Life Through a Different Lens - Another Sequel Sneak Peek

You asked and I WILL deliver...I'm currently working on the sequel to You're Only As Sick As Your Secrets: Sexual Abuse Awareness, Prevention & Intervention and thought I'd offer a Sneak Peek into another chapter (scroll through my blog posts to find the last Sequel Sneak Peek). So here is a portion of a chapter recently written. Please feel free to leave a comment! Enjoy!Life Through a Different LensI was being reviewed (or so I thought) about a complaint regarding my alternative solutions business.  I had a lawyer present with me and as the two of us sat alone around a large table within what appeared to be a conference room, men in business suits began to file in and take their place around the table with us.  Soon, the whole room filled up with others.  I recognized some were from when I was teaching in the public school system, others were long-time cherished clients, and another was a new female client who had brought her female friends along to support me.Suddenly the room went quiet as a movie began to play on a large screen. Unable to decipher what was being projected, I self consciously moved about the unfamiliar room to locate switches that would dim the lighting.  I felt even more vulnerable being inappropriately dressed in an old nightgown so faded and worn due to it having been purchased for me by my mom just before the birth of my son over 24 years before.It wasn’t until I’d returned to my seat that I was surprised to see a judge presiding at the front of the room.  Surprised quickly turned to shock when I noticed a sign in that general vicinity indicating that I was being sued for services I’d provided. Though I struggled to do so, I couldn’t make out who the opponent was on the other side of “vs. Donna Jacques Temm”.The more the dread riddled my physical body, the more confused my mind became. My ears registered the replies of “guilty” following each request from the judge.  After three “guilty” retorts from jurors, an inaudible response was uttered. I heard but didn’t understand.  However, the whole room fell into a silent hush and I knew immediately that this single-answer reply was a game changer.At that moment, the pace increased and began to move at warp speed.  Still reeling and feeling somewhat paralyzed by what continued to unfold around my own fate, I merely listened in stillness as the judge continued with the proceedings.“You have a choice, Ms. Temm, 5 years imprisonment or $2500 fine.  What do you say?  You have three seconds to answer!” Just a quickly as he spoke his last word to me, he began to count, “Three, Two…”. Before he could say “one” and most certainly before I could even understand the repercussions of my split-second decision, I raised my hand and indicated I’d pay the requested fine.The courtroom emptied just as quickly as the tears began to spill out and roll down the slopes of my cheeks. I was left sitting with a small team of men who had a sense of compassion for me but yet began to pack their briefcases with a sort of “business as usual” dismissal of the severity of what had just transpired for me.I awoke to the feeling of being riddled with dread.  There was an achiness from my head to my toes; the same achiness that had sent me to bed less than 12 hours earlier when I had prayed.  I had asked a Source much Greater than myself to reveal what caused me to suffer from physical ailments without fail when the end of July/middle of August came along every year.Having learned years ago that dream interpretation was a powerful way to understand what appeared to be incomprehensible happenings, I sat down first to write any part of the dream I could easily recall upon awakening.  Then I took a few deep breaths, shook off the uneasiness from the dream still weighing heavily on my whole being, and after saying a prayer for protection and guidance, I delved into my favorite book about dream symbols.As I located the meanings of key words in my written recollection, I used my gut to first assess which interpretation felt appropriate for my dream subject matter and then my intellect to put the pieces together and create a more understandable picture from the pieces of this puzzle I called my dream.I’d learned about (and have continued to use) the depth of knowledge that could be accessed through dream interpretation back in 2001 when I’d attended a Women’s Spa Weekend in Maine with my sisters. The weekend of pampering began with a presentation from a professional dream analyst.  As he analyzed the dreams of the other women in attendance, I watched in awe as each of their reactions to his interpretations were validation that he was spot on.Yet, when he got to me, I was certain he was off the mark on this one.  “Just choose any dream you remember that you have had either several times or on a recurring basis over the years,” he encouraged me. After I explained my “chosen” dream (pun intended), he paused, smirked in my direction, and asked me, “How do you feel about ghosts and spirits, My Dear?”  Without much thought, I immediately expressed my true feelings about how the spirit world “scared the shit out of me”.Keeping up the banter, he informed me without any hint of uncertainty, “You’d better get used to them because it won’t be long and you’ll be working with them.”“Oh, hell no I won’t!” The words spewed from my mouth with just as much certainty as he’d had when he sent his message my way. I was in my eleventh year of teaching elementary school and had absolutely no plans for a second career, much less one working with the spirit world!Unbeknownst to me, within months of that dream interpretation in 2001, my life would begin to shift dramatically. Within two years, both the “gifts of spiritual communication” and more of the experiences of abuse I’d repressed as a child would resurface marking the beginning of my professional work no longer being directed by me but rather by spirit.  Who knew I’d be relaying to clients the messages from the spiritual realm? Who knew? The male professional dream analyst who walked into my women’s spa weekend and shook up my world, that’s who knew!So following in the routine I typically employed anytime I received important insight around a specific request I’d uttered, I went to work analyzing my courtroom dream.  I quickly realized that, prior to that dream, I’d been receiving and dismissing abbreviated messages that didn’t appear to “fit” what I believed I was experiencing.For example, several nights before my dream, I was watching an emotionally charged interaction between a major league baseball player and an umpire. It resulted from a misunderstanding around the “guiltiness” of the player trying to pull a fast one and returning to an incorrect base after talking to the third base coach during a pitching change. I understood the player’s reaction to being accused of something of which was not his doing or intention. A week prior when I had listened to a podcast by Louise Hay on my Hay House Audio app, I’d learned that guilt was often the culprit of physical pain.  I couldn’t place anything in my current life that I believed connected me to any unresolved issues around that emotion, though.However, as I began to use my intellect arriving at the following dream analysis, I made connections and now had the awareness to be able to do additional work around healing what was revealed through my dream.I was receiving a potent message around the potential for a learning situation from my past (symbol - people from my teaching past).  One of my greatest fears to this day is being judged by those I cherish the most and falling short in their eyes (symbol – judge).  Clearly, this is something in my life that needs to be “represented” (symbol – lawyer) through my sharing with those with whom I am in a relationship. I continue to project these attitudes as a rerun of the past (symbol - movie). The fact I am setting inappropriate limitations on myself through my thoughts (symbol – inappropriate clothing) shows my lack of attention to Divine guidance (symbol – turning down the lights) and my heavy reliance on my own logical intellect (symbol - men) while having less compassion for myself and repressing my emotions (symbol - women).  On a positive note, in my dream, I chose to accept the spiritual graces (symbol – fine/money) over continuing to be imprisoned by “guilty” feelings (symbol – jail).My belief that I was on the right path in knowing that I had some healing of unresolved guilt in my near future was even more solidified when I looked up the numerological and angelic meanings (*Doreen Virtue’s book Angel Numbers 101) of the “$2500” fine.

• “25” – As you go through major life changes, expect the best and your optimism will be rewarded. *
• “7” (2+5) – You’re on the right path and your outcome will exceed your expectations! The number 7 is a sign that Divine magic is supporting you and opening doors of opportunity. *
• “0” – (I had double zeros) God is talking to you. When you see a zero it’s a sign of the endless circle of Omega without beginning or end.  God is trying to get your attention with a word of reassurance or Divine Guidance. *

To Be Continued…