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Hi, I'm Mark David Gerson. Welcome to Stories and Reflections,
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where my stories are also yours. When I was a kid,
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one of the local TV celebrities, at least for me
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and other kids, was Magic Tom. Magic Tom Tom Auburn
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had a daily show in Montreal CFCFTV that was so
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popular at RANF Drover a decade. He also performed at
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birthday parties at local restaurants, including Piazza Tomaso, a local
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landmark that was a few minutes from our house, and
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despite years of lobbying, I never got to have a
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birthday party at Piazza Tomaso with Magic Tom, although I
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have a vague memory of attending someone else's party there.
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Magic Tom was hugely popular, and not only in Montreal.
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According to magic Pedia, a sort of Wikipedia for all
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things magic, March third, nineteen eighty three was declared Magic
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Tom Auburn Day on Maui in honor of all the
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shows he did on the island, whether were kids or adults.
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There's something about magic that's irresistible, and certainly irresistible to me.
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Maybe that's why one of my all time favorite TV
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shows is still Bewitched with Elizabeth Montgomery. As everyone's favorite
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nose twitching witch. Still, the kind of magic that magic
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Tom did wasn't real. It was illusion. And although Samantha's
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Magic can be Witched was real and TV Land, it
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wasn't real on this side of the picture tube. More's
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the pity. The kind of magic I want to talk
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about here today is real magic, not entertaining illusions, but
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the actual magic that fills our lives every day when
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we're open to it. Miracles too, because because miracles are
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also a kind of magic, I have lots of stories
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about the magic and miracles have experienced in my life life,
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so many, in fact, that one of my too many
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book projects in progress is a memoir style book of
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those stories. It even has a title, A Lifetime of Miracles,
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a Memoir of Magic and Manifestation. It has a working
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cover too, which you can see on the screen if
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you're watching this on video. I've shot the image for
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the cover in Pismo Beach, California, at a spot hugely
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popular with Pelicans. Why Pelicans, because in some traditions, Pelicans
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remind us that we're always supported no matter what challenges
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we face. Pelicans can even be seen as guardian angels
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of the sort. In other words, pelicans can be carriers
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of a certain kind of magic and generators of certain
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kinds of miracles. Although I've already written about thirteen thousand
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words on a lifetime of miracles, I have so many
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book projects queued up right now that it'll take a
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whole lot of magic and miracles and not to mention,
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bunches of flocks of pelicans to get through them all,
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especially when you consider that new book projects keep being
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added to the list. For now, let's just say that
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I've experienced so much magic and so many miracles that
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it was hard to know which to share with you today.
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So for today I've chosen three, or rather three have
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pushed their way to the front of today's storytelling Q,
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which tells me that I'm probably sharing them as much
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for me as for you, And to be honest, that's
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probably true of all those stories I share with you here.
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So today's first story goes back to Maui about eighteen
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years after Magic Tom Auburn Day, so probably two around
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two thousand and one. If you were here for Stories
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and Reflections twenty five, you'll remember that I talked about
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our three and a half years in Hawaii as having
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been a trial by fire well, Maui was particularly challenging.
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Even though I hated my jobs on the Big Island,
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mostly time share related, those jobs did in the end
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support us financially more or less. Maui, though, was different.
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Remember Alice and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and
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how at one point she and the Red Queen are
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running as quickly as they can, but the scene we
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never changes. As the Red Queen explains it, it takes
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all the running you can do to keep in the
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same place. That's what it felt like on Maui. Only
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on Maui, the running alone would never have done the trick.
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Even with their running. It took a whole bunch of
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magic and a whole lot of miracles to keep us
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from falling farther and farther behind. One day, a check
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for eighty dollars arrived in the mail just when we
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needed it, and although it was made out to me,
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we never did figure out who was from or what
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it was for. We were just grateful for the magical bailout.
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Another day, I was driving a taxi. At the time
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it was an aging mud brown Ford aerostar held together
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with prayers and ductate a customer topped up a sixty
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dollars fare with a forty dollars tip. But my real
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first story involves Alberta, not the Canadian province, but a
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guardian angel very much in the Pelican Mold. Alberta worked
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for Northwest, a finance company that later merged with Wells Fargo.
