Month: January 2005

My dad was emotionally disconnected too. He would probably be surprised and hurt to even hear that.

It was emotional work to just have a conversation with him. I have no doubt it was because he had a crippled arm from having polio as a child. He told me that absolutely no one ever made fun of him. It must have been a much kinder gentler time. But he was very guarded and had emotional walls up.

I love him and miss him.

____________________

Michael Norwood:

Beautiful, Janice. You truly know what it’s all about. God bless.

My understanding is that Roy believes that the tiger acted in a protective way towards him because of some perceived threat that the tiger sensed from an audience member.  I tend to believe that as well because I have no dought that the tiger could have killed him in an instant had that been his intention.  Because of that simple fact alone Roy is sure that the big cat acted in a loving way towards him not understanding that the cats version of "love" could be deadly to a meer mortal! 

____________________

Michael Norwood:

Yours comments, Patsy, remind me of yesterday’s post "When Love Ain’t in the Form You Like", and my respsonse to the writer of that email to me.  Thank you!

I’ve been pretty lucky in my life.  My only real mistake in this regard was in my relationship as a teenager with one of my sisters but that is well healed now.

A few others have clashed with me in my working life but life is too short to bring these relationships back to neutral ground.  Agree to disagree and move on.  Not every relationship needs to be or should be fixed.

____________________

Michael Norwood:

Indeed, Len, you can’t walk around trying to be loved by all the people all the time. Choose your battles, I say . . . but choose also your battles for your soul.

Personally, when it’s time for me to transition to the next level (go on to heaven), I’d like to do so with no "charges" in my soul. Meaning: from people I should have forgiven or asked for forgiveness in the form of my apology to them . . . sometimes even when my wrong-doing might have been a matter of perspective.

That’s coming from the perspective of "The Grand Perspective: the truly "Big Picture."

A reader of The Wealthy Soul book series wrote me a touching letter after reading my books. Below is my response, and in the link after you’ll find his letter:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Dear Steve,

What a beautiful letter! Besides some touching similarities between our dads, your Dad’s ways makes me think how everyone has their own way of showing and sharing their love. All we can do is accept it and be thankful for the form it takes (ie. your Dad and you with cars, me and my Dad with stocks –at least you had more of an interest in cars then I did in stocks!)

Life begins today, Steve. However your father was, however you are, it is 100% up to you how you continue to be.

Take the good and leave what you perceive as less good behind.

Grasp your life in your own hands and start developing the qualities of whoever you wish most to be!

God bless!

Michael

(See Steve’s letter by clicking "Continue Reading. . .")

Continue reading “When Love Ain’t in the Form You’d Like”

I would like to share with you a strangely beautiful story.
To do so, kindly allow me to introduce it by asking you to
consider a very unusual question:

What would it be like to have a 400 lb White Tiger’s
huge jaws wrapped around your tiny throat?

Roy Horn of the famed Las Vegas magic show duo, Siegfried
and Roy, was walking  on stage with the tiger he had raised
since it was a cub when the tiger unexpectedly took his arm
in its great mouth, refusing to let go.

Horn, in front of a packed audience at the MGM Grand Hotel,
began hitting the tiger over the snout with his microphone
until the tiger finally released its grasp (standard
procedure for this . . . ahem . . . "non-standard"
occurrence).

Then, depending upon whose version you hear in the audience,
Horn fell to the ground. (Others would say the tiger knocked
him down). The tiger then grabbed Horn’s neck in its
forbidding mouth and began dragging him off stage.

Continue reading ““Your Throat in a Tiger’s Mouth””

Received the following anonymously written poem from Wealthy Soul subscriber Carol Phillips:

    I met God in the morning,
    When my day was at its best,
    His Presence came as sunrise,
    Like a glory in my breast.

    All day long he stayed with me;
    We sailed in perfect calmness
    O’er troubled sea.

    So I think that I know the secret,
    Learned from many a troubled way.
    You must seek Him in the morning,
    If you want Him through the day.

As an early morning riser and writer, I LOVE THIS. Even when I was working full-time in holistic care, I would wake up early every morning at 5 – 6 a.m. and write.

Though I sometimes wrote for only 15 – 30 minutes, it was (and still is) enough to open my  vessel and make me feel I tuned in all day long.

What about you, my friend?

How are you going to regularly start the day tuning into God and your Highest Power so your day goes equally well?

Yours for the greatest wealth,
Michael Norwood

Received the following beautiful message from Wealthy Soul reader, Louise Gervais:

– – – – – – – – – –

Hi Michael,

I did begin reading the books which I received after Christmas, when I returned from visiting my family. My husband (74 years) had had a bad cough since we returned, then had a gout attack that lasted three days, then ended this by having a silent stroke.

This means his logical process is unbalanced and I have to spend all his waking moments with him. I tried to make him read short passages of the books, thinking the soothing words would help, but he can’t seem to concentrate long enough and I don’t want to insist.

I do a lot of energy and psychology medicine techniques all through the day and also sophrology relaxations with him in the morning. He does seem to be getting better day by day.

I have to thank you dearly for your messages. They sure bring comfort to my soul. Thanks for your beautiful work.

