Well, this is my fourth night here in Sedona, Arizona… and I am literally in love with the place! I was originally going to leave today but was urged from within to stay longer. Now I know why… this place is filled with interesting, intriguing, unusual and VERY friendly people. Everywhere I go, I manage to get into an interesting conversation with someone. Since it’s technically the ‘off season’, it isn’t terribly crowded, but there are always plenty of people around. The hotel/resort I moved to today actually has an open fireplace and large tub, so I can do some fire and water purification!

On this trip, I’m learning to trust my inner guidance and intuition and develop patience. Usually, my inner guidance is pretty loud and direct, but I’m finding in the past few days, it’s been very quiet and I’ve had to learn to trust more. Here’s an example: Last night, I couldn’t figure out what to do. I knew I was supposed to check out of my previous hotel today and head into California, but for some reason, that was the LAST thing I wanted to do. I literally did not want to leave, but I didn’t know if I wanted to stay, either. I turned it around and around in my mind for hours and drove myself nuts. Finally, I consciously realized what I was doing: wasting time thinking and trying to figure something out when the whole purpose of this trip was of a spiritual nature, which has little to do with thinking! So, I took some deep breaths, centered myself and let it go into the hands of my higher Self. I decided to trust my instincts upon waking this morning.

Upon waking this morning, I still didn’t know what to do. I knew I was supposed to go to California at some point since I’d promised my older sister, niece and nephew that I’d visit them, and also a friend. But I still didn’t want to go. And I didn’t want to stay in my hotel although it was very nice. So, I took a shower, prepared for the day and waited for guidance. And it came… I was guided to look into another hotel and resort here in Sedona. So, I called them, and although they are a timeshare place, the woman I spoke with told me to come on down and she could get me a nice room (one bedroom suite). As soon as I saw this place, I could see why I was supposed to come here! It has a huge bathtub and an open fireplace, plus is walking distance to many things. (At my old hotel, while very nice and I have no complaints, I had to drive everywhere, and the fireplace was behind a glass partition. The bathtub was too small to do any serious bathing).

So I decided to stay here until Sunday. Then came another dilemma… where should I stay in the LA area? I usually stay at the Universal Hilton at Universal city, because a good friend always gets me into the backlots of Universal studios for free, since he works there. (I admit to being a Desperate Housewives fan, and that’s where they shoot it!) But for some reason I didn’t want to go there. It just didn’t appeal. Then I thought of some other hotels and they didn’t appeal either. Finally, something told me to check Santa Monica. All of a sudden, that area did appeal. I didn’t know why, until later…

Later this afternoon, I went to visit the famous Chapel of the Holy Cross site here in Sedona. It was beautiful and peaceful. After hiking to the top of the hill where the chapel is, I sat inside for quite a while and became still. I then took some pictures of the beautiful rock formations and left. I was planning to head to another location to get pictures, but also wanted to stop at a place I’ve been going to meditate each day, a crystal/healing shop that has a meditation garden with huge (gigantic, really) crystal formations and is near a vortex. As soon as I walked back into the garden, there was a few guys sitting around talking. One of them recognized me from the previous day and beckoned me over.

We proceeded to get into a conversation, and it turns out he had just come from the LA area and had stayed at an SRF (Self-Realization Fellowship) temple in the LA area! He got to meditate in the temples that Paramahansa Yogananda had built during his lifetime. He just happened to have the directions to the place with him and told me excitedly about his experiences. Suddenly it clicked… this was why I was to stay in Sedona another day, and why I couldn’t figure out where to stay in LA! As we were talking, it clicked within that I am definitely supposed to go and meditate in that temple. And it turns out Santa Monica is pretty close to where it is located!

Anyway, I ended up having a great conversation with that guy and another couple of people sitting out there. We all had a lot in common and there was some definite synchronicity in action.

I went to a few other places today and met some other super friendly people… I love this place!

More to come later…