Life's Changeful Interruptions: Opening to New Possibilities

By Rev. Frieda King

Time after time, we find our lives interrupted by a surprise flat tire or the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one. Perhaps a door has closed before us, one we counted on passing through. These interruptions can startle and freeze us in our tracks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rev. Frieda King
• Release date: Jul 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781641845557

Book preview

Life’s Changeful Interruptions:

Opening to New Possibilities

Rev. Frieda King

Life’s Changeful Interruptions: Opening to New Possibilities

Copyright © 2020 by Frieda King

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing: 2020

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64184-554-0

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-64184-553-3

Digital eBook ISBN: 978-1-64184-555-7

Published by: Sojourn Publishing LLC

Contact:

Http://revfrieda.com

281-415-4317

[e-mail]

Magnolia, Texas

Dedication

In memory of my mother and father

And

To my son

Acknowledgments

I want to thank my brother and sister for all the life experiences and memories we share.

I want to thank my beloved husband and son,

Reverend Howard Caesar and Reverend Jim Rosemergy

Who have been there always.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Rising from Loss

Chapter 2 Change is Brewing

Chapter 3 Heartache and New Beginnings

Chapter 4 Light born of Darkness

Chapter 5 Courage to Act

Chapter 6 Grace in the Grief

Chapter 7 Helps and Practices - Lifting Beyond Life’s Changeful Interruptions

About The Author

Introduction

We each have interruptions in life. Some can be devastating. Others are small, yet impactful. In the midst of these interruptions, we probably are churning inside. In spite of this, though, we can become more awake to life, probably due to self-preservation. Especially with those sudden changes and losses that have occurred.

Ponder them; the stand-out ones in mind and memory. Include those prominent swift changes, the biggies, making us nearly fall apart and feel the deeper emotions inside; for instance, regret, remorse, anger, sadness, or loss of something or someone important.

We may write about or even contemplate those surprising happenings in life, the disturbing ones and the good ones. Note the process we went through to bring equilibrium into our life once more. Include the feelings we felt and the gifts, the blessings born as a result of the upsetting changes and the swift disruption.

How do the sharp changes in life’s circumstances cause pain, cause change, good and not-so-good? What inner qualities began to express through us? We may have discovered new abilities and inner power. Perhaps these unwanted happenings opened us up to feel more love inside.

What’s more, the discoveries we make about ourselves in the tough moments in our lives, particularly the ones that jar us the most, can be invaluable to us at the time and stretch into the future as lasting blessings.

From here on, how do we want life to be different and/or the same? What were the struggles we went through? There could be inner self-blame waiting to be emotionally healed, released. At times, we may have wanted to give up. Be a bum the remainder of our life?

For our optimum well-being, we want to note these various elements of inconveniences (painful changes) we face and live through. The important thing is how we react, what we feel and do, and our now state of being. Hence, self-awareness is needed and significant especially to our wellness and quality of living.

Certainly, there are compensations arising from those ornery times of eruption in our lives. We may get urges to be different, to face situations from another angle. We may be moved to realize new dreams, undertakings, and achievements, too. We attract new friendships, prosperous and fortunate opportunities. These are the treasures we can harvest from life’s interruptions.

Now is a great time to hug ourselves or pat oneself on the back in appreciation that we made it through those challenging times and unexpected experiences arising out of nowhere. But are they really out of nowhere?

Perhaps these inconveniences and surprising changes afford us the opportunity to turn the page in our mind, open to a fresh, clear outlook. We may have made good advances in our life as a consequence of these disruptive experiences.

Equally important is looking at life’s interruptions as the activity of grace appearing to offer us another point of view and a new avenue or venue to follow. Also, we may change our life’s direction when unplanned and quick changes in life happen. These occurrences create new open doors to personal healing, growth, and success.

Here is an invitation for you to take a half an hour or more and celebrate you. Include doing something you enjoy. Congratulate and reward yourself because you make and made it through the uncomfortable and sometimes jolting times. You are richer and stronger as a result of each redirection and disappointment. Take off and play, have fun, take some time out to do the joyous things you have been waiting to do. Attend a baseball game, dine at a favorite restaurant, or attend a concert.

Read on, dear reader. You are worthy and deserve great good along with peace of mind. Words have power. May you feel your indwelling strength and resolute spirit in reading these life-shifting and changeful accounts in the pages of the book.

To the best of my recollection, this is how I remember the stories, situations, and people in the book: Life’s Changeful Interruptions: Opening to New Possibilities.

Remember, we each are praiseworthy and qualify for great good manifesting and continuously present in all departments of our lives. In this book, I include a Transformative Practice entitled Deserving:

"In the first person and present moment I breathe deeply and know I am more than a worthy individual. I am deserving. There is an unlimited, flourishing quality and potency to the meaning of deserving. I claim my boundless nature as not only human, I am inherently divine. Spirituality is my rightful nature.

"I am accepting of the full measure of my humanity and the spiritual potency harmoniously expressing in concert with the human and Divine nature I am.

