Podcast : Your Life Matters

My guest on this podcast is Insight Timer meditation guide, author, intuitive healer, and author’s mentor and friend, Junie Swadron. Junie shares her passion for getting words down on the page to both heal and provide a gateway to the soul. There is a short meditation at the end of this podcast so pull over if you are driving.

Transcript

So hi,

I'm Tom Evans and welcome to another podcast.

And my guest today is someone who I've interviewed many times before and a good friend of mine,

Junie Squadron.

Hi Junie,

How are you?

I'm wonderful,

Thank you Tom,

How are you?

Oh,

Great,

Thank you.

All the better for speaking to you and really chatting today about your new book,

Your Life Matters,

Eight Steps to Writing Your Story.

Now my question for you is simply this,

When did you realize,

Junie,

That your life mattered?

That's a really good question and actually nobody's ever asked me that.

Is that kind of podcast,

Junie?

When did I realize?

I'm still realizing it,

You know,

They say you teach what you need to learn and I'm beyond grateful for my life and who I've become when I look back and see how far I've come.

And there are times when I just fall into that old place of I know my matter and I know I make a difference and I know all of that,

Just simply because I am and because I be and that sometimes I forget.

I forget that I matter just because I exist,

Because I'm here,

Because I'm breathing and living.

And I don't need to have conditions around that and sometimes I forget that.

So when did I start to,

I'm learning all the time,

I'm learning and it's reflected back to me.

My life is so precious.

It's reflected back to me every day and I'm not deflecting it as much as I used to at one time when people would tell me what in which ways I have helped them.

I don't just say,

Oh,

You know,

Oh,

What a beautiful dress.

Oh,

It's nothing,

You know,

Or what?

I don't do deflect as much.

And so I'm able to receive and let in more.

So it's a process.

Wow.

But I feel that it's something that's so vital,

Tom,

For all of us to get to that place.

And I'm learning as I go and I'm growing as I go,

Because to me,

That's the common denominator of most people,

No matter how much we've accomplished in life,

No matter who we are,

Somehow there's a place inside of us that doesn't feel worthy or enough.

And another common denominator in your life,

Since I've known you certainly,

Is writing.

So,

You know,

Your book,

Rewrite your life.

It sounds like you've been rewriting,

You've been writing the manuals that you followed yourself as well as all the wonderful readers that you've had reading the books.

So you've rewritten your life,

You've rewired,

You've reified and retired.

I can't remember if I got that alliteration around the right way.

That was another book,

Another interview that we did.

And here you are.

So it seems like all the way through journaling,

Writing,

Writing letters,

Which I know is a song that you come up to in the next year,

Is really important to you.

So I know the book's about writing your story,

But if you're an artist,

If you're a musician or another type of artist,

Either like a graphic artist,

Can you use that as the medium to help you discover why your life matters?

1000%,

Absolutely.

We are all gifted,

I believe,

It was some form of personal creative expression.

And so it doesn't matter your art form,

Writing happens to be mine.

And so that's the one that I can feel confident to encourage others who want to explore that.

But if you find yourself out gardening or singing or painting or sculpting or loving numbers and just getting so much creative energy sourced through you where everything else disappears,

Oh my gosh.

What,

That I think puts us into the zone,

Into the place where everything's possible.

Yeah,

We recorded this interview in end of 2020,

Which has been an interesting year for humanity.

Do you think that that,

The whole COVID thing has actually brought a lot of people to realize about how important life is,

Really how it's brought us home to,

I was home to Bruce.

There's no question in my mind,

This pause that we've all been on,

Even though I think many of us have gone kicking and screaming at first,

Because we're just used to what we're used to.

And you get up and you go to work every day and you do whatever you do every day and there's a routine.

And when that routine is suddenly shut down,

It's terrifying for a lot of people.

And yet we are so resourceful as human beings and that most people have had to,

You know,

Necessity being the mother of invention,

Find new ways to be in the world where you're in lockdown basically,

And you're not doing the things that you normally would do either for work,

Commerce,

Or just because it's something else that you do in your life that you can't usually do.

If you're used to going out and socializing and going to,

You know,

One of the things that my partner David loved to do before this was,

He loves going to music events.

Well,

There aren't music events happening anymore,

You know?