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I say Alberta worked for Northwest, but to this day,
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I'm not absolutely certain that that's true. I'm not even
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certain that Alberta was real. The day we met her,
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this was on Maui at the Kahului branch of Northwest,
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and my wife and I were there hoping to catch
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one of those unsolicited loan checks to get in the mail.
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Those are the ones of the fine print always says
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something like subject to credit approval. Ours. I think was
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for fifteen hundred dollars, which went a lot further twenty
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five years ago than does today. Whatever the amount we
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definitely needed it, we knew credit approval was probably a
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long shot. That's because although my credit had been perfect
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when we landed in Hawaii two years earlier, it was
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far from perfect now. Very far as you walked into
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the branch, we were welcomed effusively by a heavy set
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woman with a warm, genuine smile. Her name was Alberta,
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she said. When I showed her the check, she ushered
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us to her cubicle. I don't think Alberta ever stopped
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smiling the whole time we were there. But when we left,
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we were the one smiling. Somehow the loan had been approved. Yes,
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that was magic, welcome, magic, amazing magic. But that's not
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quite the magic I'm talking about, not exactly, because we
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made our monthly loan payments at the last minute. We
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were always making those payments in person at the Northwest branch, always,
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and in all those months, we never saw Alberta again,
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never moreover, no one at that branch was ever even
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remotely friendly, and no one even smiled. No one had
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Alberta quit, had she been fired, had she ever really
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been there beyond the hour or so we spent with her.
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You tell me, I think about Alberta a lot, especially
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when I'm going through rough financial times. She's a constant
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reminder of the magic that ensures that I'm always taken
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care of, even when the situation looks hopeless. And whenever
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I do think about Alberta. I remember the CBS drama
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Touched by an Angel that was on the air at
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that time. If you don't know, the show, Touched by
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an Angel was about a trio of angels who travel
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the earth, helping and inspiring people who have no idea
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that their benefactors are angels. Alberta was definitely an angel,
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earthly or heavenly, it doesn't matter. So that's my first
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magic story. For the next story, we jump ahead a
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few years to Fall twenty seventeen. For my birthday that year,
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I decided to take a short road trip from Albuquerque
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to Saint Louis in my brand new Toyota Prius. Now,
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the story of how I got that car involves a
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whole bunch more magic, but that isn't the story. This
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story starts in Saint Louis at the Gateway Arch, which
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from the very first time I experienced it back in
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late two thousand and five, always felt like some kind
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of spiritual portal, as though passing under it would be
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an act of transformation that that triggered a major shift.
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I transitioned from one chapter of my life to another.
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A Gateway. Now, that wasn't why I went to Saint
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Louis for my birthday. Yet once there, I wanted to
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experience the arch on my birthday. That's because my birthday
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and the months leading up to it have so often
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heralded some sort of life change for me. To be honest,
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I didn't have any strong sense of shift when I
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walked under the arch that day day, but the Gateway
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Arch definitely delivered its gateway a few days later on
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the drive back to Albuquerque, as I drove southwest out
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of Saint Louis through green, rolling countryside, a landscape with
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a kind of trees and vegetation I hadn't experienced in
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over a decade, and a landscape that reminded me somewhat
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of where I lived in Canada. I suddenly felt done
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with a desert except for my rainforest months on the
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Big Island. I'd lived in desert or desert like surroundings
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my entire time in the US, and it was time
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for a change. It was time to lead the dark,
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monastic beauty of the Southwest, and after much meditation and
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tuning into inner guidance, I opted for the lush luxuriance
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of the Pacific Northwest. It would be a leap of faith.
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My biggest yet, a fifteen hundred mile leap to Portland,
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a city I didn't know, and it would be a
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leap without the safety net of savings, prospects, friends, or
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f emily. Within weeks of having made my decision to leave,
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a friend pressed a thousand dollar check into my hands.
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She had made her own leap of faith move some
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years earlier, she explained, and she'd been helped in similar fashion.
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That was the next miracle. Soon after I set my
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departure date, yet I still didn't know where I was
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going to land. Would I have to stay in a
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hotel at the other end while I figured out what
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to do and where to do it? And what would
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I do with my belongings. I didn't have much, but
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it wouldn't all fit into the prius, and once in Portland,
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would all have to go into storage while I sorted
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myself out. Before I could seriously address those questions, more
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magic kicked in an offer of a month's house sitting
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in Portland. Of course I accepted. About a month later,
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as my house sitting gig was just about done and
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I realized I still didn't have the resources to rent
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an apartment. The folks I was house sitting for invited
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me to rent my room and stay on. Another miracle.
