all of us to wake up,

Asks us to wake up and show up.

And so that's what this episode is pretty much about.

The miracle of being asked,

The miracle of the invitation and then the miracle of whether we accept or not.

So now without further ado,

Episode 81 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

I was finishing up what there was for me to do,

What there was for me to be responsible for.

And at that same time,

My mom and dad who were living out in Arizona were in a car accident and they were my,

A couple of my siblings were helping them to figure out moving into assisted living and putting my dad into hospice.

And so I came out to visit and see if I could be of any help.

I had no intention whatsoever.

I had no idea,

No thought in my mind whatsoever of living in Arizona again.

I had lived in Arizona before.

Yeah,

It just was,

It was not on my radar at all.

But while I was there,

I had the experience of the Spirit of God instructing me to move there.

I was thinking about this,

You know,

Because you had shared with me what your main questions are.

And so I was thinking about this before we started talking.

The biggest miracles that I've seen,

That I've experienced are when,

You know,

Sort of inside of that same construct of aligning our,

Aligning our actions and our words with not so much our thoughts,

Not even our best intentions,

But with the guidance,

The direction of the Holy Spirit.

Like when we actually tap into the Spirit of God,

When we become aware of the Spirit of God leading us in some way,

Guiding us in some way,

Giving us some direction,

And we actually do it,

We do it,

And we align our words and our actions with that guidance,

With that direction,

That is when the miracles happen.

And there's kind of a,

You know,

One example of that is when four and a half years ago,

I was living in upstate New York and it was time to leave.

There was a relationship that was ending,

And I knew that I wasn't going to be staying in upstate New York,

But for once in my life,

I did,

There wasn't a place that I wanted to be.

Like I've been really oriented to place in my lifetime.

And for once in my life,

There wasn't a place that I wanted to be.

There's really a lot more to it,

But the short story is that I was finishing up what there was for me to do,

What there was for me to be responsible for.

And at that same time,

My mom and dad who were living out in Arizona were in a car accident,

And they were my,

A couple of my siblings,

My siblings were helping them to figure out moving into assisted living and putting my dad into hospice.

And so I came out to visit and see if I could be of any help.

I had no intention whatsoever.

I had no idea,

No thought in my mind whatsoever of living in Arizona again.

I had lived in Arizona before.

Yeah,

It just was,

It was not on my radar at all.

But while I was there,

I had the experience of the Spirit of God instructing me to move there.

It's kind of hilarious.

Like it was a,

It was a really a very visceral feeling.

It was a very visceral feeling.

It was like,

It was unmistakable.

Like one of,

Like,

Yeah,

Just unmistakable.

But I,

But I,

But I doubted it.

I'm like,

Huh,

You know,

I don't know.

You know,

That's why,

You know,

But big part of the reason I became a coach is so that I could,

I could,

I could be mobile and I could be anywhere.

I could work from anywhere.

So,

You know,

I don't have to live here.

I can,

I can visit frequently,

Go back and forth,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Whatever.

And then the very next day,

Like it was right back.

It was like,

It was like,

No,

We didn't say go back and forth.

We said,

Move there.

And it doesn't,

It doesn't come to me in that kind of,

It doesn't come to me in that way.

But it was just,

Like I said,

It was this very visceral feeling.

It was this very clear knowing that what there was for me to do was to move to,

To Prescott,

Arizona.

So I knew enough to know that that certainty would probably fade.

My mind is very reliable for second guessing.

And I knew that.

So,

You know,

So I knew that what there was to do was to,

Okay,

You know,

While you have this certainty,

While you have this clarity,

Let people know,

Because there's a good chance you'll try to back out of it otherwise.

You know,

I went back to upstate New York and was,

You know,

Wrapping up my business.

And of course,

Yeah,

The second guessing came in and the doubting,

But I had told people so.

And then it came time at the beginning of December to go out to Prescott.

And I wasn't even hoping to find a place to live.

Like I was just thinking,

Like,

I didn't,

You know,

Know the area at all.

I just need to learn that area and maybe figure out where I might begin to look for a place to live.

Plus I'm not gonna be able to,

I won't be out there for a couple of months.

I won't be able to move out for a couple of months.

So this is really just a preliminary visit.

I'd been doing some,

You know,

Looking online for,

You know,

What kind of housing was available and,

But not super intent.

The morning that I was flying,

It might've been,

It might've even been while I was at the airport that an email came in with a listing for a rental and I looked at it and I said,

Oh,

That's it,

That's my house.

And so I landed in Phoenix.

I called the landlords and arranged to see it the next day.

I went to see it the next day and like,

Okay,

Yeah.

And then this is it.

And that was it.

And it was really like a perfect place for me.

In the woods,

In the trees,

But a mile and a half from downtown,

A mile and a half,

Maybe two miles from where my parents were living in assisted living.

You know,

That's one of my favorite examples of just trusting the knowing,

You know,

Trusting the idea that I had been given and,

You know,

Doing what there was to do,

Aligning my words,

Like telling people I'm gonna do this,

Telling people I'm gonna do this and then following through and then voila,

Like it just was so simple and so easy and so perfect.

And yeah,

And not just with the house,

Like the house was,

That was just the start of it.

Like it just was,

It was very clearly a gift in so many ways for me to be put in that place at that time.

Gilmore,

You're welcome.

Thank you so much for listening to Episode 81 of Bite-Sized Blessings.

I'd like to thank my guest Timothy Demme for sharing all of his stories and for sharing his ideas of how we should be in the world,

Living with integrity,

Living into authenticity,

And accepting the invitations that come to us.

I need to thank the creators of the music used as well in this episode,

John Bartman,

Frank Schroeder,

Alexander Nakarada,

Music L.

Files,

And Lyran.

On the website you'll find links to other episodes,

Music,

Art,

And changemakers I think will lift and inspire you.

Thank you for listening,

And here's my one request.

Be like Timothy,

Listen,

Listen,

And then listen some more.

And any invitations,

Accept them.

It might be scary,

It might be terrifying,

And you don't actually know where those invitations are going to take you,

But it's exciting.

It's a new adventure.

So I urge you,

And Timothy urges you,

Accept those invitations.

And then sit back and watch as your life becomes even more magical.

Maybe I could even ask for a mulligan,

Like a whole do-over.

You could.

You could do whatever.

Whatever.

Whatever.

We want our customers to be satisfied.

Okay,

Wonderful.

Customer satisfaction is our number one goal.