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By Root 856 0

making the changes I thought were necessary in order for Iyanla to emerge. Although I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, I didn’t feel lost or idle. I was spending a great deal of time in prayer and meditation, and a great deal of time with Balé. We talked about everything, and he taught me many things about the duties of a priest. I watched how he handled the people who came to him for counseling. Before long, I too had developed a client base, checking everything first with Balé, including what I said and what I advised the clients. I was very careful to do the necessary follow-up. My satisfied clients always recommended me to their friends. My name and reputation spread pretty quickly, which did not make the other priests in the city very happy. I was stealing their business. I was taking people away from them, and they had been in the priesthood much longer than I had.

One of my clients asked if I would be willing to talk about Yoruba culture on the radio. I was delighted. During the show, I talked about the culture of the people and spiritual philosophy. Most of the callers were interested and receptive. Others were downright angry. They called me a heathen, the “anti-Christ,” and had no problem telling me that I was going to burn in hell. That helped my support base. The host of the show got so many calls, he asked me to be on his show every week. This grew into me sitting in when other hosts were on vacation. Before long I was cohosting a show. The show helped increase my client base, and the clients in turn supported the show. Looking back, I recognize that, thanks to Cody Anderson and the WHAT family in Philadelphia, this was the beginning of my public image and career. Things were moving along great until I lost track of what I was doing.

Doing spiritual work purely to make money is not a good thing. I am not saying that people who do spiritual work for other people should not get paid, but making money cannot be the only reason you do spiritual work for other people. When the unemployment benefits ended, I was doing spiritual work as a means of supporting myself. This means that I accepted clients not because I loved them or the work, but because I needed to pay the rent. I accepted clients who had all kinds of problems not because I could help them, but because I had a child to feed and a daughter in college. It meant that when I was tired or in a bad mood, when I didn’t have time to pray or meditate, I accepted clients. It also meant that when I had no clients, I would panic because I was focused on the money, not on the work. I panicked because the clients had the power and the control. I did not.

Whether you are doing spiritual work for the joy or for the money, you must be very careful that people do not make you responsible for running or ruining their lives. I hadn’t learned that lesson yet. Once you do a counseling session with someone, they believe it is no longer necessary to make their own choices and decisions. Some feel they have a right to call you for every little thing. If you are working for money, they can call you. You talk to them because you are afraid that if you don’t, they won’t call back. One woman I counseled was in a very bad relationship. I tried every way I could to tell her that the man she was seeing had other women, and that she should not bank on marrying him. She wanted me to make him marry her.

“I don’t do that kind of work.”

“Well, do you know somebody who does?”

“No. I don’t. Perhaps you should start seeing other people. Perhaps if he thought he was going to lose you, he would take the relationship more seriously.”

“Well, who should I see?”

“Oh, I’m sure if you put your mind to it, you will meet somebody.”

“Can you ask your shells who I should see?”

“I can only ask a question that can be answered with a yes or no.”

“Well, can you ask if I’ll meet him at work?” Without thinking, I asked the question. The answer was no.

“Can you ask if I’ll meet him on the bus?”

I knew where she was heading, but she was a good client and I didn’t want to upset her. The answer