So everything is on the same,

It seems,

But we've needed to reinvent ourselves and we've needed to come back to what really matters.

I think that existential question of who am I is coming up more than anything at a time like this,

When people are,

You know,

Afraid of so many things.

And it's like,

What truly matters?

And so it's putting people in front of ourselves to that reset of,

And then choosing those things that do.

So what's the first step?

And I want people to read the book,

But you've got eight simple steps to writing your story.

What's the first step that you recommend that people would take?

What I would say intuitively is the first step is acknowledging that you do matter.

Is saying,

Well,

Wait a minute.

To just in this,

Especially these times,

Move into that place of curiosity and beginner's mind and take a different approach.

If the approach is,

Ah,

You know,

I'm just somebody else's,

You know,

I help everybody else out.

There's not much time for me.

Why,

Or it's my ego speaking that I,

Why should I matter if you've been told that,

Hey,

You know,

Don't put yourself first.

Whatever that is,

Take a pause,

Take a break from that and open to the possibility of why would anybody even ask that question?

What is it?

Why do I matter?

And then start thinking about the ways in which you have made a difference for others in your life,

How perhaps other people have made a difference in your life,

Mentors.

Can you imagine if all of the people who have been mentors to us,

Whether they be artists or musicians or great statesmen or whatever that is for us that we look at and say,

Wow,

How did that person do that?

If they hadn't overcome,

And usually people need to overcome because you can't really live on this earth plane without overcoming some loss of some kind or tragedy or gosh knows what's in that continuum of bliss to awesome or not so great.

What if those people decided,

Nah,

I'm not really worth it.

Who's gonna look at that painting?

What if Picasso decided that?

What if,

You know,

Nelson Mandela,

I mean,

My gosh,

You know,

To lead a nation after all those years in prison,

What if he said,

Well,

My life's over?

He didn't,

You know,

There's so many Mother Teresa.

I mean,

We could go on forever.

We could spend hours and hours and hours on looking at the heroes and the sheroes and in our lives and say,

Wow,

What if they had some moments that took over and said,

Nah,

No one's gonna listen to me.

I did it anyway.

And you talk about in the book,

You say,

Who am I to write my life story?

So I guess that if nobody ever reads it but your good self,

That's the good first step.

Well,

Absolutely,

Because that's who it's for really.

First and foremost,

Because that's how we get to know ourselves.

It's not for the faint of heart,

You know,

It really is not.

It's for people who really want to,

You know,

Know thyself.

And as we start to look at those stories and we start to see how they shaped us and who those people have been in our lives,

Some,

You know,

With bouquets and some with two by fours,

What have we learned?

What are the gifts,

How we managed to maneuver through difficult times?

And then just see,

Look how far we've come.

And so when people write their stories with me,

I always say the first writing is for you.

It's for you.

You know,

It's such a private,

Personal place for you to go back and without judgment,

But just to look at your life and the choices that you make,

Would they be the same choices that you would make now?

And where did those choices lead you?

And what are you doing differently today?

And I have to say the people I attract,

The motivation for people to write their stories because of the way in which I help people do that,

Which is to move through whatever triggers or pain and to empower them through my career as a therapist as well and a writing coach is to take a look at the stories in a way that you can see how far you've come through your life to be where you are today.

And people are starting to recognize that more and more.

So their motivation is if I can help one person's life be a bit easier because of what I've gone through and they can relate and make it relatable because,

Oh my God,

I never thought I would even live through this,

Let alone write a book about it.

And if I can help somebody when I felt hopeless and that's what could be a better reason to write a book.

And can you also have people,

You're across people that are writing from a position of bliss.

So you're obviously writing great because artists if you've gone through any trying times but can you also write from a place of bliss too?

Why not?

Absolutely,

Absolutely.

That's one of the things that I say about the foundation that I've created called ACHA,

The Academy for Creative and Healing Arts for people with mental health challenges but it's an integrated center.

So it's people with challenges of all kinds but especially those people who've kind of fallen through the cracks with mental health issues that can now find creative expression or whatever that is because they're being held up and they're being supported.

Can you imagine the art of whatever art form that is from people who are blissfully loving what they're doing and see what shows up from that.

