Inspirational, Spiritual 
No Comments The Beginning of a Journey
Several years ago while living in Mississauga, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, I was in a personal & professional development course with several others who were in the same boat – unemployed and trying to shake off one bad interview after another. The ‘training’ course lasted 21 days and was broken into 2 main parts; 1) personal development by learning how to let go of stress and frustration, and 2) professional development by learning the teachings of masters like Brian Tracy and Steven Covey.
- Elfreda Pretorius
It was in this course that I got to know one of the leaders, Elfreda Pretorius. When I first met Elfreda, I found that she had the most unusual positive energy to her…an energy that she carried freely unlike anyone I had met previously.
Over a short time, and during many conversations, she would say things that would just make sense to me. Not so much through deductive reasoning and assessment, but deep down in a place where I rarely dwelled. She introduced me to the concept of spirituality, which is something that I can admit I was completely ignorant about until then. In my search for more answers, Elfreda suggested that I may be interested in the book “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”, by Deepak Chopra.
Well, I knew I wasn’t much of a reader, and I had only pondered the idea of spirituality for a few days, but I decided to go into a large book store in the area to look for an audio cassette (since my T-Bird didn’t have a CD player). Sure enough I found one. Not that I would listen to it at home while searching the Internet for work, rather, to keep me company for the 3 hour drive between my apartment in Mississauga and my mother’s house in Windsor when I’d visit.
Looking back, I have to say that the timing of the course and the advice couldn’t be better. Soon after the course had wrapped up, I learned that my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I returned to Windsor every other weekend to visit her and try to find remedies that would help her beat it.
Deepak Chopra
On the seemingly long drives back and forth, I threw Deepak’s tape in the player and listened intently, not really understanding everything he was trying to convey, but grasping what I could. In the first law he expressed many ideas that I had never thought of, such as;
- forgiveness; forgiving yourself as well as others,
- non-judgement; judging nothing and no one,
- meditation; giving your mind a chance to rest.
Almost immediately, I started to put some of his tips into practice, and I soon realized that it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. But I also realized that when I did put the effort in, it began to work in small doses! I began to feel differently about the world around me as well as the people who I interacted with on a regular basis. To my surprise, people told me that they noticed positive differences in my attitude and overall presence.
The more I drove back and forth between Mississauga and Windsor, the more I listened to the audio tape, and the more I actually heard. As I was able to understand the lessons of each spiritual law, I began to hear words that I hadn’t heard before. It was almost as though I couldn’t get to Step 2 until I internalized and put into practice the wisdom of Step 1 – and there was a lot of ground to cover.
Sadly, my mother’s cancer grew worse and she got to the point where she knew she wasn’t going win this fight. It’s a tough pill to swallow and I don’t wish this pain and suffering on any person. But, as time continued to close the gap on my mother’s life, something amazing happened. We grew closer than we had ever been. We were able to speak our minds to each other in ways that I never thought I could do with anyone. We laid our cards on the table – no sugar coating, no holding back. Just conversation in the purest sense.
There were no ill words exchanged, rather expressions of love, understanding, and trust. She would give me tips on how to be a good father right to the very end. You see, her first grandchild was on the way and she wanted me to pass along her wisdom, hoping to give me a head-start in raising him right.
She passed away in May of 2003. My son was born just 11 hours later, the following morning. Ironically, he was about 10 days early, and his mother had started labour pains within an hour after my mother had passed. Some say that he was my parting gift from her. They may be right.
As you could well imagine, there was a lot of emotional turmoil going on at that time, but through it all, and to this very day, I swear that I wouldn’t have been able to deal with it as well as I did if I wasn’t emotionally prepared for it. I will be forever grateful to Elfreda and Deepak for sharing their wisdom with the world in a way that I was able to understand and follow. It made me a better person and with no time to spare.
Now, several years later, I am a father of 3 and I have an established career in the growing world of information technology. I often think about the impact that these speakers had on me, and I still enjoy listening to audio books from a wide variety of authors. I have to believe that my introduction to the spiritual nature of humanity didn’t just to help me deal with immediate and emotional turmoil, but it was also the beginning of a journey into parenthood, reminding me in times of frustration (as I’m sure all parents experience) that I can calm any turbulence and emerge with a positive outlook.
Elfreda Pretorius has since written 5 books in the field, and remains a friend to this day. Learn more about her message at http://elfredapretorius.com/
Deepak Chopra has enjoyed much success through his teachings, which you can learn about at http://www.chopra.com/
Implicit in this phrase of overcoming adversity is the idea that success or happiness is about emerging on the other side of a challenging experience unscathed or unmarked by the experience. As if my successes in life have come about from an ability to side step or circumnavigate the presumed pitfalls of a life with prosthetics or what other people perceive as my disability.
