Brilliant One,

Here’s the AUDIO of our Transformation Tuesday story for today.

The other day I was reminded of a story I tell way too little: the story of my time with my friend Achsa.

When I was 19 years old, for several years I worked with a woman at the other end of the age spectrum: she was 90 when we met. I typed, helped her develop and, eventually, publish her memoirs as she spoke them to me, straight from memory, right in her living room.

I’ve written three books now, and number four is in the works. But Achsawas the first book I ever worked on.

Exhibit A: Achsa, by and about my friend Achsa Barnwell Peacock Holfelder Donnels.

And boy did that book tell a story. Achsa was one of the first women pilots licensed to fly in the United States. Her first plane was an open biplane, and she told (as I typed) stories of flying before licenses existed, before instruments and air traffic control existed and before planes were closed on top, flying so low back then that as she flew over Fresno she could smell whether oranges or lemons were in season.

And as long ago as that seems, she went back even further. She told me about her father owning the first car in town, and about the accidents that happened when brand-new drivers forgot what to do and yelled “whoa” in an effort to stop their cars, as they’d done with their horses before that.

She told how her husband bought her a surplus plane in a crate from the Air Force after the First World War, for $500.

She told me about taking turns with this husband flying the US mail to Mexico, she told me about how they lived on a houseboat in Alameda (very near where I live now), and she told me about loving, then losing each of her three husbands and her two children.

I learned many things during my time with Achsa, who was a permanent fixture in my life until she transitioned, at age 99. But one thing I learned was an unspoken lesson: that, unlike the common platitude says, life can actually be long. Time is abundant. Many of us get to have many seasons of this life, and we get to shape and morph into many editions of ourselves along that journey.

That helped with my impatience, which was born of time scarcity. It also totally revolutionized the way I viewed aging at a formative time in my life. Achsa was an adventurer, back in the day and still, when I knew her. When her friends all transitioned, she made (much) younger friends.

And she was all the versions of her she’d ever been, sitting in her living room, sharing her life with me and shaping the stories of what she’d lived. What she’d been. Who she’d been. Who she’d become. Making meaning of it all, delightedly.

Through her words, my life became more of an adventure, more playful, not without upsets and grave moments, to be sure. But still an adventure, and an abundant one.

I’ve learned the abundance of time, money and many other elemental resources of this planet from many experiences in my life, but this story was on my heart to share today.

Today, write or reflect on this: Can you look back on your life and pinpoint an experience through which you observed, learned or received the great abundance of our universe? I

t could be a single moment in which the vastness of the ocean took your breath away, or an experience that unfolded over years with ups and downs, twists and turns.

Either way, look for and tell the story of how you’ve seen the abundance of anything—time, money, love, leaves, sand, joy, anything—in this universe, and revel in your appreciation of that, today.

NOTE: On occasion, or maybe like 10 times a day, it is a wonderful thing to remind yourself that you are simply one more brilliant microcosm of evidence of the unlimited abundance and endless prosperity of this universe.

Every hair on your head is evidence.

Every cell in your body.

Every breath you’ve ever breathed.

Every time your heart beat.

It’s all evidence. YOU are evidence.

Have you ever heard the Anne Lamott quote, the one about how “Lighthouses don’t go running around looking for boats to save. They just stand there shining.”?

Today, can you just shine your status as the evidence of the unstoppable prosperity of our world?

You don’t have to convince yourself.

You certainly don’t have to run around looking for anyone else to convince.

Just shine. Being the evidence that you are. Receiving ease, receiving space, receiving grace. Unhurried. Unrushed. Unjudged. Even by yourself.

Especially by yourself.

All day today, just BE and beam out your personal proof of prosperity, in the form of your sheer existence.

TWO BRIEF INVITATIONS:

Next week, I’ll be in Chicago at the Cusp Conference on October 24th. Cusp Conference is 25+ inspiring presenters, all of whose life work is around designing a brilliant future world.

(I’m representing Spiritual Entrepreneurship. No big deal.)

Then, I’m heading to Palm Springs to join teachers like Marianne Williamson, Paul Hawken and Glennon Doyle, at Wanderlust’s newest event, Wellspring, October 26 – 28.

I’ll be teaching about how to hear your Inner Guidance, how to get into the flow state and how to bring 100% of yourself to work… including your SOUL.

To join me at Wellspring, get tickets here. I’d so love to see you there.

Head up + heart out,

TNN

Sign up for my Transformation Tuesday newsletter, here: http://www.taranicholle.com/transformation-tuesday