You know,

What if the,

You know,

All those people that Sylvia Plath and then Naius Nin and Picasso and all these people that took their lives what if they were writing or painting from a place as you say,

Bliss or their highest place of expression?

Wow,

I'm all for that.

Something that brought me bliss to read in your book was a lovely area of the book where you talk about writing yourself home because your soul awaits here.

What a lovely evocative thing to say.

Well,

Thank you.

And where are you on your homeward bound journey if you don't mind that Simon and Garfunkel reference?

Well,

I'm in such a more peaceful place within myself these days than I've ever been.

Even though there's some days I can go kicking and streaming because of all the technology stuff that I'm starting to learn and needing to learn and all of that.

At the end of the day and the mornings and often throughout the day,

I just find myself breathing easier.

I feel myself connected into the spaciousness,

The oneness,

The place that I strive to be for many,

Many years.

I just find that I am there.

Let me reflect something back at you,

Julie.

I've never done this in a podcast.

So it's kind of intriguing to give it a go.

Normally in podcasts,

I encourage the guests now and again to lead a guided meditation or to read a bit of the book.

There's a poem in the book that I read.

It really sang out to me.

And I'd like to read it to you because often when we hear our words back from another source,

It evokes something kind of a bit different.

This is a bit of an experiment.

I have no idea where it's gonna go,

But let me just try this and see how it lands with you.

You say here,

Oh mirror,

When I look at you,

I can see my reflection,

Oh so true.

I see the love within my eyes that sparkle and twinkle that are so wise.

I smile at myself and give me a wink.

Oh,

To think I wasn't good enough or that I didn't really matter.

It's not the truth.

I am enough.

I do matter.

I am beautiful.

I am oh so beautiful.

How does that land with you?

And you wrote these words.

I did and I did something quite unusual as you read them.

I have a mirror there above the computer so that I can see the door because I need to know if I just don't want people walking in or whatever so I can see the door when it's open.

And so I started with looking in the mirror and I just said,

Okay,

Ginny,

Receive this.

And I did and it felt really good.

I gave myself a wink.

And I can see,

Thank you,

Tom.

Thank you,

Truly thank you because what you just did is something that I do.

I want my writing students will,

I will sometimes read back to them what they've written so that they can just sit and receive what they've,

And hear what they've said.

But it's rare that I ever have that read back,

Something read back to me.

And that passage is something that I probably wouldn't have chosen to read back to myself.

I had someone,

I had whoever my ideal reader was is who I was writing that for.

But thank you for that because I- Well,

Isn't that all so typical of what you're advocating in the book.

So when we write stuff,

Right?

And as you know,

I've written a whole volume of books now,

Probably more than I- Oh gosh,

Yes.

So when you write stuff,

You just don't know who it's gonna affect.

And sometimes it affects you as a,

You read your own stuff back later on,

I think,

Did I really write that?

Right,

Yeah.

Isn't that wonderful?

You can write stuff and people could take something different away from it that you didn't intend or read things into it that you didn't intend in the first place,

Which is why your life,

Not only your life matters,

But what your writing matters as well.

Yeah.

And that is why it's so important for me that the people who come to my programs are on a trajectory of healing and choosing to have the most exquisite life because it's my belief that if they choose to write their stories,

They need to come from the most empowered place within them because that's the energy that's going to come off the pages to the people who read it,

Like any art form.

I think that when we look at a painting or a statue or in a museum or whatever it happens to be,

The energy that is brought into that creation is what is received on the page and we transmit that.

And so of course,

People who write their stories and I help them through the pain of something that they didn't even know necessarily still triggered them,

When they can write that story now that they want to share,

It's coming from such a place of,

Wow,

I did that.

You know,

Yesterday I was on a call,

On a Zoom call with the people who are currently in my author mentorship program that stems from Your Life Matters.

And one of the people there,

I've known her for over 35 years.

And one of the biggest griefs that she has been sharing throughout her life,

That's certainly not what she talks about very much at all,

But when she has talked about it has been her earlier years and growing up,

Especially with her mom,

Who was very much a controlling person and a very,

Somebody who was,

Yeah,

Just a very negative influence in her family,

For her and her siblings,

Et cetera.

Yesterday on the call,

After being in this course for just now,

That's six weeks,

She was just waxing poetic about her mom.

