• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Acts of Faith

The Value in the Valley

Faith in the Valley

One Day My Soul Just Opened Up

In the Meantime

SIMON & SCHUSTER

Rockefeller Center

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Visit us on the World Wide Web: http://www.SimonSays.com

Copyright © 1998 by Inner Visions Worldwide Network, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SIMON & SCHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

Designed by Bonni Leon-Berman

ISBN 0-684-87382-6

e-ISBN: 978-0-684-87382-4

Excerpts from A Course in Miracles Text: Workbook, and Manual for Teachers, First Edition, used by permission of The Foundation for A Course in Miracles ®: Chapter 1: Workbook, page 351; Chapter 2: Text, page 132; Chapter 8: Text, page 13; Chapter 9: Text, pages 5 and 607; Chapter 10: Text, page 285; Chapter 12: Text, page 244; Chapter 13: Text, page 136; Chapter 14: Workbook, page 213; Text page 11. Excerpt from The Return of the Ragpicker by Og Mandino, copyright © 1992 by Og Mandino.

Acknowledgments

THANK YOU, GOD, “DIVINE MOTHER,” by all the names you are known and called, for all the second chances you have given me, and for never asking me to do anything I was not equipped to do. It is only by your grace, and through your divine mercy, that I have made it this far. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Thank you, God, for spirit in the body that I know and recognize as Blanche Richardson of Marcus Books in Oakland, California. Had you not shown up as Blanche to breathe with me through the process of this birth, I know this project would not have been born with such great joy and love and ease.

Thank you, God, for Terry McMillan, who said yes to what Blanche and I needed.

Thank you, God, for all the Mothering Angels you sent to love me in the most intense hours of my insanity. I thank you for showing up as Elvia Myrie, Wilhelmina Myrie, Tulani Kinard, Roseanne Logan, Stephanie Weaver, Denise DeJean, Linda Beatty-Stevenson, Melba Ramsay-Fernandez, Majorie Battle, the entire Inner Visions team, and of course, Carmen.

Thank you, God, for being a strong shoulder I could rest upon in the bodies of the Reverend Dr. Barbara Lewis King and David Phillips, Ph.D.

Thank you, God, for showing up at Simon & Schuster in the bodies of Christine Saunders, Trish Todd, Sue Fleming, Victoria Meyer, Annik LaFarge, Carolyn Reidy, Marcela Landres, David Rosenthal, Chris Lloreda, and Mark Gompertz.

Thank you, God, for the staff of the Oakland Marriott Hotel for their support throughout the writing of this book.

Thank you, God, for my friend, my lover, my pumpkin, my husband. Thank you, God, for making a way out of no way, and for making me a brand-new instrument.

Thank you, God, for Mahogany, a Division of Hallmark Cards, Inc., who donated the beautiful cover art and supports my work and my vision and helps me spread the message.

This book is dedicated to Ms. Oprah Winfrey, for your “holy boldness” and willingness to demonstrate to the world how to heal in public without losing God’s grace or your own dignity; and to my children, Damon Keith, Gemmia Lynnette, and Nisa Camille for all the yesterdays you cried when I didn’t have enough compassion for myself, or the strength required to wipe your tears; and in loving memory of Sarah Jefferson, my mother, Lynnette May Brown-Harris, my “Mommy” and best friend, Nancy McCullum, my aunt, Ruth Carlos, my first real sister.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

The Beginning

1. What’s the Lesson When You Think You Figured Out the Lesson, and You Really Haven’t?

2. What’s the Lesson When You Are an Unwanted, Neglected, and Abused Child?

3. What’s the Lesson When You Do Not Realize That You Are a Teacher?

4. What’s the Lesson When You Don’t Realize That Life Is a School?

5. What’s the Lesson When You Are Poor, Ugly, and Feeling Bad?

6. What’s the Lesson When You Are Raped as a Child?

7. What’s the Lesson When You’ve Been Taught That You Are