I went to Barcelona, Spain
Where's YOUR Barcelona?
A number of years ago, my telephone rang at 7:30 in the morning. Usually I wouldn’t answer at that hour, but my intuition said I should pick up. So, I did.
A man introduced himself and asked if I spoke Spanish. I said I spoke a little but not enough to carry on a conversation with him on the phone. He said he would try to speak English and he did pretty good. He said his name was José Luis and he reminded me that he was the man who had been publishing my writing in Spain for the last 14 years. He and I had been students of the correspondence course given by Builders of Adytum (www.bota.org) but had not met. A mutual acquaintance had made José aware of my first newspaper The New Times. He had asked if he could reprint some of my articles and I had said he could. Even though I had forgotten, he had been publishing my articles from my newspaper ever since.
José operates a spiritual school in Barcelona, Spain, and publishes a magazine and books. I hadn’t thought about this for quite awhile but remembered when he reminded me. He said he was putting on a conference about the Kabbalah and wanted me to be a speaker. He said he would pay my expenses and a speaker’s fee.
Below: José Luis and I at the podium with a few of the other presenters behind us.
My first inclination was to say “No.” Who was this man, really, and why would I want to go to Spain? My mother had always wanted to go to Spain, but I had never even thought of going there. Something told me to keep talking to José.
I told him I wasn’t qualified to speak on the Kabbalah and he said that was fine. I could speak on anything I had written about, that his students loved my writing and as long as I spoke on those subjects, it would be fine.
I said I didn’t speak Spanish well enough to give talks and he said they would have an interpreter for me. I hesitated. He said he would send me an email with a link to their website and then I could decide. I agreed. It wouldn’t do any harm to check this out further.
Below: My interpreter Alex and I worked as if we had one mind. This was the first time I gave a class to an audience whose main languages were Spanish, French, and Italian.
Within a few days, his email arrived with a link to his site. I was able to see photos from a similar event he had done the year before as well as information about the event coming up in a few months.
I looked over the offer he made and it looked great. It was a risk, of course. I didn’t feel this was a scam, but what if the talks I gave weren’t what José wanted? I was going to be the only woman speaker in an esteemed group of male professors and rabbis. What if my material didn’t stack up to theirs? What if I wasn’t able to give good presentations with an interpreter. What if I didn’t like Barcelona or the people didn’t like me?
Below: All the presenters, plus José and his wife and daughter who is a sacred dancer. I was in esteemed company, that’s for sure.
Oh, the what-ifs, right? I overcame all my own objections, agreed to go, took my partner with me, and went.
What an experience it was! From the second I arrived at the airport until the moment I left, amazing things happened. José Luis and his students treated me like a queen, my presentations went beautifully, my interpreter and I clicked and worked together like we had one mind, and I loved Barcelona. It is my new second home.
Over the next few years, José Luis published two of my books in Spanish and I returned twice to give weekend workshops to delightful students I still communicate with in various ways.
Many times people have asked me how I made this happen and I always tell them I didn’t make it happen. I live my life in a certain way and this is only one of the fabulous things that have happened. Let me share some of what I did that influenced the outcome. Perhaps there will be something here to apply to your life.
1. I was willing to share my writing for many years without asking for compensation and this allowed the Universe to return the bounty to me.
2. I followed my intuition and picked up the phone at an unusual hour when I really didn’t feel like talking to anyone. I was available.
3. Even though the man on the phone spoke only a little English and I spoke only a little Spanish, I again followed my intuition and didn’t hang up.
4. I was willing to step out into the unknown with no guarantee of how things would go. I was willing to risk being uncomfortable and maybe even greatly embarrassed if my talks didn’t go well. I was able to let go of the undermining thoughts that I wouldn’t be able to give as good a presentation as the other speakers.
5. At the time of the phone call, I had been doing a lot of releasing of unconscious emotions and blockages. I believe this had a lot to do with José even thinking of contacting me. After all, he had known of me for years and this was his second conference, not his first. Why did he call me at this time and not the prior year?
6. I trusted the process. Every step of the way, from the first phone call to getting on the stage to speak in Barcelona, involved trusting. I was totally out of my element and was even speaking to a European audience who, by and large, didn’t speak English.
7. I have learned to be grateful for everything in my life, even the things I don’t necessarily like. Sometimes our good is disguised as a challenge. If we are not grateful for the challenge and push it away from us, we could be rejecting something very special.
As Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.” We can play it safe and live as we always have or we can be willing to step out, trust ourselves and life’s processes, and see what sort of fabulous things are in store for us.
Sure, sometimes we might face some uncomfortable results, but my experience has been that, more often than not, when we say “Yes, and thank you!” to life we open the door to a grand adventure.
Try opening the door to a greater life by saying “Yes and thank you” to life a little more often. The worst that can happen is you will have a great story to share with the rest of us.
If you would like to read more about some of interesting events of my life, check out my autobiography: Anything Is Possible: How a former nun counseled drug addicts, worked in machine shops, survived a serial killer, became a spiritual teacher and publisher - and what this means for You!
Living in Grace and Ease,
Krysta