"There is a purer love, a wiser wisdom, a higher grace, a deeper vision to my life than appearances reveal. I am Spirit-filled with every capability of the spiritual greats who have lived from a prosperous Divine Self.

"If I have lost something, when I need guidance, I give way and ask the loving Divine Mind to provide clear knowing and direction. I let go in certainty and let the higher wisdom within me provide the answers and the greater solutions to that which I need.

I accept my spirituality, my whole self and grant it full permission to grow and flourish in and through me and my life. I am deserving of the Kingdom of God awareness that Jesus and other master teachers have spoken of and demonstrated. I am free and reveal the regeneration and wisdom of the full measure of life and intelligence in, as and through the human and Divine capability I am, Amen.

Chapter 1

Rising from Loss

Our glory is hidden in our pain, if we allow God to bring the gift of (awareness into) our experience of it. - Henri Nouwen

While I was growing as a child in our family dynamic a contrast existed; two differing polarities, one of conflict and the other, peace. The tranquility of New Testament figures such as Jesus and his stories, parables, prayers, and light-filled statements lifted me. When I would remember these stories and Jesus’ aura of love, comfort was felt, all was well with me.

Then there were the times I could not join in the conversation with older brother and Dad. They would chat on in enthusiastic discussion about grafting fruit trees, about the use of pesticides and herbicides and the harsh results of both. They enjoyed the father-and-son conversations.

That felt nice. However, I would listen in with questions on my mind. When I asked one of them, they put me off along with the unwritten rule - when we are in conversation, do not disturb us. Surely, I yearned to ask questions as a kid. Rarely was I able to ask or be heard. Unworthiness no doubt developed in me in childhood.

At other times, I was hit, stopped from moving forward on my own initiative. I would feel the angry hand of Dad if I spoke my disagreement about a decision my father made for me. Even so, my older sister and brother took bigger hits and absorbed the brunt of Dad’s moodiness and anger.

As Dad got older, he calmed and dropped the habit of hitting his children. I remember Mom being hit by Dad during the disruptive family time of my sister Em’s teenage pregnancy.

By the time I entered a New Thought Religion at age twenty-five, my keen awareness revealed, I feel unworthy of money, a voice, and of feeling guiltless. Childhood left me with much inner release of limited ideas and healing work.

As a little child, I was learning how to tell time. There was no room for me to be incorrect about the time. My brother would correct me with nasty talk of my being stupid. Years later, I would come to understand that Dad would demand perfection from his only son in his farming and horticultural activities on the farm.

My brother followed Dad’s example and passed along the yucky behavior, projecting it upon Em and me. Not all the time. I know now it was one way my brother released the inner harshness and criticism he received from Dad.

Importantly, the dichotomy of actual family life in comparison to the spiritual life of stories and lessons of Jesus I heard and knew was evident in my early life of family dysfunctions and disruptive behavior. My loving Sunday school teacher gave me a gift of knowing a genuine spiritual teacher and presence in her emphasis of Jesus. He was not dead to me. Jesus was alive in my heart and vivid in my imagination. It cleared away anything contrary to love. Even though I did not continue with the Baptist church, I remain grateful for the Godsend person my Sunday school teacher was.

What direction would my life take as I grew and matured as a child becoming an adult? I had a strong hunch life would not be boring. Come along with me on the adventure of the ups, downs, and circular motions of my abrupt avenues and sometimes wild paths my journey would take.

Family life was not continually filled with agitation. In her happy moments when Mom was not pressured by Dad, she would dance to music, and Em and I would dance along. She tried to balance her hectic life with times of fun, play and reading the Encyclopedia Britannica. Good lessons I learned from Mom: Have moments of light-heartedness, educational reading, and joy.

Dad also had his happy moments and spiritual times. He loved the stillness of the dusk spread over the back yard and throughout the farmland across the street. They were serene moments. (I expand on this later in this book.) He also would give me mini sermons once in a while. I listened intently, for some of what he said was filled with wisdom and lessons he acquired and learned. Besides, it felt good to have his calm attention.

Through the stories in this book, we see the polarity and the plusses and minuses in life’s interruptions. There is richness in our soul when we look and openly attune to the affirmative voice inside; and when we observe the saving graces flowing to us, from us, and surrounding the hardships and distress of abrupt and sometimes ugly life interruptions.

With certainty, I would not be who I am without my brother’s gifts and challenges. Nor my sister’s extreme quality of living on the edge of life. Also, I would not have faced anger issues inside myself nor perfectionist tendencies without my Dad’s expression of harshness and criticism.

Dear Mom highlighted and opened in me the desire to speak up, to have a voice along with a support group of uplifting people who stand with me. Then we know we are not alone in life.

No doubt, the challenges we encounter - small, medium or large - bring us to ourselves, our beautiful selves in the making. Where there is pain there is also glorious opportunity flowing through the present agony. I do know that when humans feel the grief of disconnection from anything good, it is the pits. For interruptions can color our view grey and dark. Yet the potential of seeing things in a new light never leaves us.