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Eventually I was able to rent a terrific condo of
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my own and do it in the Portland neighborhood. I'd
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fallen in love with the downtown adjacent Pearl district. I've
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mentioned in several past episodes how the bottom ultimately fell
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out of my finances and how I had to leave
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Portland and embark on the open ended road journey I
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described in my memoir Pilgrimage a fool's journey. On the surface,
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that odyssey didn't feel at all magical. I often didn't
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know from one day to the next Hi I would
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pay for another night's accommodation or another tank full of gas.
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But even if it didn't feel magical, it was filled
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with magic because somehow I always managed to make it
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from one day to the next. So this next story
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isn't about those three months, as much as there was
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lots of magic in those three months, It's about how
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that journey ended. So it's Whendnesday, August twenty eighth, twenty nineteen,
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my ninety third day on the road since leaving Portland,
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since Portland kicked me out. I'm back in Sedonia for
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the weekend, just for the weekend. I have no way
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to stay beyond the weekend. I have no reason to
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stay beyond the weekend. And I'm here only because a
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local friend has arranged for me to give a writing
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workshop at the Literate Lizard, the local independent bookstore, and
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she's also arranged a place for me to stay, but
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only for the weekend. Tonight I'll design a flyer for
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the workshop, and tomorrow I'll take my laptop to my
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friends so she can print copies for me. So it's
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now the next morning, Thursday morning, early, I'm on a
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meditative hike with my dog Kiri, and the soldiers passed
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trail at the northern edge of town. This trail and
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I have a history. Twenty two years ago, on a
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similar hike with a different dog, I was powerfully guided
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to not drive up to the Canadian border to reach Throught.
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The clock on my six month visitor privileges. Spirit knows
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immigration law. I heard Spirit, as it turned out, did,
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and it knew a whole lot more than that. Four
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months later, I fell in love with an American and
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a month after that we got married, suddenly making me
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eligible for a Green card. By the way, eligible did
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not mean easy. The journey to a Green card turned
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out to be a pretty rocky one. But I did
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end up with a Green card and one of Portland's
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many gifts to me during my time there would be
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my US citizenship. But that was then. Now I'm back
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in Sedona, having lived here twice and left here twice,
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and as Kirie and I clamber up the Red Rock
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trail at Soldiers Pass, I'm overcome by a profound sadness.
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My sadness has nothing to do with yesterday's return to town.
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It has everything to do with those two departures, the
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first when my wife and I I left for Hawaii
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in nineteen ninety eight, the second when our marriage broke
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up in two thousand and four. Although at the time
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I experienced the full emotional impact of the life events
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that pushed me out of Sedona, until now, I've never
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given myself permission to acknowledge how wrenching those leap takings were.
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Suddenly I'm overcome by all the grief I had buried
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each time I walked away from Sedona, walked away, driven
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away from the spiritual oasis that the land here has
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always been for me. With each exodus, it was as
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though a part of my soul had been ripped out.
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At the time, I couldn't let myself feel all that.
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How could I When on each of those occasions it
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was powerfully important. I knew it was powerfully important for
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me to move on, for me to leave Sodona behind,
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I couldn't. This morning, finally I allow myself to touch
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that anguish, and once I do, I'm forced to face
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a wall of resistance. I haven't acknowledged a resistance to
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staying here beyond this weekend, to landing in Madona again,
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to landing in Sodonah for a third time. Thing is
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I don't want to have to feel that grief again.
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And then I hear this question from deep, deep within,
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from that innermost place I call my wisest self, goes
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like this, are you prepared to surrender fully to Sedona
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now knowing you might have to leave again? I desperately
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want to say no. How can I say yes and
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face that heartbreak again? A heartbreak I now know to
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have been nearly as intense as the one I felt
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when my marriage ended. I hesitate. I know I have
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to say yes. I know it, but I still won't answer.
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I'm hoping again against hope, that in waiting the question
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will change it. I'll be encouraged to stay without the
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probability of having to leave again at a future date.
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In the end, though, as I always do, I surrender.
