I've been sitting with the Abraham Hicks vortex teaching for a long time. And I love it. But the standard explanation never quite worked for me — and I think I finally understand why. Here's the thing nobody is saying: The vortex isn't out there somewhere waiting to deliver your desires. The vortex is you. You are an information processing system — taking in, filtering, and putting back out — constantly, 24/7, whether you're thinking about it or not. And that changes everything about how you actually work with it. I'm dropping a full video this week that unpacks the whole thing — the science, the theology, the mechanics of how this actually works in your life. And I'll be posting the full essay on Substack for those who want to go deeper. Stay tuned. This one's been a long time coming. 🌱

Abraham Hicks frequently talks about "the vortex" — but have you ever wondered what it actually is? I used to think it was some strange spinning thing holding my hopes and dreams in another dimension, and if I just vibed hard enough, stuff would plop out of it. But if you follow the idea closely, you'll see that the vortex is just you. It's you living your life. I did a deep dive on this — what the vortex actually is, why your emotions matter, and why this isn't some mystical concept but a real mechanism you're already using every day. Full essay is on my Substack and the video is coming soon.

In my book, I Have Decided, I decided not to break it into chapters because the phases I talk about are more like movements that need to happen simultaneously. This morning I finished writing Movement 3. I’m very pleased with how it came out and I wanted to share it with you guys: Movement 3: Develop Inner Knowing ## The Voice Beneath the Noise Jesus told a parable about ten bridesmaids waiting for a wedding. In that time and place, weddings worked differently than they do now. The bridegroom would travel to the bride's village to claim his wife and bring her back to his home for the wedding feast. But travel was unpredictable. No Uber. No Google Maps. No cell phones to text "running 20 minutes late." Sometimes the bridegroom arrived in the afternoon. Sometimes late at night. Sometimes not until the next day. The bridesmaids' job was to be ready whenever he arrived. They would light the path with oil lamps, leading the way through the village to the bride's home, then accompanying the wedding party to the feast. But if your lamp went out while you were waiting—if you ran out of oil—you couldn't light the path. You couldn't fulfill your role. You'd miss the wedding entirely. So Jesus told this story: Ten bridesmaids are waiting for the bridegroom. Five are wise—they brought extra oil for their lamps. Five are foolish—they didn't. The bridegroom delays. Hours pass. Everyone falls asleep. At midnight, someone shouts: "The bridegroom is coming!" The wise bridesmaids trim their lamps. They have oil. They're ready. The foolish ones realize their lamps have gone out. They panic and run to buy more oil. While they're gone, the bridegroom arrives. The wedding party forms. The wise bridesmaids light the path. Everyone goes in to the feast. When the foolish bridesmaids return with their fresh oil, the door is shut. "Too late." ## WHAT THIS PARABLE ISN'T ABOUT I grew up in evangelical churches where this parable was used as a warning about the rapture. If you didn't believe in Jesus the right way, if you weren't saved according to the proper formula, Christ would return and you'd be left behind. The door would shut. You'd be damned.

Are you all familiar with Juliet Cleary? She says that you don't manifest, you have to DECIDE! This made me think of what @Yvette Muhammad always declares.

I think I mentioned that I was going to rewrite Chapter 1? I was not satisfied with it. Of course, it is good to forge ahead and not keep rewriting chapters, however, in this case I really wanted to do that because I'm starting the book in a completely different direction so if I didn't write this I think I'd get confused. This isn't very long. It's actually meant to be more like a prologue than a chapter, but readers tend to skip prologues so it's better to label it Chapter 1. Here is Chapter 1 of my memoir, "Lydia's Lantern." It's actually a prologue in disguise. I've been told that readers often skip the prologue. But they need to read this to understand the rest of the book. I don't think it matters much whether you call this Chapter 1 or a prologue. After this, I will not be posting any more chapters until I get to the final chapter. I think I might post that one in this group. So here it is: The Cat Who Came Back Through the Clouds I never thought I’d get Lydia back. Not after five years. Not when she had never been mine to begin with. She was my former housemate’s sister’s cat, a relationship twice removed, the kind that should not leave a mark. When I bade goodbye to Lydia the last time I visited her, it was an ordinary day in Colorado, the air thin, the light bright, the mountains quietly watching. As I struggled with my hiking boots, Lydia sat in the foyer, her unseeing, milky-blue eyes turned towards me. “Lydia,” I said, speaking loud and clear so that, even with her hearing impairment, she might register my voice. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to come see you anymore. I’m leaving for California.” The puzzled expression never left her face. Her pink nose sniffled. I reached over and stroked her, blinking back tears. She pressed her head against my open palm. I straightened myself, and with a final glance back, I closed the door, stepped outside, and made a wish. Not on a star, but on the wind that caressed my face, then let the wish go like a leaf on a stream, one small thought among the countless that crossed my mind as I prepared for my trip.