The spiritual inclination in us lifts the actual disaster, transforming it into a prize for our soul. Our entire self is blessed as a result. Without reservation, I acknowledge your overcoming spirit and indelible nature. Nevertheless, we need to find that overcoming power inside ourselves to keep on keeping on. As a girl maturing into adulthood it became imperative for me to find and use my inner strengths and powers. How? What venues would I choose to bring forth and achieve these worthy inner abilities?

This Book, her stories, and life lessons show the contrast and conflict between the Divine and the actual, the unseen benevolent power alongside the vivid and literal crisis. How are we to make peace with the actual through the avenue of our spiritual capacity within? First, to walk in the light of our Divinity within, rise with it in the actuality of life, remaking ourselves and the outer anew: then, transform and reform our inner look with new-found understanding, walking on and manifesting anew in the places of loss, anger, or grief. Let’s do this.

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

Chapter 2

Change is Brewing

I was fifteen minutes into a test in Trenton, New Jersey to become a licensed employment interviewer when one of the test personnel came and told me my mother-in-law had been admitted to an Atlantic City Hospital. She had a stroke. Could we come immediately?

My feelings were competing between utter panic and deep sadness, adding up to a state of shock as if I had stuck my finger in an open electrical socket. I had to stay together enough to relate this news to my husband, David, who was waiting in the lobby of the federal building where I was taking the exam.

After hearing the news about his mother, my husband looked pale, wondering if she was going to make it. Worrisome and burdened by the weight of concern, he drove us to the Atlantic City Hospital where she was. Mom King, my mother-in-law, had been attending an American Legion Auxiliary Convention.

Nothing in my past prepared me for the sight of her lying in the hospital bed, hanging onto life amid the gizmos she was hooked up to. The scene was frightening; she looked unconscious, with no way to communicate with her. At least I did not know how at the time. I was almost numb, surely overwhelmed by the intensity of my emotions. I felt weak and insecure with nowhere to hide. Plus, it was 1970. I was 25 and not used to dealing with dying and death, especially that of a beloved family member.

Oh my God, what would I do, what would our family do without Mom King? We found a hotel room and tried to sleep during the night. The doctor was to call us in the event of any change - for better or worse. In the hospital room the next day, I felt uncomfortable all over. I felt uneasy within my body and unable to find peace. Her condition was not improving. Another night of restless sleep.

Then around 5:00 a.m. the following morning, we received a call from the doctor; Mom King had passed away. I cried and still now it brings tears to my eyes. I loved her mystery, her undaunted nature to try new things and her zest to go and go. She sewed and went somewhere just about every night. She was rich with inner talent and outer vigor.

She worked outside the home. And her life was full of friends. She even would iron on occasion for wealthy people to bring in extra money. She would drink, I suppose, to find some peace in alcohol. She usually was humorous when she drank, telling us there is drop after drop of wine left in a so-called empty wine bottle. It never runs dry; there is always a drop left, according to Mom King.

I do not believe she found the serenity she was searching for from an altered state due to drinking. She, however, loved her only grandson, our son. She frequently took him wherever she went. He brought her happiness.

One thing stands out - she never reconciled herself about the mess of a marriage she and Dad King made of their supposedly holy matrimony. She would confess she felt like a failure near the end of her life. I did not think so, though, as she was my teacher. I respected her ability. Yet I wondered how she could handle living under such stress in her marriage. And I loved her deeply for who she was.

I felt devastated by her passing. Felt she had been ripped away. She was only 49 years of age. Then there was the promise I had made if anything happened to her, such as death. She had asked me about a year earlier before her passing, in perhaps a foreshadowing, if I would take Howard and raise him. He was the then her thirteen-year-old son and brother of my husband. I said yes. I believe she did not want his father to take over if she were to die.

Picture this: I’m in the middle of grieving the loss of my mother-in-law, my husband’s mother. Young Howard, now fourteen-years-old was also grieving the premature loss of his mother. My alcoholic father-in-law, though private and having had a messed-up marriage, was also grieving his wife’s passing. Then in the center of that weight, my husband’s brother and his beautiful black cat merged with his big brother (my husband), our five-year-old son, and me into our two-bedroom duplex.

I was working full time and felt completely inadequate with the whole thing. Did anybody know I was grieving and scared beyond measure of this new experience? No, because I had not learned to express my feelings yet. All I knew was to tough it out through the uncomfortable situation we were living through after Mom King’s sudden passing.

At one later time, when my husband Dave and I - and Howard - moved in with Dad King, I remember in the evening before bed a feeling of giving-up arose within me. I wondered if I was adequate, had enough to uplift and bless the family. Was I making a difference? Could I?

They were not nice thoughts and feelings. I released them and went to bed for the night. From then on, my attitude improved and the belief in my value in the King family increased. The doubts of my inadequacy faded as I went about taking care of myself along with the goal to make the house into a pleasant home for our merged King family.

Moreover, Mom King meant the world to the three of us - our little family, my husband, my son and me. Each of us was shaken to our bones by her death. Then, two extraordinary and elevating experiences would soon follow.

Seemingly out of nowhere, my husband read in the Morristown Daily Record of a Silva Mind Control course being offered at the Governor Morris Hotel, Morristown, NJ. It would be in two weeks. We were