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I will stay, I say aloud to that wisest part
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of myself and the numinous red rocks around me. I
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will stay and make this my home again for as
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long as it needs to be my home, and when
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the time comes, if the time comes, I will move
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on to whatever is next for me on this journey,
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wherever that is. Less than an hour later, I'm leaving
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my friends clutching a stack of workshop flyers, and as
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I get to my car, I declare again out loud,
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if I'm to stay in Sedona, I need a place
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to live. Within seconds, my phone pings to an incoming text.
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It's from a long time Sedona friend, one of the
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first people I met when I got here in nineteen
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ninety seven. I have manifested an amazing place for you
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to stay, I read. Clients of hers, she does dolphin
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energy work, have had to call off their trip to
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Sedona too late to cancel their booking at a local timeshare.
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The unit, she writes, is mine for the next three weeks,
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starting tomorrow. If I want it better still, it's free.
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Do I want it? Hell? Yes? Sedona's magic didn't end there.
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Over the next three and a half years, through all
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the turbulence and upheaval of COVID, Sedona kept finding me
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places to live, until, of course, my twenty nineteen fears
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came to fruition and it was time to leave again.
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Now today, as I shared in Stories and Reflections twenty seven,
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it seems it's time to return. I didn't share this
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in episode twenty seven, but I had some of the
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same initial resistance this time as I did in twenty nineteen.
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In other words, I was reluctant to surrender to this
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new call without a guarantee that I wouldn't have to
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leave a fourth time. Of course, no guarantee was forthcoming Spirit,
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higher self, higher consciousness, God, the universe, and the Great Pumpkin,
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whatever you choose to call it. Doesn't work that way anyhow,
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Just like in twenty nineteen, I have no idea how
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returned to Sedona as possible, and maybe that's the reason
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I've needed to revisit those stories this week to remind
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me of the magic and miracles that have always surrounded me,
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and maybe also to remind me of those particular miracles.
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I talk about magic and miracles a lot in two
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of my Way of the Fool books, And here's how
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I open the Way the Fools step number eleven, which
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is which is called embrace. The magic miracles are at
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hand in every moment of every day. It's our limited
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vision that prevents us from seeing them. It's our limited
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sense of what is possible that prevents us from believing
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in them. It's our fear that prevents us from embracing them.
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How do we attract more magic and miracles into our
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lives by opening our eyes, hearts, and minds in awe
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and gratitude to the abundant miracles already magically present, From
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the miracles of breath, of laughter, of love, of life,
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to the magic of a flower, a rainbow, a sea scape,
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a sunrise, to the miracles of serendipity, synchronicity, wonder connection.
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It's not about expecting miracles to show up. Expectation takes
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us out of the now moment. Rather, it's about acknowledging
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what is already abundantly present in our field division. For
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it is our openness to everyday miracles that see the
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exceptional ones. And it's the exceptional ones that remind us
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that on the way of the fool, the impossible is
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always possible. And here's the affirmation style declaration that concludes,
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let miracles find you. It's another step number eleven, but
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this time it's in the way of the abundant full.
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I'll say it slowly, phrase by phrase, so you can
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repeat it after me. But if you're watching on video,
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I'll put the words up on the screen. I your name,
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so insert your name there. I your name, step into
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that magical realm where everything is possible and where miracles
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occur with each breath. And so it is again, I
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your name, step into that magical realm where everything is
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possible and where miracles occur with each breath. And so
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it is Sit with that for a moment, and maybe
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commit to making that the affirmation you start each day with.
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I your name, step into the magical realm where everything
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is possible and where miracles occur with each breath. And
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so it is one final quote for today, this one
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from my novel The moon quest. Once you let yourself
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dream the impossible, the impossible will come to pass. Once
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you will let yourself dream the impossible, the impossible will
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come to pass. So take a moment now with me
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to dream the impossible as you embrace the magic that's
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out there, always available to you, waiting for you to
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acknowledge it, waiting for you to invite it into your life.
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It's ready for you. Are you ready for it? Thanks
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for joining me for stories and reflections today. I hope
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you found moments in my stories that touch something in yours.
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If you haven't already, be sure of subscribes you don't
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miss future episodes, and for more of my stories and
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help telling yours, check out my books at Mark Davidgerson
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dot com or from online booksellers worldwide. Until next time,
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don't forget that you're a storyteller too, and keep telling
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your stories. The intro adutro music for today's episode is
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Heartwarming by Kevin McLoud from incompatac dot com, licensed under
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creative Comments.
