CHAPTER 1

Developing a LifePerspective of Unity

I was strapped in my seatbelt as my car was cartwheeling throughthe air. Through the front windshield, the horizon line keptchanging, with the sky on top and then the ground on top. Withthe third and final cartwheel, my car landed with its wheels on theground. I had fallen asleep going down the interstate with the cruisecontrol set at seventy-five miles per hour.

A few minutes earlier, I had said to myself, "I am tired." I had goodReason to be tired. I was returning from delivering five family membersto the airport forty-five miles from the location of our just-completedfamily reunion. Seventeen of our children and grandchildren hadgathered at our South Dakota home for a week in August. I took itupon myself to help provide food, organize gatherings with extendedfamily and friends, help with transportation, and be an energetic,loving mother and grandmother. It was such a joy to be all together,but a great outflow of energy was required on my part.

Just before I was whirling in the air, I heard a voice say loudly,"Loretta, wake up." I was cruising in the median about fifty yardsfrom a drop-off onto the railroad tracks passing under the interstate.Immediately I turned the wheel in an attempt to return to theblacktop, hit a guard rail, and became airborne.

I said out loud, "Well, here goes!" I surrendered and relaxed mybody, observing my arms and hands flailing about. The windowsbroke out as the front end and then the rear end of my car met theground with each cartwheel. My seat broke loose on one of theseflips, but I stayed belted in the seat within the frame of the car. Iremained fully conscious in those moments, not considering livingor dying, or any outcome, for that matter. I was truly one with theexperience, not focusing on my thoughts and feelings.

The car landed on its wheels three feet from the drop-off to therailroad tracks. I assessed my physical situation. The distortion andrapid bruising of my left forearm led me to think it could be broken.People approached rapidly, and I asked to remain in place until theambulance arrived. I knew from past experience that I could notevaluate my injuries reliably, as shock often masks symptoms. Inmy work as a registered nurse in the emergency room, I had helpedseveral patients who had moved out of their vehicles or put off carefor several hours following an accident. We often don't feel the extentof our injuries due to the adrenaline rush of stress and perhaps theinnate protection of our physical and psychological selves from thefull impact of traumatic events.

I tell this story to illustrate the potency of the conscious presenceof grace in my life. There was no feeling of fear throughout the ordeal.That fact alone is a confirmation of the presence of grace. The secondlaw of grace is that love is interlaced with grace, and our role is tocooperate and surrender. Fear cannot reside where there is love.

The clarity of my thoughts and actions was a marvel to me. I neverquestioned my request of the ambulance driver to take me across thebridge over the tracks to the hospital that was a few miles fartherthan the hospital on the bridge side where my car rested. Only laterdid I recognize the symbolism of crossing that bridge as well as thecommand to "wake up" in my spiritual development. I do knoweverything happens for the highest good within the field of grace. Iset the intention that each day I am surrounded by the golden lightof grace.

After I was examined in the emergency room, I was declaredwhole and released to my relieved and loving husband and family.After midnight, a highway patrolman called our house, asked how Iwas, and said, "She was not alone."

Surprised, Ken said, "What do you mean?"

The patrolman said, "God had to have been with her!"

Another gift was bestowed on me that day with the drama ofTotaling my car. I went through the entire course of menopause in thosefew moments. In the following months, I had no irregular menstrualcycles. I experienced no hot flashes, moodiness, or diminishment ofsexual desire. There was immediate cessation. I simply moved onto what my Native American friends call the grandmother's lodge.I don't know the meaning behind instantaneous menopause, but atfifty years of age, I appreciated that outcome. I accepted it as part ofthe whole experience in which I was the recipient of the outpouringof pure love that is grace.

This experience and my reactions within it served tovalidate my life view that gives meaning and purpose to my dailyexistence. In general, my life view is one of unity, of oneness, and ofconnectedness.

At that moment of cartwheeling, I had no consciousness of past orfuture or thoughts of living or dying. There was only the experienceof my car and me hurtling through space. I was one within the orderof grace. At that precise time, the divine order called grace held thecoherence of love and action most meaningful for my spiritual growthand life path. I was totally present. I was one with the experience,outside thought.

Each of us can move toward a life experience of unity by comingto reside within the higher order or essence of grace. What stands inour way? One obstacle may be our tendency to view and describe ourexperiences with the attributes of duality. Some examples of dualityare judging life experiences as good or evil, helpful or hindering,right or wrong, strong or weak, and encouraging or discouraging. Ifwe continually view life through the lens of duality or, said anotherway, the extremes of polarity, we will have quite a different lifeexperience than if we imagine specific thoughts and feelings at thecenter or a neutral point along a continuum. We can examine...