She could see the soul of her mom and the truth beyond what her personal experience was to a place where she is so excited and sees the gifts of what she received.

And that,

You know,

Was,

I mean,

I see that many times,

But having known this woman for so many years and to see in such a short time that she was so willing and has just turned that corner and shifted,

It makes all the difference in the world.

Well,

And you detail that in the book,

In the chapter on looking back to grow forwards the gift and the lessons.

It strikes me that that lady,

I don't know her story,

But it strikes me that she's done that reflection,

Reflection of a different kind in a temporal sense.

And now is really growing forward and seeing the value of that life experience.

Yes,

And she's also just been valuing herself more and more and more and more.

And I've seen that for a while now where she never did.

And I think,

You know,

I feel very privileged to be able to do what I do.

Wow,

And I guess then that's also,

You talk about how deep do I dive.

Is there a correlation between how deep you can dive and how high you can leap?

As above,

So below.

And I just,

I'm absolutely,

You know,

Why not leap to the heavens?

And it's an absolute correlation.

I love how you're reframing it for me though,

Tom,

Because it's what I'm choosing to put forth,

But not,

It just put it,

It's a different spin on the words.

And it's choosing that high road.

It's choosing taking the leap.

It's choosing to do the art from the most blissful place as opposed to grow from there and even further to who knows,

Outer limits where there are no limits rather than the pain getting this far,

How far can we go when we're already in a bliss state?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah,

But also,

But it's really important though,

That,

You know,

Especially now when there's a lot of pain in the world and this time of lockdown is also,

People are looking in very much so.

They're not just looking in,

You know,

Changing my world around,

But they're looking into the situation that they've been put in.

And,

You know,

It strikes me that the people that are gonna succeed from this pause are the ones that take it as an opportunity,

But you need to look in first and see what's there and allow that to germinate.

Yeah,

It's always an inside job.

Growth,

It totally is.

You can't come from anything external.

And that's the hardest one,

I think,

For a lot of people too.

You know,

We want someone else to do it for us.

We just want,

You know,

Someone else to give us that love and then we'll be full.

It doesn't work that way and it cannot.

And at a time like this,

Oh gosh,

You know,

There's so much collective fear and sadness and pain.

And we have to start where we are.

You know,

I can't just,

I don't have this fantasy that I can hand somebody a pen and just say,

Right,

And you're gonna be,

You know,

Well,

Actually,

It actually happens quite often when I give a prompt and I just say,

Right where you are,

Wherever you are,

Tell the truth.

You don't like the prompt,

Say,

This prompt sucks.

This and just go where you need to go.

Follow your own energy.

But wherever that happens to be,

We need to communicate.

We need to be,

Start where we are.

What I mean by that is it doesn't help,

I don't think,

When people talk to us about,

Oh,

Just put on a happy face or just be smile or ignore the news or just open to hearing where someone is.

Maybe nothing is required other than your presence.

And,

You know,

And even though we may all know that various quotes and various passages from the Bible,

For instance,

Or various,

Whatever that is,

Gonna be a beautiful thing to recite and offer.

If somebody is just in this place of despair,

That happy quote will not be the thing that's gonna get them there.

But reflecting back to them,

I see you,

I feel where you are,

And I'm here.

Then when you run your online,

Because everything's done online at the moment,

Isn't it?

So these,

The online circles that you put together,

Do you find that the,

It's not just a case of you supporting the individuals on the course,

But that the individuals sort of cross-fertilize and also- A hundred percent.

Oh my gosh,

Yes.

Every Sunday,

Well,

Actually,

Most Sundays for 20 years now,

I've been facilitating a Sunday,

Just a drop-in group for people to come and write for two hours.

And now it's been on Zoom since March last year.

And now also with the online author mentorship program,

Also my rewrite to reignite through life program will be online soon.

So we'll shine your light the artist's way,

Which is because I facilitated a support group for the book,

The Artist's Way for 15 years.

And now I will have a new online program called Shine Your Light the Artist's Way.

But on these calls,

People,

I give,

Well,

For say the Sunday afternoon,

Or now it's morning,

So people in Europe who are coming.

So Sundays circles,

We share.