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Hi, I'm Mark David Gerson. Welcome to Stories and Reflections,
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where my stories are also yours. When I was a kid,
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one of the local TV celebrities, at least for me
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and other kids, was Magic Tom. Magic Tom Tom Auburn
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had a daily show in Montreal CFCFTV that was so
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popular at RANF Drover a decade. He also performed at
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birthday parties at local restaurants, including Piazza Tomaso, a local
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landmark that was a few minutes from our house, and
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despite years of lobbying, I never got to have a
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birthday party at Piazza Tomaso with Magic Tom, although I
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have a vague memory of attending someone else's party there.
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Magic Tom was hugely popular, and not only in Montreal.
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According to magic Pedia, a sort of Wikipedia for all
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things magic, March third, nineteen eighty three was declared Magic
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Tom Auburn Day on Maui in honor of all the
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shows he did on the island, whether were kids or adults.
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There's something about magic that's irresistible, and certainly irresistible to me.
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Maybe that's why one of my all time favorite TV
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shows is still Bewitched with Elizabeth Montgomery. As everyone's favorite
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nose twitching witch. Still, the kind of magic that magic
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Tom did wasn't real. It was illusion. And although Samantha's
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Magic can be Witched was real and TV Land, it
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wasn't real on this side of the picture tube. More's
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the pity. The kind of magic I want to talk
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about here today is real magic, not entertaining illusions, but
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the actual magic that fills our lives every day when
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we're open to it. Miracles too, because because miracles are
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also a kind of magic, I have lots of stories
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about the magic and miracles have experienced in my life life,
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so many, in fact, that one of my too many
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book projects in progress is a memoir style book of
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those stories. It even has a title, A Lifetime of Miracles,
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a Memoir of Magic and Manifestation. It has a working
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cover too, which you can see on the screen if
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you're watching this on video. I've shot the image for
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the cover in Pismo Beach, California, at a spot hugely
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popular with Pelicans. Why Pelicans, because in some traditions, Pelicans
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remind us that we're always supported no matter what challenges
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we face. Pelicans can even be seen as guardian angels
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of the sort. In other words, pelicans can be carriers
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of a certain kind of magic and generators of certain
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kinds of miracles. Although I've already written about thirteen thousand
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words on a lifetime of miracles, I have so many
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book projects queued up right now that it'll take a
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whole lot of magic and miracles and not to mention,
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bunches of flocks of pelicans to get through them all,
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especially when you consider that new book projects keep being
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added to the list. For now, let's just say that
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I've experienced so much magic and so many miracles that
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it was hard to know which to share with you today.
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So for today I've chosen three, or rather three have
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pushed their way to the front of today's storytelling Q,
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which tells me that I'm probably sharing them as much
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for me as for you, And to be honest, that's
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probably true of all those stories I share with you here.
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So today's first story goes back to Maui about eighteen
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years after Magic Tom Auburn Day, so probably two around
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two thousand and one. If you were here for Stories
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and Reflections twenty five, you'll remember that I talked about
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our three and a half years in Hawaii as having
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been a trial by fire well, Maui was particularly challenging.
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Even though I hated my jobs on the Big Island,
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mostly time share related, those jobs did in the end
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support us financially more or less. Maui, though, was different.
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Remember Alice and Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass and
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how at one point she and the Red Queen are
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running as quickly as they can, but the scene we
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never changes. As the Red Queen explains it, it takes
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all the running you can do to keep in the
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same place. That's what it felt like on Maui. Only
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on Maui, the running alone would never have done the trick.
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Even with their running. It took a whole bunch of
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magic and a whole lot of miracles to keep us
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from falling farther and farther behind. One day, a check
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for eighty dollars arrived in the mail just when we
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needed it, and although it was made out to me,
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we never did figure out who was from or what
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it was for. We were just grateful for the magical bailout.
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Another day, I was driving a taxi. At the time
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it was an aging mud brown Ford aerostar held together
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with prayers and ductate a customer topped up a sixty
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dollars fare with a forty dollars tip. But my real
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first story involves Alberta, not the Canadian province, but a
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guardian angel very much in the Pelican Mold. Alberta worked
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for Northwest, a finance company that later merged with Wells Fargo.