Love, Louise

– – – – – – – – – –

Dear Louise,

Thank you for your kind words! I’m honored that the books have so touched you. And that you have tried to share them with your husband. Even if he can’t pick up on the words, he can feel your loving intentions. Truly so. And nothing is more important for a healing body and a wealthy soul.

Greatest blessings!

Michael

After her order of Wealthy Soul books was lost in the mail – as happened to a few of the thousands of orders I had this Christmas – I arranged for the reader below to receive a new set. Her email brings up an important point about the manner in which many people email each other:

____________________

Dear Michael,

I want to thank you for all you give. Even through a cold way of communication which the computer could be, I feel all the warmth and love in your words. I’m glad to know about you, and I’m going to start reading my books that finally arrived yesterday. Thank you for all the attention you gave me, you’re wonderfully kind.

Thanks again,
Monica

____________________

Dear Monica,

Thanks for the kind words! Indeed, I do feel emailing can be quite a cold form of communication, especially given the short, curt style many people assume.

Though I try to keep my emails short because I get so many of them, I enjoy the connection warm words and courtesy brings. It takes the same amount of time to write but leaves the receiver (and me!) in a much higher state.

And isn’t that what being a Wealthy Soul is all about?

Warmly,
Michael Norwood

Michael, your new year appears to have delivered a new challenge for you.  How unfortunate your accident was and to be impaired by an ankle injury affects sooo many daily routines. . . especially exercise.

Yes, my prayers are with you and the victims in addition to the secondary people involved in the Asia travisity.

I had patients involved.  Adolescents who live in Naples with their mother were visiting the father in his vacation home in Puket (i.e., my spelling may be distorted :-)).  They were playing golf with their father THAT morning and were unaware of the happenings until the father’s maid came to the golf course to inform him that he must find his other family members.  The father took his boys to the police station for safety and guarded post trama possibilities, located the rest of his family, and returned to the police station to take the boys to a hotel (i.e., without electricity and minimal food) he secured prior to flying the entire back to China.  The father’s vacation home was totally washed away.  The father employed a psychologist to work with the entire family on the plot where the home had appeared.  He will rebuild the home. The boys have returned to Naples and appear to be  having minimal post traumatic symptoms.

I hope that your injury is as pain free as possible and that your healing process is rapid as possible.

Margaret

____________________

Michael Norwood:

Dear Margaret,

Wow, what a story. Will, undoubtedly, change the boys lives – with your counseling, for the better (by such experiences are Wealthy Souls made).

And thank you – my ankle is much better. I’m not exactly jogging yet, but no hobbling now (and darn . . . no one willing to serve me dinner or drinks any longer !).

2005 indeed started off with a bang for me . . . or perhaps more appropriately, "a crack."

I was jogging at night, playfully criss-crossing back and forth across the street, when I stepped off of the curb once more, and whammmo! – twisted my ankle.

I landed up hobbling my way home, all the while cursing my stupidity and my ill luck.

I arrived home barely able to walk. I got an ice pack out and plopped myself on a couch in front of the television feeling just a little sorry for myself.

Despite a record-breaking book-selling season for me (as I described in my last newsletter series), it had come only after one thing going wrong after another resulting in me working 14 hours a day for the four months leading to and through Christmas.

I had thought I was leaving the ill luck behind in 2004.

And now this . . . a twisted ankle, for gosh sakes.

A few minutes after I turned on the television, an evening special began on the Tsunami tragedy. Up until that point, I had barely had time to see anything but glimpses of news reports about the unimaginable events in Southeast Asia.

Now the reporter began telling the story of Petra Nemcova, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model who survived 8 hours clinging to a tree, her pelvis broken and her boyfriend swept out to sea. I watched transfixed for the next two hours at the scenes of total devastation and misery.

It’s not necessary to describe the change of emotion I experienced at that moment. Suffice it to say, any one of tens of millions of people in that part of the world would have been happy to be safely seated in my place in a warm dry home, immobilized by a twisted ankle or not. And it would take the most hardened human being not to realize it.

Several of you have written me, trying to come to terms with what you have seen on television. And I had a call about the same subject from a friend of mine who works at CNN.

Monitoring the events in Southeast Asia 8 to 12 hours a day, continually seeing the images, he was numbed by the tragedy to the point of not being able to sleep.

That, the emails and particularly an email from Te Aroha Taki, a member of the noble Maori people in New Zealand, has triggered me to write this newsletter. It is not so much about New Year’s Resolutions as it is about Resolutions of the Spirit –

And, particularly, Your spirit, my friend.

You have your own trials. Whether you are experiencing relationship challenges, financial difficulties, health issues, or even loss of a precious loved one . . . you nor I will ever likely have to face such total devastation approaching the magnitude of what millions of survivors in Southeast Asia are now facing.

What can you learn from this epic catastophe?

What possible "Gifts" might there be to take into  your own life from it?

Or is it all just meaningless?

The 30 Gifts of Life you are receiving from me should clue you in to what my perspective might be.

Please read Te Aroha’s heartfelt email to me about the Tsunami victims and my response to him about "Resolutions of the Spirit" at http://snipurl.com/bv2e .

Then, kindly, click the "Comments" link to add your own "Resolutions of the Spirit" so that you may take part in strengthening the many other souls who will read what you write.

Thus, though we may never be able to make sense out of such tragedy, we will, together, begin to create the tiny miracles that will bless all of us together.

God bless,

Michael