Other Books by Donna V.

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Cheers, Donna V.

Aloha

Rejuvenation

Focus

Confidence

Copyright © 2013 Donna V.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1490539735

ISBN 13: 9781490539737

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013912289

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

North Charleston, South Carolina

Author’s photograph by S.F.G. Vernon

About the Cover

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The swan has long been an emblem of love, beauty, purity, and, most of all, transformation. A swan is a unique creature; it glides along appearing graceful and dignified, but just below the water’s surface its webbed feet are flapping and its legs are treading water for all it is worth. Let this represent you in your personal metamorphosis.

I have chosen a swan to adorn the cover of this book. It is my special gift to you for use as a meditation partner just before sleep. First, envelop yourself in your protective bubble (explained in Section III, How to Protect Your Power), and then say the following, softly but aloud:

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Nothing is impossible for me to achieve with the help of the Divine.

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I believe, I believe, I believe.

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Now, drift off to sleep picturing your lovely white swan swimming on the lake of your mind while holding the blissful expectation that the transformation you have long awaited in your life will indeed happen if you just keep the momentum going.

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Never give up.

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I love you all,

Contents

Other Books by Donna V.

About the Cover

Introduction

Section I: My Life

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Section II: What I Learned From the Advice I Was Given

Section III: What I Wish to Pass On to Others

Epilogue

About the Author

Introduction

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There are times in all our lives when we need advice and others when our inner compass is working efficiently, its needle pointing unwaveringly in the direction we are headed. This book was written to address both scenarios. It is the story of the past 25 years of my life; the most exciting, confusing, self-expanding, and humbling years in an otherwise contented existence.

What started out as typical life challenges—­marriage, divorce, life-threatening illness, family deaths, career changes, and relocations—created some very atypical and extraordinary turns in my path, which included spiritual awakenings, explorations in faith, and vision quests. As I faced each of these trials, my sub-conscious sought advice from the Divine, which was provided to me, at key moments, through gifted intermediaries. On the strength of the guidance I received, I succeeded in transforming myself from an emotional ugly duckling into a beautiful, confident swan. I am now an independent and strong woman, enjoying freedom and happiness in my new life. Here is my story...

As a child I was happy, cheerful, and quick to please—always finishing everything on my plate and surprised by the temper tantrums of others. Born of British parents who had both served in the military, discipline was a way of life in our household and everything was kept ship shape, as my dad liked to say. My brother and I toed the line as best we could and spent our childhood enjoying the beauty of the ocean in South Florida. I would sum up my formative years as predictable.

Things changed when my family took its first trip to England to visit our relatives there. My brother and I had done odd jobs throughout the previous summer in order to have spending money for the trip. Our first overseas excursion! We were excited to finally meet our cousins. Little did we know that we were in for a real culture shock. The cousins made fun of my brother for wearing long pants. Young British boys, it turned out, wore only shorts, regardless of weather conditions. We didn’t expect that one!

Another surprise: a few days into our vacation, grandmother took my dad aside and explained to him that we had far too much spending money for children our age. This could only lead to trouble in the future! We decided as a family not to offer any defense to the many innuendos other than to assure Nanna that we did indeed earn the money in our pockets. She countered with, In that case, your parents should have taken most of it. Our first in your face lesson on cultural differences.

Despite the rocky start, our trips to England continued and through the years we became accustomed, if not quite immune, to the comments. It was during one of these later trips, with only my mother as a travel companion, that I received my first advice from a clairvoyant.

We were staying with my Auntie Rosemary in Gloucestershire who decided, as a treat, that she would shuttle four of us (my aunt, my mother, another aunt, and me) to London for a one-day spiritual workshop. I was excited to be going with the group and seeing the big city.

The workshop lasted six hours and was broken down into one-hour classes with several different offerings in each time frame. Mom and I chose Psychic Flower Arranging, which, due to a printing mistake, turned out to be a past-life regression demonstration led by a renowned expert who had a weekly show on BBC 1.

The presenter began his lecture by having all of us close our eyes and think of a very pleasant experience. He then selected a few volunteers to come to the front of the room. I don’t know how he chose his volunteers but, as you can probably guess, I was one of them. Sitting on stage, we were told to close our eyes and go back in time to a past lifetime where we were happy and answer the questions he asked of us. We were not hypnotized, but simply put into a receptive state. Questions were posed as to the place and approximate year in which we saw ourselves. We were also asked to describe our mode of dress, occupation, and physical surroundings. We answered all questions with ease. The most impressive volunteer, to me, was an English woman in her late twenties who responded to the questions in Spanish. When the demonstration was over, Mom and I sought her out and asked about her sudden language change. She told us that she did not speak Spanish in this lifetime. In fact, she spoke no foreign languages at all!

We broke for lunch, the aunts, Mom and me comparing experiences of our morning adventure, and then went back for the afternoon segment. In this next session our group was asked to sit in a large circle with a clairvoyant/medium in the middle position. The medium worked her way around the room, giving messages as they came to her. She told Mom that she, my mother, had experienced many incarnations in England and that she came from a long line of seafaring men from a small English coastal town. She finished Mom’s reading with a reminder from my late grandmother that I should be given her silver hairbrush with the initial M, which was now residing with my Auntie Rosemary in Gloucestershire, the same aunt who had brought us to the spiritual workshop. It was my turn next and my message began with a very odd statement...

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Keep your foot on his throat.

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It would take me many years to understand the meaning of these words.

Section I

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My Life

Chapter 1

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The clairvoyant continued on with her message regarding my upcoming marriage. She told me I would marry someone from my past who knew me as a friend. It would be a chance-meeting marriage and it would be very successful and happy, provided I followed her advice about keeping my foot on his throat.

At this point in my life I had graduated from high school and was working at the local Chamber of Commerce—casually dating and not really serious about any of the choices I had been offered. Understandably, the message came as quite a shock to me. I couldn’t comprehend what she was getting at with the foot and the throat business. I was a shy and feminine young woman who was quick to walk away from altercations. I would only speak up for myself when seriously backed into a corner. In hindsight, though, I should have had the clairvoyant’s advice tattooed on a body part to refer to daily!

When Mom and I came back from our trip, it was business as usual for a couple of months. I more or less forgot about the marriage prediction. My brother was looking for a new job and one day Mom came up to me with the Classifieds in her hand and said, You know Joe Edgar, don’t you? I reminded her that the two of us were in drafting class together in high school. Evidently, Joe was now in charge of the drafting department for a large firm and was looking for employees. "Could you give him a call and ask