To enter for your chance to win one of five copies of God’s Love is a Two Way Street by Peter Brooks, simply email me at OyeJohn52@aol.com before 11:59 PM EST tonight and write GIVEAWAY in the subject line. (The winners will be notified tomorrow.) In addition, please continue to leave your comments (excluding email address) below, as the authors and I truly appreciate reading them. And don’t forget to subscribe to Hartford Books Examiner—by doing so, you will receive email notifications when each new entry in the Holiday Book Giveaway Extravaganza is posted.
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Today, Hartford Books Examiner welcomes Peter Brooks.
The Hartford Spirituality Examiner for Examiner.com, Peter Brooks has over thirty-five years of experience in spiritual training as a member of Eckankar, the Religion of the Light and Sound of God. He has worked extensively as a speaker, workshop facilitator, and teacher, covering a wide variety of topics that have included, but are not limited to, dreams, soul travel experiences, spiritual growth and transformation, self-realization, past lives, prayer, and meditation. A former executive in the fields of banking, non-profit agencies, and internal corporate consulting, he enjoys photography, music, animals, writing, and exploring (and learning from) everything that life has to offer.
God’s Love is a Two Way Street is a collection of short retrospective essays in which Peter draws upon the life experiences that have helped to shape who he is today--even if he didn’t realize it at the time. Some are poignant and some are funny, but each teaches a valuable lesson about the resiliency of the human spirit and the importance of faith. Forthright but never preachy, the author asks only that readers keep an open mind as they journey along with him through the everyday moments that hold invaluable opportunities for learning.
As one reader wrote, "Each story in this book gives a practical example of how to learn through life's experiences no matter how difficult or baffling. Whether it's coming to terms with death as in "The Gift of the Dancing Hawks," understanding when to change jobs such as in "Knowing When It's Time to Move On," or in the utter beauty of unexpected generosity in "How the Gift of an Endowed Bed Took the Financial Heat Off," each true life story demonstrates how an open viewpoint helped Peter have a better handle on life and led him to discover certain keys. If Peter can do it, so can you. This is what a self-help book is meant to do."
Now, Peter offers two stories from God’s Love is a Two Way Street…
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The Gift of the Dancing Hawks
I dropped by my brother's home one afternoon just to say hello to the family. My brother was not there at the time, only my sister-in-law and my niece.
The three of us were sharing some light chatter when my sister-in-law suddenly announced she no longer wanted any further connection between her family and my wife and myself.
I was stunned by her words. Her reasons for the split were rather flimsy, but I chose not to challenge her.
And so my brother and I were never to speak again. It was not out of anger or spite, but simply that there had to be a silence between us. His silence toward me was an indication he was in agreement with the separation.
I finally figured out what the real reason was – my brother and I had fulfilled our karmic relationship with one another. Inwardly, there was always the bond of love between us. Now he had to work on his family issues. My presence would have just complicated the situation.
Several years after the separation, I received a phone call from my sister-in-law one evening. She wanted me to know that my brother had passed away the night before. The message was of no surprise, as I knew something was happening with him, and the phone call confirmed it.
She explained my brother had just gone through hip surgery. The surgery was a success, but a blood clot had formed in his body and passed through his arteries, causing a fatal heart attack.
She invited my wife and me to attend a memorial service that following Saturday.
I offered my condolences and thanked her for letting us know about the memorial service.
The day of the service, we arrived early at the church. After pulling into a parking space, we decided to sit in the car and quietly reflect on my brother and his life while awaiting the arrival of the family and invited guests.
It was a cloudy, chilly day. The air was still and misty, as it had been on our drive from home.
Hawks are rarely seen flying in such weather conditions.
What happened next would turn out to be a very sacred moment for the two of us to share.
We were looking at the sky through the windshield of the car when twelve or fifteen hawks suddenly appeared out of nowhere. As they surrounded the car, they formed a group that turned into a very unusual sky dance.
The hawks remained close to us, flying in a tight spiraling circle of two to three birds, each flying at varying levels. Around and around they flew, never more than fifty feet above the car. This incredible dance continued on for about twenty minutes. The dance ended as abruptly as it had begun, just at the very moment guests were beginning to arrive at the church.
The dance was a special celebration of my brother’s new life and his way of saying goodbye. We felt the inner joy he was experiencing at the new home he had found in the world beyond, knowing he was moving onto something greater than what he had experienced here. And the experience of hawks dancing brought closure to my relationship with my brother, and we now could both move on as life intended.
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How to Handle a Bat in the Rafters When You Can't Stand Being with A Mouse
I had finished a two-week vacation with my wife one summer, leaving on a Sunday to prepare for work the next day.
She would have a final week to work on her art.
