Deborah DeNicola approached the spiritual life seriously because of a broken heart. So many of us create crises in order to awaken; it's definitely one way to do life, but, believe it or not, crises are not a requirement. Neither is exquisite poetry, but DeNicola thrives on both.
Her new book The Future that Brought Her Here: A Memoir of a Call to Awaken is one woman's story of a life lived in the process of awakening. Sometimes she wakens joyously; at other times, kicking and screaming. Regardless, awakening is her mandate, and awaken, she does.
DeNicola realizes quickly that all things on this Earth are designed to awaken humans. All. No exceptions. She wakens through dream work, channeling, automatic writing, readings, relationship, travel. Anything and everything is an opportunity to waken if we'll take it that way.
And Deborah DeNicola does.
For many years I have credited Mama Donna Henes with this quote: "Your mama never told you bedtime facts--she told you bedtime stories." When I told her about it, she laughed, and said she couldn't take responsibility for it!
DeNicola tells us story after story. Rich, full, interior. Seeking validation of her own mystical experiences, she validates those of her readers. Unusually, her experience with the intuitive and mystical is physical. She feels light touches and adjustments within her body as she grows. Guidance comes to her through dreams, workshops, healers, therapists, channelers and a host of miraculous occurrences. Is it believable? To me, it is. I have my own version of her story.
In truth, so does everyone, but does everyone validate it? Sadly, no. This is why it's so good to have another book in the world telling one woman's personal experiences. No one will have identical experiences, but we all have similar ones.
Interspersed through her written journey are divine poems. I mean divine in the holiest sense. Deborah DeNicola is an inspired poet. She uses her artistry to understand her world. Poetry of itself is naturally liminal, and this award-winning poetess (isn't that a lovely, old fashioned word?) soars when she grasps her world through words.
One of her guides suggests that we strive and that we affirm that "I accept this in peace," whatever the this is in that sentence. It is this surrendered self that DeNicola cultivates. Her journey is a shining example for all who know that surrender is the easiest way to live.
Her father died of a drug overdose in 1963 when the author was 15. My father died in 1963 as well; I was five. The resonance of the dates primed me for healing as I read her poem cycle about her father's death. Consider these striking words:
for the beauty of touching with the heart
what the mind did not
in creating the sorrow
of the body.
Oh yes, the premature death of a parent. Premature? Is there ever a good time for a parent to die in the mind of a child? No, not really. Her poem cycle leapt off the page to heal me. For that I am grateful, a better daughter.
Thank you, Deborah DeNicola, for writing this book bent on empowering the feminine in a world that so achingly needs Her.
For you, who agree with her, and even for those who don't, read this one woman's everyday, spectacular journey, and be confirmed in your own.