May 22, 2019 by Renee Linnell

So, I’m three weeks into my second book tour and I have to share with you something that keeps coming up: It’s a tiny voice I hear in my thoughts that reminds me, don’t miss this opportunity with this one person. I am beginning to think this book tour is less about me promoting my book on TV, radio, and in stores, and more about the angels God has sent to cross my path.
 
There is so much that is uncomfortable in travel. In fact, isn’t the Old French root of the word “travel” travailler, which means “to work strenuously, toil”? 
There is so much we cannot control. And there is so much liberation in the surrender. Of our time tables. Of our routes. Of our schedule.

I sent an entire box of 28 books to Florida so I wouldn’t have to schelp them on the plane. They got lost. Never made it. And I finally received just the top of the box back in Colorado. (WTF?) But I realized this: 1) I had enough books. The stores ordered enough books and the few I got from my publicist were exactly the right amount of extras. 2) I am tired of dragging around my past. I’m sick of it. In fact, it was making me sick, telling the story over and over again. I have overcome it. I have blossomed. I am now someone new. And I love who I am.
 
I realized I have to start speaking from this new perspective. Stop rehashing the same old shit. Complete the upgrade. You know when you don’t upgrade the software on your phone or computer and they start bogging down and crashing? It is the same. I felt it. I have been feeling it. My message has to change. My voice is now louder and clearer: There is life on the other side of tragedy. There is joy on the other side of brokenness. There is tremendous freedom on the other side of shattered. This is what I want to talk about.
 
So I started off this trip frustrated, annoyed, and so incredibly uncomfortable. I had to drive two hours in a snowstorm because of a blizzard. Then I got delayed so many times I landed at 2am. I accidently booked a hotel in the middle of Fort Lauderdale spring break and ended up with a room on top of thumping music and people doing shots in thongs for breakfast. My books didn’t arrive.

And yet, in the middle of all of that I met a beacon of light. A man on the same plane with the same delays smiling as he swung the ski boots he never got to use back and forth slightly on his shoulders. “Aren’t we privileged?” he said to me as we stood in line for a plane that wasn’t broken, right after we got the news we would be landing at 2am. He had a sparkle in his eyes and a calmness surrounding him. He seemed amused by it all. “I flew out from Florida yesterday to go ski Breckenridge, but they closed the roads so I have to go home.” He found it funny. “What a life we live,” he said.

And in that instant he reminded me of what I already know. Of course I know it. But in my irritation and impatience I forgot: it is an incredible privilege to travel. It is a miracle to be 30,000 feet in the air in a metal tube. It is amazing that so many of us can afford it and do it so regularly.
 
This man instantly raised my vibration from complaining and whining inside my mind to clarity. To joy. To gratitude. Don’t miss this opportunity with this one person, sounded in my head. I continued to talk to him. I told him about my book and about my book tour . . . and he showed up at my book signing five days later.
 
With the hotel housekeeper, with the bookstore owners and managers, with the Uber drivers, don’t miss this opportunity with this one person. With the cashiers, with the flight attendants, with the hotel registration person, don’t miss this opportunity with this one person. I began to notice: earrings, jewelry, eye color, hair color, haircut, clothing choice. All different. All unique. And the joy. The joy in their eyes as I gave them my undivided attention, as I appreciated what they were wearing and what they had to say. The love flowing through. The sparkle. Each interaction a moment to connect. Each interaction a moment to exchange energy.

Somehow Bible sayings pop randomly into my mind, even though I personally resist the Bible and any mention of it. They must be stuffed in some far corner of my brain from my childhood years in Sunday school.  “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” Jesus supposedly said this. I don’t think it’s about Jesus showing up at my door and eating dinner with me. I think it’s about taking the time to notice the God (meaning the Love) inside each person with whom I interact, and in the doing of this, pulling out their True Essence, the Jesus within. And how, when this happens, we both walk away filled up with Love (our souls having been nourished.)
  
In each person the eyes of God. In each person a sparkle and an opportunity to learn. So many people crossing my path. So many wonderful opportunities to love and be loved. 

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