Our Story
By
the year of 1989, I had come to a place of relative inner peace. I had
learned how to love myself and manifested into my life my perfect spiritual
partner and husband, Doug Hackett (another story to be told!). We were
married in 1992 and made the commitment to follow Spirit and our hearts
in every decision which would come before us. We had known from the beginning
that we would be doing spiritual work together some day. I had received
training in spiritual counseling and healing and Doug had devoted many
years to the study of meditation and spirituality. Our deepest desire
was to be catalysts for personal empowerment for others—to be beacons
of Light and examples of what it means to live a totally fulfilled life
of meaning and service.
We would regularly meditate together and call upon beings of Light from
other realms and dimensions to assist us in our relationship and our work
in the world. I had many visions of these glorious beings and felt their
presence daily. I learned to trust the wisdom they shared with us and
believed, most of the time, that we were totally guided and taken care
of. There were the times, of course, that I would slip into my old patterns
of doubt and skepticism. These were the times of darkness for me when
I could feel myself being pulled into the downward spiral of negativity
and fear. In those moments, I knew that unless I immediately dealt with
the darkness, not ignoring it, and turned toward the light and positive
thoughts, I would be lost for hours (or days) in that dark hole. I would
pay attention to the content of these negative thoughts and emotions and
always seek help from spiritual counselors and healers to find the source
and to transmute them into higher learning about myself.
Doug and I helped each other to become aware of the remnants of dysfunction
and limiting beliefs from our childhoods as we sailed the sometimes stormy
seas of relationship. We believe that a “sacred partnership,”
such as ours, can be the perfect catalyst for this exploration. Though
90 percent of our time together was blissful, the other 10 percent held
the challenge of emotional discovery and the call to healing. Our commitment
to this task has paid us endless rewards as we grow ever closer in intimacy
and love. Our willingness to see each other through the eyes of our spirituality
allows us to support each other in our continued commitment to heal deep
wounds, open our hearts and give service to the best of our abilities.
One
year after our marriage took place, we received an invitation we could
not refuse. At the beginning of 1993 we had the opportunity to experience
three months of personal coaching. This process was designed to help us
to open to living a totally fulfilling life. We both had harbored many
reservations and negative beliefs about that subject. We thought that
it was really impossible to be totally fulfilled. Our upbringing and cultural
conditioning taught that we need to work hard to get what we want out
of life. We needed to sacrifice some of our dreams if we were to truly
be able to create security for ourselves and our families. It was ridiculous
to think that we could have everything we wanted in life!
Through the skillful guidance of our coach, we sailed through the three
months, stripping off those limiting beliefs and negative thoughts and
ended up with the same vision. We saw ourselves living near water, in
a large house with a high ceiling, with many people coming through. It
was a wonderful vision, but we had no idea where we would be living and
what we would be doing? We were satisfied with the coaching, even though
we had no clue what our life’s work would be. We trusted that it
would be shown to us at the appropriate time.
The next month, in May, our good friend, Joan Ocean, came to visit us
in our home in California. Joan’s life was a perfect demonstration
of the power of living by following your heart. I met her in 1983 and
became the first participant in her meditation group in Belmont, California.
She soon began to receive messages of love, peace and harmony from the
dolphins. They seemed to ask her to be their ambassador to the world bringing
their wisdom and beautiful energy of love to all. She and her partner,
visionary artist Jean Luc Bozzoli, left the lives they knew, packed a
few suitcases and began a journey around the world bringing the dolphin
message to all. Not knowing where the next flight would lead, or where
they would get the money to pay for it, they lived on pure faith and were
totally taken care of. Joan ended up in Kona, Hawaii, living on the ocean
and swimming with the dolphins every day, learning their immense wisdom
and sharing it with the world through books and dolphin seminars.
We were in awe as we viewed Joan’s extraordinary video and listened
to mind-expanding information about the dolphins and their multidimensional
consciousness. Their energy drew us into their magical spell and we looked
at each other and said, “We have to go and swim with the dolphins!”
Two months later we found ourselves in the ocean with these magnificent
beings. The experience blew open our hearts and brought us into a state
of being I can only describe as ecstatic—the adventure of our lives!
To be met one on one by these creatures, both joyous and otherworldly,
was astonishing in its intimacy and in its awesome connection. We felt
that they came to us with the desire to communicate and share their magical
world with us, in this third dimension and in higher dimensions also.
When we were with them, all concerns or feelings of limitation disappeared.
We were brought into the present moment in a way that had never been experienced
before. It was pure bliss. We could see what Joan was talking about—the
dolphins assist us to touch the higher aspects of ourselves and to seek
joy through an expansion of consciousness. We knew we would never be the
same.
Before leaving for home, Joan said, “Why don’t you move to Hawaii
and help me with this work?!” She said that there would be more and
more people drawn to be with the dolphins in their ocean home and that
there needed to be people to help them have that experience. Since I had
attended some spiritual training seminars with her in the past, and Doug
and I had made the commitment to do our spiritual work, whatever that
was, we felt that Joan must have been guided to ask us about this. Even
so, we were not prepared to say yes to this fantastic suggestion. We said
to her, “We can’t do that - we have our lives in California!”
