Lynda Garlick is such a beautiful embodiment of a Divine
Soul. There was so much juicy stuff in
her presentation, that I filled eight pages in my notebook. Lynda began by telling us her “story”. Her point to taking us on her life’s journey
was to illustrate the “light” and “shadow” in all of our lives and how both
play out to help expand our experience here in earth school. She
further let us experience that we don’t need to judge our experiences as bad or
good, big or small….. they just are and they are working behind the scenes to
create a better life for us, if we will tune in and be aware of the lessons…..especially when we are given a “divine course correction”.
Lynda was named by her oldest sister that passed on into the
dream of forever, just before Lynda was born.
Lynda never met her sister but knows that her sweet sister walks this
earth life beside her as an angel. I
loved hearing this tender story because I also have an older sister, whom I
have never met, but she has often been my guide and comforting angel.
Lynda was baptized into the LDS church at a young age. She remembers there being a young girl that
she wanted to be friends with and she couldn’t go to her house unless she was
of the same faith, so Lynda decided to be baptized. Through many other experiences she served a
mission for the LDS church. She chose to
be a servant to the people around her and to only teach what she knew was true
in her heart. When she returned home she
made the difficult decision on the drive home from being released from her
mission to tell her clergy leader that she no longer wanted to be LDS. She loved her mission, loved serving, loved
teaching others about love and happiness but didn’t feel that the LDS church is
where she belonged and though it disappointed her family, she chose another
path. Her clergy leader was very kind
and her family has always been so supportive and loving of her choices in her
life and she in return has always been supportive and loving of their
choices.
Lynda ended up in college in the academic pursuit of
Psychology. She loved learning about it
and it seemed to just come easy and natural to her. Lynda wound up taking a job with a software
company that was only going to be a short term job. She told herself it was just for a little bit
until she found what she wanted….. her short term job turned into a 25 year
career which allowed Lynda the freedom and means to go back to school and get
even more degrees. Lynda loved the
people she worked with and her favorite times were mentoring those peers around
her. She worked her way up in the
company and became very good in the accounting field, in which she spent her
days. She was in a relationship at the
time and also co- parenting 5 children, 4 of which she had been in the delivery
room for their birth. Years into this
relationship a life changing experience occurred. The children’s mom decided to leave their
relationship and take the 5 children out of Lynda’s life. This devastated Lynda and she threw herself into
her work, becoming a workaholic and numbing the pain of feeling she was “not
enough”. The pain became unbearable and
she “ran away” to another country in the disguise of her company’s
photographer. At this point Lynda knew
she was running away and numbing the pain and it finally took its toll on her
health and she fell very ill.
During her leave of absence, Lynda got in touch with a tiny
piece of her intuition and knew it was time to leave her job. She felt there was something more for her but
didn’t know what that was just yet. She
just knew she needed to leave and create space for something new to enter her
life. She left her job and took up Zen
with a Master that taught her to be still.
Although, she learned to be still…. She still didn’t listen to her greater
intuition and continued to stuff her grief deep down inside.
Months went by and she received a letter from the company
she had worked with so diligently, for those many years. The letter was written in a lot of legal
jargon, but she could tell by the tone of the letter that she was being blamed
for something that was not good. When
she went in to talk to the legal counsel at the company, she was told in no
uncertain terms that they were about to destroy her life. She remembers having enough moxie to think….
“No! That’s my choice.” The company proceeded to use Lynda as a
scapegoat and although there may have been a few T’s not crossed and I’s not
dotted, she never did anything illegal and the company had been looking for a
fall guy. This was yet another of
“Divinity’s course corrections” and through a lengthy trial process and feeling
like “whoever tells the best story and has the most resources will win.” Lynda was fined and sentenced to jail
time.
Lynda sold everything she owned and wrote a check for the hefty
fine and waited for her sentence to begin.
As she waited each day for the dreaded knock on the door, she realized
she was already putting herself in a prison of fear and through this
observation she learned to be present and say, “In this moment, all is
well.” She was sentenced to 90 days and
jail became her monastery. She felt the
friends and family that surrounded her spiritually and the stillness that she
had learned, began to serve her as she felt her intuition grow. Lynda, told us that when you choose to see
things in a spiritual space, then all of life is sacred. She asked Spirit to let her time in jail,
“pass like a dream in the night” and even now it feels like so long ago and has
faded from her memory. She was given
many uplifting and spiritual books while serving her time. One thing Lynda realized is that she was a gift
to many other women who would be carrying out their time in jail and would now have access to the wonderful books she was gifted while in her
“monastery”. These books may help to shift their views on life and because she left the books in the library at the jail
with love and hope for others, she had a knowing it was just another step in
her spiritual path to help others find a better way.