And one of the things that I do,

Which I think would be lovely if people are hearing this and they're facilitating,

Would be a lovely thing for them to do,

I think.

One of the things I did in my live groups before people read,

Because it's a very vulnerable thing to do,

To write,

And then read your work out loud,

Is we look at everyone.

Like I'm looking at you now,

Tom,

And I'm pouring my love into you,

Because I love you.

So it's really easy.

And so people,

So I ask people,

Put your own stuff down.

Tom's about to read what he's just written.

So imagine five people,

20 people,

25,

30,

Looking and just bringing our love to you.

And then you open your book and you just start,

Or your journal and you read.

It's a very different thing.

And then it's not a critique group.

It's people saying,

Oh my gosh,

I was so moved about when you said such and such.

Or,

Oh wow,

Those that have got chills or that particular phrase or those words,

What stood out for me.

And it's always positive.

And people walk away saying,

Wow,

This is my Sunday church.

This is like,

You know,

People are saying that and they maybe have only been there once because very few people get seen and heard and acknowledged that way.

And in a couple of hours on a screen.

Should we play?

I love to play,

You know what I'm like on these podcasts.

Oh gosh,

Yes,

Sure,

Let's play.

I'm just pulled something out here.

I'm going to read a couple of poems of mine.

Oh,

Please.

And these bracket,

My forthcoming book,

Which is coming out.

Okay,

Well take a look at me looking at you before you read.

I know,

Isn't that great?

So this is me.

Yeah,

Take it in.

Okay,

I want to hear,

We want to.

Now I'm writing this from,

I've got to say I'm writing this from a position of bliss and fun.

And anyone that's read my stuff and you know this,

Is I'm also got a little bit of cheek behind things and a lot of intrigue.

So,

And I love the idea of nested loops.

So you open a loop at the start of the book and then you close it down at the end of the book.

And these are two poems.

The first poem is called Alpha,

And this is the start of the book.

So it's the alpha and it says here,

This is what it says.

Souls are seeds,

Seeds become souls.

One and the same,

If truth was told between fact and fiction,

These tales do come.

Playing with diction,

Having temporal fun,

All is false.

Yet all is true.

Believe it or not,

It's up to you.

You.

Ha ha ha.

I love it.

I love it.

Oh God.

And then I close it down with Omega,

Which is a bit of fun as well.

So this is the end bit of it,

Which is kind of good.

And these things that they apply to anything that we do,

Like our life in a way.

And Omega is just like circles,

Spirals go around.

Some end aloft,

Some run to ground.

Life encoded,

Memories ensnared.

As all is unfolded,

Does anyone care?

What is the point?

You may well ask.

Finding out that is the task.

Which is just another alpha opening.

Isn't it just?

Yeah,

Then it opens up again and again and again.

It opens up again,

Right?

That's the task,

Is to find out.

Wow.

Wow.

They're so profound.

Fun,

Coming from a really wise place within you that you offer back to us to reflect the meanings.

And we have just goes deeper and higher.

And does that,

I mean,

I guess also,

And I'd love to hear this from you now,

Sorry to just hijack my own podcast with my own writing when we're talking about your book there.

But when you've,

Because you've worked with hundreds of authors now over the years,

And without mentioning any names,

Although you're welcome to mention a name,

Who's had the most fun,

Found the most bliss,

And ended up in a place where they didn't expect.

What was there,

Can you maybe describe in a nutshell that journey from when you first came across them,

For them working with you,

To a place they got to that you didn't expect and they certainly didn't expect?

The person who comes to mind right now is a man named Lawrence Cooper.

From Agony to Extancy,

I think is his book.

It's on my shelf in the car there,

So I'm sorry.

Anyway,

His book,

When I first met him,

Maybe five,

Six,

Seven years ago,

Oh gosh,

Now all these other authors are flooding in,

Oh my gosh.

But anyway,

So with Lawrence,

I met him through his wife,

And she said he's,

They weren't married yet,

He was moving from another province in Canada to BC,

Where I am in British Columbia.

And she said,

Well,

I think he needs to see you because he's writing a book.

And I met this man,

He came to me some months later,

Maybe the next year,

And very shy,

Very humble,

Very nervous,

Voice cracking,

A psychologist who went through an absolute breakdown,

Breakthrough,

To where he is now a published author several times,

The poet laureate of a whole area on Vancouver Island.