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I say Alberta worked for Northwest, but to this day,
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I'm not absolutely certain that that's true. I'm not even
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certain that Alberta was real. The day we met her,
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this was on Maui at the Kahului branch of Northwest,
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and my wife and I were there hoping to catch
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one of those unsolicited loan checks to get in the mail.
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Those are the ones of the fine print always says
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something like subject to credit approval. Ours. I think was
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for fifteen hundred dollars, which went a lot further twenty
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five years ago than does today. Whatever the amount we
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definitely needed it, we knew credit approval was probably a
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long shot. That's because although my credit had been perfect
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when we landed in Hawaii two years earlier, it was
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far from perfect now. Very far as you walked into
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the branch, we were welcomed effusively by a heavy set
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woman with a warm, genuine smile. Her name was Alberta,
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she said. When I showed her the check, she ushered
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us to her cubicle. I don't think Alberta ever stopped
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smiling the whole time we were there. But when we left,
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we were the one smiling. Somehow the loan had been approved. Yes,
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that was magic, welcome, magic, amazing magic. But that's not
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quite the magic I'm talking about, not exactly, because we
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made our monthly loan payments at the last minute. We
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were always making those payments in person at the Northwest branch, always,
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and in all those months, we never saw Alberta again,
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never moreover, no one at that branch was ever even
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remotely friendly, and no one even smiled. No one had
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Alberta quit, had she been fired, had she ever really
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been there beyond the hour or so we spent with her.
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You tell me, I think about Alberta a lot, especially
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when I'm going through rough financial times. She's a constant
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reminder of the magic that ensures that I'm always taken
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care of, even when the situation looks hopeless. And whenever
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I do think about Alberta. I remember the CBS drama
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Touched by an Angel that was on the air at
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that time. If you don't know, the show, Touched by
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an Angel was about a trio of angels who travel
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the earth, helping and inspiring people who have no idea
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that their benefactors are angels. Alberta was definitely an angel,
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earthly or heavenly, it doesn't matter. So that's my first
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magic story. For the next story, we jump ahead a
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few years to Fall twenty seventeen. For my birthday that year,
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I decided to take a short road trip from Albuquerque
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to Saint Louis in my brand new Toyota Prius. Now,
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the story of how I got that car involves a
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whole bunch more magic, but that isn't the story. This
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story starts in Saint Louis at the Gateway Arch, which
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from the very first time I experienced it back in
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late two thousand and five, always felt like some kind
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of spiritual portal, as though passing under it would be
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an act of transformation that that triggered a major shift.
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I transitioned from one chapter of my life to another.
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A Gateway. Now, that wasn't why I went to Saint
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Louis for my birthday. Yet once there, I wanted to
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experience the arch on my birthday. That's because my birthday
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and the months leading up to it have so often
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heralded some sort of life change for me. To be honest,
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I didn't have any strong sense of shift when I
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walked under the arch that day day, but the Gateway
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Arch definitely delivered its gateway a few days later on
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the drive back to Albuquerque, as I drove southwest out
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of Saint Louis through green, rolling countryside, a landscape with
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a kind of trees and vegetation I hadn't experienced in
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over a decade, and a landscape that reminded me somewhat
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of where I lived in Canada. I suddenly felt done
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with a desert except for my rainforest months on the
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Big Island. I'd lived in desert or desert like surroundings
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my entire time in the US, and it was time
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for a change. It was time to lead the dark,
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monastic beauty of the Southwest, and after much meditation and
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tuning into inner guidance, I opted for the lush luxuriance
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of the Pacific Northwest. It would be a leap of faith.
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My biggest yet, a fifteen hundred mile leap to Portland,
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a city I didn't know, and it would be a
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leap without the safety net of savings, prospects, friends, or
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f emily. Within weeks of having made my decision to leave,
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a friend pressed a thousand dollar check into my hands.
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She had made her own leap of faith move some
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years earlier, she explained, and she'd been helped in similar fashion.
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That was the next miracle. Soon after I set my
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departure date, yet I still didn't know where I was
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going to land. Would I have to stay in a
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hotel at the other end while I figured out what
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to do and where to do it? And what would
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I do with my belongings. I didn't have much, but
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it wouldn't all fit into the prius, and once in Portland,
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would all have to go into storage while I sorted
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myself out. Before I could seriously address those questions, more
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magic kicked in an offer of a month's house sitting
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in Portland. Of course I accepted. About a month later,
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as my house sitting gig was just about done and
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I realized I still didn't have the resources to rent
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an apartment. The folks I was house sitting for invited
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me to rent my room and stay on. Another miracle.