Upon returning to California, to his surprise Doug realized that we didn’t
have lives! His experience was that what he had been doing no longer had
that spark of aliveness or spirit behind it! For several years Doug had
been feeling that he was supposed to leave behind his career as CEO of
the energy conservation company he had founded, however had not found
anything that he would rather do. Upon meditating on it, the only thing
that had that spark of aliveness, or spirit, behind it was selling everything
and moving to Hawaii to work with the dolphins! However, he refrained
from telling me right away, knowing that the perfect moment would come
in the next few days.
My experience was a bit different. On the following Wednesday, after returning
from Hawaii, I was driving over the San Mateo bridge on my way home from
work. While thinking about the dolphins and Joan’s invitation, I
suddenly had an incredible experience. A “lightening bolt” of
white light shot right through my body and I heard the words, “Go
do this work.” It was as clear as day and I knew this was a powerful
message from the universe, the dolphins, and my Higher Self.
I had experienced this same extraordinary “white light” two
other times in my life. The first time the universe gave me this kind
of unmistakable message was when I was guided to end my first marriage.
The experience left no doubt whatsoever that I was to leave “now”
with no turning back. It was so powerful that even though I was not prepared
financially to go it alone and live the life of the single mother, I was
compelled to seek a divorce. My husband and I had dedicated thirteen years
to the attempt at making a successful marriage. I felt that we had exhausted
every avenue in our search for the truth of our relationship. Was there
enough love to keep it all together? What about the children? I just couldn’t
leave unless every stone was turned and we had tried everything possible
to make our marriage work. Should we stay together or seek happiness apart?
The “white light” answered the question for me. We parted right
away and sailed into lives which fulfilled our true natures and brought
us more happiness and fulfillment than we had felt for many years.
The second time that I was visited by the “white light” occurred
a few years later. This lightening bolt shot through my body out of the
blue one day and “said” to me, “Go to so and so and see
your friend . . . now.” I had no idea why I was being told this and
what in the world I was to do when I got there. This was not about getting
in the car and driving a few blocks away. I was being told to get on the
next airplane and travel 3,000 miles to see this friend! At that time
in my frugal life, it was unthinkable that I would take that kind of money
out of the bank and take off just like that! But this message was so powerful
and compelling I did just that. I arranged the ticket, got on the plane
and, feeling sick with anxiety about what I was doing and what may be
ahead, I painfully endured the five hour flight. Never having traveled
alone, I found it such a challenge to get the rental car and then to find
my way in a strange city to my destination. When I reached my friend’s
home and knocked on the door, after announcing who I was, I waited for
twenty minutes before she opened the door. Upon first sight I could see
she was in a state of deep depression. She was about to commit suicide
that day and I had come at the precisely right moment. We talked for twenty
four hours and I was able to convince her to get the help she needed to
get through that challenging time. Oh yes, I trust that white light!
Returning to the story of our return home; when I told Doug about my experience
with the lightening bolt, he reacted with assurance that we were on the
right track. He said, “well, we made the commitment to follow Spirit
and it looks like we are both being called and are being tested.”
Happily we both knew that this was the direction we should go and though
it meant leaving behind security, we agreed to “jump off the cliff”
and follow our guidance.
We sold everything, packed up our books and some kitchenware, and left
for Hawaii the following February of 1994. It wasn’t easy leaving
our children, friends and families on the mainland. Though my daughter
and son were adults and on their own, and Doug’s two teenage daughters
were living with their mother and step father, our hearts tugged at us
to stay close by. We made a pact with the universe that we would see them
at least four times per year in whatever way we could.
That first year was exhilarating, magical, transforming and challenging.
For me, the prospect that we did not have paychecks would prove to be
terribly frightening. I had spent many years as a single parent working
very hard to create some sort of security for myself and my children.
Before I met Doug, I had bought a condo, paid cash for my car, and had
money in the bank and a retirement fund. I was all set for the rest of
my life! Interestingly, I had an astrological reading six months before
I met Doug in which I was told that I needed to lose everything to gain
everything. “No!” I said, “I refuse! I have worked too
hard to finally feel secure!!” But alas, I knew in my heart that
if detachment to it all was to be asked of me by Spirit, I would indeed
have to surrender to it if it meant my spiritual empowerment.
When we moved to Hawaii, we began working very closely with Joan, who
became our mentor and inspiration. She told us in the beginning that she
could not support us completely financially, but would pay us to assist
her in her dolphin seminars and help her with her work. She also encouraged
us to create our own dolphin seminars so as to manifest a source of livelihood.
We founded and co-created Dolphin\Spirit of Hawaii and began our adventurous
life as facilitators of monthly seminars including dolphin swims and spiritual
transformation. While our seminars began slowly at first, we found that
facilitating them was the most joyous, stimulating and fulfilling work
we could imagine. Our life had completely changed and began to bring to
us magical adventures, interesting and wonderful people from all over
the world, and deep satisfaction in the knowledge that we were contributing
to the spiritual awakening of the people we served.
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