Yeah,

Actually,

It's the Comox Valley poet laureate.

He is moved from being frail and afraid of his own voice and such a gifted man and oh,

So wise and heart heartened and beautiful,

And the work he does for others is just tremendous.

And he's now out there in the world with books,

With podcasts,

With this and with that,

And feeling so proud of what he's accomplished from being so scared.

And his book is a series of poetry and prose taking us through what was the agony,

What became the ecstasy.

And yeah,

So Lawrence Cooper.

So he did,

He so found his bliss through the pain then,

Which is what we were talking about earlier.

Yeah,

Wonderful,

Wonderful,

Wonderful.

Oh,

Yeah.

So,

Junie,

If someone fancies taking this journey,

Obviously we'd recommend they buy your book,

But also they wanna dive a bit deeper on the basis if you dive deeper,

You could leap a bit higher,

As you say.

So as below,

So above.

What's the first step they can take?

And how can they engage with you in one of these wonderful circles that you run?

Oh,

Well,

You could just go to my website,

Junieswadron.

Com,

S,

Excel,

S,

Exam,

W,

A,

D,

R,

O,

N,

Dot com,

And sign up for my newsletter and you'll see what I got going on.

And totally see,

In January,

There are some other things.

One fun thing,

Tom,

That I have done a few times when it was live and now I'll do on Zoom,

December 22nd this year,

In a couple of weeks,

I'm going to have a literary cabaret,

Which you are welcome to join,

As a matter of fact,

If you're awake.

And it is basically,

And one of,

It's people who,

The first hour is a,

It's two and a half hours.

And so the first hour and so and some is a sign up or what do you call it,

Open mic type of thing.

And where people will read for three,

Four minutes of something that they've written.

And then the second will be people who are chosen,

Who I've chosen to come in and read their work.

So maybe it will be two or three people.

And so you come to either to write,

Or sorry,

To read or to listen and be a part of a wonderful literary cabaret.

When I understand,

When I did them live,

They were both literary and musical cabaret.

And so I would love it to be that as well.

I don't know yet on Zoom how to do music where it doesn't come out distorted,

Because it would be great for people like yourself,

Tom,

To either read or to play some of your ambient music.

That wouldn't be distorted.

We could do both at the same time,

Even better.

Oh,

Of course you can.

Well,

That's the whole point,

Isn't it?

People like me,

I like to read and I love the ambient,

My meditations and use maybe hopefully maybe some of your music to go behind them.

So we can talk about that.

But yeah,

So that's a fun thing.

And I'm hoping that maybe that'll be a weekly or once a month,

These musical or these literary cabaret.

That'll go down a storm.

In fact,

You can connect across continents as well is even better,

So.

And you've also been active,

Apart from writing this wonderful book,

You've also got some lovely coloring books coming out as well,

Haven't you?

Oh my gosh,

That is the best.

Well,

That's a miracle that happened to us this year,

Tom.

Our bird Jazzy,

A little budgie bird flew away out the door for five days was missing.

Now five days,

I mean,

We have,

I mean,

Imagine the predators for a tiny little budgie.

They're everywhere,

They're everything.

And how did she survive?

And it was inclement weather,

It was awful.

And we put out posters and there was a wonderful place here in BC called,

Oh gosh,

Oh God,

Rome.

And it's reuniting owners with their pets,

Et cetera.

And so they knew and five days later,

We got a call that they found her.

Wow.

And I have another budgie and we taped her singing and him rather jolly.

We taped his voice singing to jazz,

Which he does every day and put it outside with the both speaker and was hoping that her,

His song would bring him home.

And five days later,

Sure enough,

He was found.

And what is quite even more miraculous about that was that the woman,

He flew,

He flew three kilometers away across the ocean here to another place like this peninsula and was in a children's water park and a community center.

And the little girl goes,

Mommy,

Mommy,

There's a little green bird over there.

And before you knew it,

There was a crowd of little kids looking at this little green bird.

I arrived,

I brought a bunch of my books just as a thank you for this woman.

And I said,

Sarah,

Do you like to write?

And she said,

I love writing and I need to write.

I said,

Why?

She said,

Because writing helps me.

