A number of months ago, a young man, whose mother is a part of our healing community, crashed his motorcycle at high speed while fleeing the police. He had been arrested with drugs some time before, was on probation, and had missed his curfew. When he saw the police car checking him out, he panicked and took off.
As a result, many bones in his body were broken, including his entire pelvic region, and his body had turned ashen grey. His family and friends held a vigil by the hospital bed. That night, at our Poughkeepsie Gathering of the Healing Spirit Circle we entered into a powerful communal meditation and worked to see him healed and whole. I remember having a strong sense that this young man had a choice before him.
Along with his body being broken, and the risk of being crippled for life at age nineteen, the local authorities at the District Attorney’s office were determined to make an example of this young man. He was to be tried and sentenced to jail as an adult with no leniency.
Somewhere inside of him, however, this young man made a choice, and when he regained consciousness, his mother began to work with him. She told him that his thoughts and intentions, when aligned for his highest good, can create new realities and transform the most difficult challenges. She told him not to resign to despair, but to dare open to being healed and whole.
The young man remained in body cast, and was filled with drugs and anesthesia, but every day, in his active imagination he went to the beach and began to incubate a vision of what his life was supposed to be. The accident and all that led up to it had shaken him to his core, and he knew that not only his life, but his soul was on the line. So every day at the “beach” he opened to his aspiration, he saw his potential, and he began to get a sense of his vocation and its ability to manifest. Some months later, his young, vibrant body was remarkably knitting itself together. His broken parts were fused, he could walk with a cane, and the prognosis was for a full recovery. But there was still the issue of jail time. The D.A. was firm and determined to send him to prison for as long as possible. The young man, however, assured his mother that he would not go to jail, because it was not in the interest of his highest good. And every day he continued to visualize and affirm his highest good — not just what “he wanted,” but the life he was meant to live.
Then, in November, our town had its local elections and a new group of legislators were swept into office. With this change in administration, the D.A.’s office willingly reduced the charges, so that the young man could be tried as a minor and not receive jail time.
In a recent conversation with the mother, I asked why she thought her son had succeeded in manifesting his intention. After all, so many people light candles, make wish lists, and try to make things happen, and they fail. His mother offered two principal reasons for her son’s success, and I am transmitting them here. 1) He believed that he was here to achieve his highest good. Once he committed to that, the visualization and affirmation process was empowered. It was not a game of ego-aggrandizement, but a statement of faith and inner truth. 2) He never asked “how” this would happen. When his mother would worry he would reply, “Ma, I’m not going to jail, it is not in my highest good.”
And there you have it, in my own back yard: proof that transformation is possible, that we can transform seemingly hopeless circumstances, and that we can take on the mantle of becoming who we are. As the New Year approaches, then, can we ask ourselves who we are meant to be, from our core? Can we dare open to our highest good and allow the universe to draw us onward toward the love, beauty, wisdom, and courage that are our birthright, toward the gifts that are waiting to be opened under the tree of our own life?
In Blessedness,
RJ