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Eventually I was able to rent a terrific condo of
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my own and do it in the Portland neighborhood. I'd
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fallen in love with the downtown adjacent Pearl district. I've
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mentioned in several past episodes how the bottom ultimately fell
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out of my finances and how I had to leave
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Portland and embark on the open ended road journey I
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described in my memoir Pilgrimage a fool's journey. On the surface,
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that odyssey didn't feel at all magical. I often didn't
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know from one day to the next Hi I would
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pay for another night's accommodation or another tank full of gas.
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But even if it didn't feel magical, it was filled
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with magic because somehow I always managed to make it
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from one day to the next. So this next story
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isn't about those three months, as much as there was
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lots of magic in those three months, It's about how
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that journey ended. So it's Whendnesday, August twenty eighth, twenty nineteen,
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my ninety third day on the road since leaving Portland,
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since Portland kicked me out. I'm back in Sedonia for
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the weekend, just for the weekend. I have no way
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to stay beyond the weekend. I have no reason to
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stay beyond the weekend. And I'm here only because a
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local friend has arranged for me to give a writing
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workshop at the Literate Lizard, the local independent bookstore, and
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she's also arranged a place for me to stay, but
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only for the weekend. Tonight I'll design a flyer for
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the workshop, and tomorrow I'll take my laptop to my
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friends so she can print copies for me. So it's
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now the next morning, Thursday morning, early, I'm on a
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meditative hike with my dog Kiri, and the soldiers passed
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trail at the northern edge of town. This trail and
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I have a history. Twenty two years ago, on a
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similar hike with a different dog, I was powerfully guided
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to not drive up to the Canadian border to reach Throught.
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The clock on my six month visitor privileges. Spirit knows
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immigration law. I heard Spirit, as it turned out, did,
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and it knew a whole lot more than that. Four
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months later, I fell in love with an American and
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a month after that we got married, suddenly making me
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eligible for a Green card. By the way, eligible did
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not mean easy. The journey to a Green card turned
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out to be a pretty rocky one. But I did
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end up with a Green card and one of Portland's
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many gifts to me during my time there would be
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my US citizenship. But that was then. Now I'm back
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in Sedona, having lived here twice and left here twice,
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and as Kirie and I clamber up the Red Rock
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trail at Soldiers Pass, I'm overcome by a profound sadness.
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My sadness has nothing to do with yesterday's return to town.
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It has everything to do with those two departures, the
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first when my wife and I I left for Hawaii
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in nineteen ninety eight, the second when our marriage broke
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up in two thousand and four. Although at the time
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I experienced the full emotional impact of the life events
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that pushed me out of Sedona, until now, I've never
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given myself permission to acknowledge how wrenching those leap takings were.
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Suddenly I'm overcome by all the grief I had buried
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each time I walked away from Sedona, walked away, driven
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away from the spiritual oasis that the land here has
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always been for me. With each exodus, it was as
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though a part of my soul had been ripped out.
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At the time, I couldn't let myself feel all that.
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How could I When on each of those occasions it
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was powerfully important. I knew it was powerfully important for
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me to move on, for me to leave Sodona behind,
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I couldn't. This morning, finally I allow myself to touch
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that anguish, and once I do, I'm forced to face
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a wall of resistance. I haven't acknowledged a resistance to
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staying here beyond this weekend, to landing in Madona again,
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to landing in Sodonah for a third time. Thing is
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I don't want to have to feel that grief again.
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And then I hear this question from deep, deep within,
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from that innermost place I call my wisest self, goes
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like this, are you prepared to surrender fully to Sedona
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now knowing you might have to leave again? I desperately
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want to say no. How can I say yes and
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face that heartbreak again? A heartbreak I now know to
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have been nearly as intense as the one I felt
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when my marriage ended. I hesitate. I know I have
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to say yes. I know it, but I still won't answer.
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I'm hoping again against hope, that in waiting the question
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will change it. I'll be encouraged to stay without the
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probability of having to leave again at a future date.
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In the end, though, as I always do, I surrender.