And I said,

Wow.

And I said,

Well,

Why do you need to?

Because she said,

She told me a story.

Her brother had just passed away.

Her mother was just diagnosed with leukemia and she's holding one baby under her arm.

She's got two little kids beside her,

A whole bunch of other kids there.

And she said,

I just need to write.

And I said,

Oh gosh.

So I handed her my books,

I gave her a card.

I said,

Listen,

I'm also a therapist.

If there's anything I can do,

Just call me.

I have no idea the joy you've just given me and Jolly to have Jazzy home again.

So she called me the very next day.

She said,

Junie,

I was up all night reading your book,

Write Where You Are.

Turns out the person that did the forward for that book is her best friend's mom.

How wonderful.

Her best friend's mom offered her a series of my Sunday circles.

She came and she said,

By that time a month later,

Her mom had already died.

And she wrote something like,

Oh my gosh.

She said,

Jazzy,

I didn't find Jazzy.

Jazzy found me.

That's one smart bird you got there.

And then the smart bird- So anyway,

That story is now a coloring book,

A beautiful coloring book.

Oh yeah.

Here's Jazzy opening the window.

And these are David's illustrations.

Yeah,

These are many of David's,

One of many David's illustrations.

Called Jazzy's Miracle Mission.

What a polymath.

And what a family you got there.

It's just that the birds are joining in with the artistic endeavors too.

Tony,

This is fantastic.

So people can find you at junieswadron.

Com.

You're all over the internet.

You're like me,

You're in a meditation guide on Insight Timer.

I just wanted to whether,

As you talk about the end of this book,

Breathing possibilities,

Whether you might just lead us out with a short breathing exercise that we could use to breathe in,

If you like,

Inspiration,

Creativity,

And to expel things that we don't need anymore to make space for this wondrous stuff to come in.

I'd be delighted to.

Let's do it.

I would be delighted.

Okay,

So I invite people wherever you are right now,

If you feel comfortable to close your eyes,

Close your eyes,

Or you can keep your eyes open.

Whatever is right for you.

And just become aware of your breath.

Nothing you need to do.

Nothing you need to change.

Just become conscious of breathing in and breathing out.

And just allow your own natural rhythm of your breath become your focus.

Your focal point,

Your focus,

The sound of my voice,

And the breath that is breathing you.

When we become conscious of our breath,

We naturally slow the breath.

And those within an elongated spaciousness of pause,

We can drop into a place of where everything that is part of you and me and universal vastness and intelligence and God and love exists.

And in this place,

I invite you to join me and Tom into the realms of all possibility,

Letting go of any doubt at all.

Instead,

Just open yourself to receive the gifts that can await you when you open to your highest,

Deepest,

Fervent truths,

Dreams,

Hopes,

Wishes.

We live in an abundant,

Abundant universe where all is there for the asking.

So take yourself there.

Right now,

In our imagination,

In your imagination,

You can go first class and whatever you have dreamed of,

Doing,

Being,

Feeling,

Imagining,

Just be it.

Feel it.

Sense it.

Know it.

Get excited about it and know the universe is here to support your every dream,

Every wish.

And the more you can just take yourself into these quiet places of pause and play that record over and over of your blissful place of whatever that is,

Be there.

Let it come alive and then expect miracles to show up in your life.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

And whenever you're ready,

You can just come back to this moment feeling alive,

And happy,

And know that your life matters.

Wonderful.

Thank you for the miracle that is to you,

Niswadharan.

Thanks for sparing your time today and for sharing your wisdom in your life matters in all the other wonderful works that you do.

It's been a joy and a pleasure tuning.

And I guess you'll be coming back on the podcast next year to share your next work,

Which is all about letters,

I understand.

Oh yes,

It's you all you need,

A book of letters.

Very exciting.

I look forward to telling you all about that,

Tom.

Let's leave that hanging,

Opening a loop so we can close it again in the next orbit of the sun.

Fantastic stuff.

Thank you so much.

Thank you,

Tom.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Wow Tom
I’m absolutely speechless.
Thank you for such a beautiful insightful podcast and Junie’s words echoed through my very soul.
I felt shivers down my spine during the meditation at the end.
Thank you so much and please send all my gratitude to Junie as well :)
Stay safe