I had no sooner left than her day would turn a little “batty.”
We had rented a cottage in the woods. Living in the woods means sharing it with a variety of wildlife of all sizes and shapes and getting used to it.
That evening she went outside to take a shower. She left the door open as she always would, and there had never been a problem doing that. This one evening it became an open invitation for a bat to fly inside the cottage while my wife's back was turned.
And so it did.
After taking the shower, she went back inside the cottage, closing the door behind her, leaving no escape route for the bat. If my wife had known what had happened, she would not have gone back inside, naked or not.
Where was the bat to go? The mystery started to unfold later in the evening.
My wife was watching television in the living room and felt a presence. It was as if something was watching her.
The presence became stronger and it seemed to be coming from the rafters in the ceiling.
She looked up, where to her surprise, she saw a bat clinging to the rafters, staring at her with its beady little eyes.
And so my wife stared back at the bat. And so it went, staring back and forth, until my wife realized this staring back and forth was not going to solve the problem.
She thought, “What do I do now?” I wasn't there to help out, nor was anybody else. It was only the bat and my wife.
She called me up, knowing I could not do anything for her. I was three hours away, not including a boat ride to the island where the cabin was.
She started yelling at me for abandoning her. “You're never around whenever I am in a crisis situation. And I know you can't help me.”
And I said, “You're right, I can't help you.”
My wife thought, “Oh s---, now what do I do?”
So she called the friend who had rented us the cottage to see if she could help.
She gave my wife the phone number for the local animal control officer.
My wife called, and he told her to throw a towel over the bat and take it outside and release it.
My wife hung up, thinking that trying to throw a towel over a bat hanging on the rafters was not the right way to go. So this guy had been no help. Back to square one.
She called our friend again and told her what the wildlife man told her do. Our friend agreed with my wife that the advice was not helpful.
The friend said she would call her sister in North Carolina. Her sister's mother-in -law lived on the island and was considered something of an expert with bats; our friend thought she could help. A short time later, the mother-in-law called my wife and told her exactly what to do.
Go outside and remove the screen from one of the living room windows.
Then turn off all the lights in the house. The bat should be long gone the next morning.
Next my wife, who is not a handy woman with hammers and such, had to find a ladder and some tools to pry the screen off the window. The cottage was old, and the screens had probably never been removed, even for routine maintenance.
Finally, the job was done and my wife came back inside the house, which was now swarming with mosquitoes. On a normal evening, the bat would have enjoyed such a feast, but right at the moment it wasn't hungry.
My wife wanted to leave the living room as quickly as possible, so she turned off the lights and took the television set into the bedroom and closed the door.
Later that night, she thought the bat had finally left its perch and had flown out the open window.
The next morning, my wife checked to see if everything was okay, and sure enough the bat was gone.
Now came the chore of closing up the window with the screen again. Somehow, after putting the screen in place, she dropped the hammer, and it ripped a hole in the screen.
Out came the screen again. She had to take it to the local hardware store to have it repaired.
Back to the cottage again and whew, she was finally able to put the screen back in place without any further damage being done.
She learned she was capable of handling something on her own that she had never done before, once she realized there was nobody there to do it for her.
It was love teaching self-reliance.
Now she could get back to her artwork.
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With special thanks to Peter Brooks for sharing his inspiration and for his generous donation. Peter will be appearing at Burgundy Books this Friday, December 18, from 3-6 PM. Copies of God’s Love is a Two Way Street will be available for purchase at the event. (They can also be ordered through Amazon.com.) Burgundy Books is located at 4 Norwich Road in East Haddam, CT. For further information, call the store at 860-873-9312.
Don’t forget to email me at OyeJohn52@aol.com before 11:59 PM EST tonight for your chance to win one of five copies of God’s Love is a Two Way Street.
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Other entries in the inaugural Holiday Book Giveaway Extravaganza:
Announcing the Inaugural Holiday Book Giveaway Extravaganza
Holiday Book Giveaway, Day 1: Wally Lamb shares Wishin’ And Hopin’ & his favorite seasonal songs
Holiday Book Giveaway, Day 2: Wendy Corsi Staub shares The Best Gift and a recipe for rum cake
Holiday Book Giveaway, Day 3: Marek Fuchs offers A Cold-Blooded Business in a warm-hearted gesture
Holiday Book Giveaway, Day 4: Hank Stuever shares Tinsel
Holiday Book Giveaway, Day 5: Ann Pearlman shares The Christmas Cookie Club
Holiday Book Giveaway, Day 6: Debbie Macomber shares The Perfect Christmas & a holiday recipe
Holiday Book Giveaway, Day 7: Roberta Isleib shares Preaching To The Corpse & seasonal advice
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