After she was released from jail, she went to live with her
mom and dad and created a small cocoon around the three of them for
healing. Her mom was very sick and Lynda
helped her mom transition gracefully into the next life of the forever dream. She was able to spend amazingly close and
intimate time with her mom and through the process many people thought she
actually worked at the hospital. This
was a gift from Spirit for Lynda to be able to see herself in this kind of a
role.
Through all of these experiences, Lynda can look back and
see that her whole life was set up to be a midwife for the Holy, meaning, deliver a divine soul into the hands of Spirit. The experiences that may have been judged as
“bad” have been as big a learning experience as the experiences that may have
been judged as “good”. Lynda quotes from
Genesis, “God made two great lights – the greater light to govern the day and
the lesser light to govern the night. He
also made the stars.” (Notice that God didn’t say one was better than the
other.) Lynda has truly used all
experiences in her life as an opportunity for growth.
…And this is where the magic culminated!!
Lynda asked us all, “What if you
became Radically Honest and Ruthlessly Real?” She explained this wasn’t about
being “Brutally honest” or “Blunt”.
Living a life that is radically honest, with a clear lens and ruthlessly
real means that you drop down into your heart to “see” and act from your
soul. This is about seeing and
interacting with all around you reverently, sacredly, with genuine love,
kindness and peace. She explained that
we are not cultured to be honest and that is why it is difficult and even scary
to think about living radically honest.
She also expressed that “delivery” of your message is very important. Sometimes our lens gets dirty (this is
usually colored by our “story”, our “history”, our “baggage”) and sometimes we
are so attached to it, we have a tough time cleaning that lens and seeing
through the pure love of the Divine.
When we do see through the lens of the Divine (seeing others as God sees them), then our “delivery” of
any message will be sacred and reverent and always delivered with love.
Lynda has a mantra that she lives by:
1- I say YES to all that has been, to all that is and to all
that will be (lots of words for surrendering to divinity.)
2- Everyone and everything is sacred.
3- Love.
Lynda explained further that from living from this space she
has been able to see “Light” and “Shadow” both as a gift. The contrast makes the beauty, she added. Lynda also shared some of her AMAZING black and white photography, she had personally taken and
developed. She showed us how the photography played with the light and shadow for the contrast that made it so brilliantly magnificent. She used the photography as a metaphor and her advice was that you could
acknowledge the emotion of either the “light” or the “shadow” experiences and
not need to judge them. Most
importantly, she told us, you don’t need to live in any emotion you are experiencing, it is a choice. Her journey to her self was scary and when
she opened her heart to herself, she found harsh words and by being radically
honest with a clear lens she was able to know what was true and what was
not. She released what has not true and embraced the diving. Now, when Lynda finds an experience
that might be defined as “shadow” she asks….. “how does the shadow serve me?”
then she is able to release it “in that moment”. Also by being aware that this is just
another story she is able to acknowledge her perfectness and know that
everything is happening for her highest good.
What a wonderful way to live!!
Over and over we hear that daily rituals are so key to the
happiness we desire in this life. Lynda
shared her daily ritual.
1- Prayer (communing with angels and guides) she expresses
gratitude and acknowledges the giving and receiving process.
2- Meditation and stillness to find inner peace
3- Never leave the house without an intention.
Example. To see myself as whole.
Example. To be aware of others.
Lynda’s intention is to become a chaplain, in her words, “My
intention to become a chaplain is not to judge someone’s theology, but rather
to help them to understand it more fully. I have observed that when people
experience life-altering events, theology and dogmas show up. It is then, we want to understand why we are
suffering, and we tend to look back on the trajectory of our lives and question
our choices. I want to be a part of
those conversations, and processes.”
Our evening with Lynda was spectacular and we were honored
to walk down this path with her as she shared her heart and soul. She is truly in touch with her Divinity and
sees the sacred in all things. In my
personal interactions with Lynda, I know her to be a compassionate listener,
intuitive truth teller and an absolute gift to all that she touches. She embodies one of the final sentences of
her autobiographical statement, which I was honored to read, it says:
“Divinity’s heart is my heart.” May we
all expand to share this wisdom through our experiences in life, whether they
are “good” or “bad”…. “light” or “shadow” ….. it is our choice to find the
sacred in them and celebrate our triumphs.
To contact Lynda for guidance on your spiritual path, you
may email her at lbgarlick@gmail.com
or her contact phone number is (801) 368-8649.