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I will stay, I say aloud to that wisest part
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of myself and the numinous red rocks around me. I
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will stay and make this my home again for as
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long as it needs to be my home, and when
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the time comes, if the time comes, I will move
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on to whatever is next for me on this journey,
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wherever that is. Less than an hour later, I'm leaving
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my friends clutching a stack of workshop flyers, and as
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I get to my car, I declare again out loud,
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if I'm to stay in Sedona, I need a place
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to live. Within seconds, my phone pings to an incoming text.
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It's from a long time Sedona friend, one of the
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first people I met when I got here in nineteen
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ninety seven. I have manifested an amazing place for you
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to stay, I read. Clients of hers, she does dolphin
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energy work, have had to call off their trip to
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Sedona too late to cancel their booking at a local timeshare.
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The unit, she writes, is mine for the next three weeks,
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starting tomorrow. If I want it better still, it's free.
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Do I want it? Hell? Yes? Sedona's magic didn't end there.
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Over the next three and a half years, through all
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the turbulence and upheaval of COVID, Sedona kept finding me
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places to live, until, of course, my twenty nineteen fears
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came to fruition and it was time to leave again.
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Now today, as I shared in Stories and Reflections twenty seven,
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it seems it's time to return. I didn't share this
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in episode twenty seven, but I had some of the
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same initial resistance this time as I did in twenty nineteen.
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In other words, I was reluctant to surrender to this
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new call without a guarantee that I wouldn't have to
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leave a fourth time. Of course, no guarantee was forthcoming Spirit,
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higher self, higher consciousness, God, the universe, and the Great Pumpkin,
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whatever you choose to call it. Doesn't work that way anyhow,
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Just like in twenty nineteen, I have no idea how
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returned to Sedona as possible, and maybe that's the reason
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I've needed to revisit those stories this week to remind
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me of the magic and miracles that have always surrounded me,
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and maybe also to remind me of those particular miracles.
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I talk about magic and miracles a lot in two
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of my Way of the Fool books, And here's how
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I open the Way the Fools step number eleven, which
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is which is called embrace. The magic miracles are at
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hand in every moment of every day. It's our limited
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vision that prevents us from seeing them. It's our limited
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sense of what is possible that prevents us from believing
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in them. It's our fear that prevents us from embracing them.
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How do we attract more magic and miracles into our
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lives by opening our eyes, hearts, and minds in awe
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and gratitude to the abundant miracles already magically present, From
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the miracles of breath, of laughter, of love, of life,
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to the magic of a flower, a rainbow, a sea scape,
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a sunrise, to the miracles of serendipity, synchronicity, wonder connection.
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It's not about expecting miracles to show up. Expectation takes
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us out of the now moment. Rather, it's about acknowledging
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what is already abundantly present in our field division. For
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it is our openness to everyday miracles that see the
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exceptional ones. And it's the exceptional ones that remind us
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that on the way of the fool, the impossible is
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always possible. And here's the affirmation style declaration that concludes,
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let miracles find you. It's another step number eleven, but
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this time it's in the way of the abundant full.
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I'll say it slowly, phrase by phrase, so you can
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repeat it after me. But if you're watching on video,
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I'll put the words up on the screen. I your name,
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so insert your name there. I your name, step into
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that magical realm where everything is possible and where miracles
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occur with each breath. And so it is again, I
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your name, step into that magical realm where everything is
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possible and where miracles occur with each breath. And so
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it is Sit with that for a moment, and maybe
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commit to making that the affirmation you start each day with.
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I your name, step into the magical realm where everything
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is possible and where miracles occur with each breath. And
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so it is one final quote for today, this one
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from my novel The moon quest. Once you let yourself
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dream the impossible, the impossible will come to pass. Once
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you will let yourself dream the impossible, the impossible will
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come to pass. So take a moment now with me
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to dream the impossible as you embrace the magic that's
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out there, always available to you, waiting for you to
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acknowledge it, waiting for you to invite it into your life.
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It's ready for you. Are you ready for it? Thanks
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for joining me for stories and reflections today. I hope
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you found moments in my stories that touch something in yours.
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If you haven't already, be sure of subscribes you don't
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miss future episodes, and for more of my stories and
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help telling yours, check out my books at Mark Davidgerson
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dot com or from online booksellers worldwide. Until next time,
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don't forget that you're a storyteller too, and keep telling
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your stories. The intro adutro music for today's episode is
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Heartwarming by Kevin McLoud from incompatac dot com, licensed under
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creative Comments.
