Love Will Lead Us Home

By Rick Nichols

"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket. I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." This first line of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams sums up the approach and intention of Love Will Lead Us

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heart Inspired Presentations, LLC
• Release date: Jul 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781893705210

Book preview

love-will-lead-us-home-kindle-front.jpg

"Love will lead us home is a life-changing book that speaks straight to your heart.

Thanks to Rick Nichols’ wise guidance, you will embark on a true adventure of discovery. The stories, teachings, and anecdotes of this book will lead you through a unique, transformational journey into the center of your true self."

— Lucia Giovannini

Transformational Trainer, Speaker, and Best-Selling Author of, A Whole New Life

luciagiovannini.com

A must-read guide for those of us who wish to live in a better world. A world where dreams become reality, and the courage to love is an essential ingredient. Read this book - and live your best life, filled with love.

— Doyle Ward

Transformational Life Coach

blissfulquests.com

"Love Will Lead Us Home is a delightful book filled with a deep exploration of life. It is the perfect companion for those of us willing to explore with an open heart and mind. Be prepared for life-changing aha moments at each turn of the road leading back to yourself."

— Sneha Shah

Director, ISRA- Center for Training and Development,

ISRA.co.in

Every word of this book is pure and profound; every passage a revelation and a healing. I invite you to let this book be your greatest treasure, as it will be mine - I envision sharing its wisdom with my grandchildren. Thank you, Rick Nichols, for being a compassionate mentor, a brilliant storyteller, a friend, and guide. I am home.

— Lakhvinder Babbu Gill

Certified Teacher of Love, Life Coach, and founder of, The Healing Shelter, Ludhiana, Punjab, India

TheHealingShelter.com

"With unique wisdom, Rick Nichols takes us on a fascinating journey to the depth of our interior. Unwrapping hidden meaning discovered in stories and parables widely known, he opens our eyes to see behind the scenes of our personal stories, fears, anguish, doubts, and longing for a more satisfying life experience.

If you have ever asked yourself — Who am I? Do I have a purpose? How can I find my way amidst this daily chaos? — this book is a great treasure that will surely guide you to the answers already within.

Rick’s ability to decipher profound messages between the lines of stories, old and new, makes the reading surprising, joyful, and reflective. A book that will have you lost in time."

— Renata Salles Fornari

Certified Transformational Trainer and Life Coach

São Paulo Brazil

"For those of us on the path of self-discovery and towards self-love, this book is an important read.

Mr. Nichols’ fun and insightful re-telling of Dorothy and her friends’ journey to the Wizard of Oz, along with excerpts from A Hero’s Journey, by Joseph Campbell, bring clarity to whom we really are and to whom we can become. What more could we ask for?"

— K.C. Craig

Love is intelligence, love is wise, and love will lead us home when we make love our purpose and our guide. Rick Nichols has written a beautiful book on how to live a truly love-centred life that becomes a blessing for all of us.

— Robert Holden

Co-author of Life Loves You, with Louise Hay

© 2021 by Rick Nichols

Lake Arrowhead, California

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Brief quotes may be used by a reviewer.

The information in this book is designed to impart information to help individuals make positive changes to their lives. The ideas presented are not meant to substitute for medical care or psychological assistance.

Published by:

The Crane’s Nest, an imprint of Heart Inspired Presentations, LLC

P.O. Box 3208

Blue Jay, CA 92317

(800) 969–4584

[e-mail]

www.rick-nichols.com

Inspirational/Self-help

BOTH SIDES NOW

Words and Music by JONI MITCHELL

© 1967 (Renewed) CRAZY CROW MUSIC

All Rights (Excluding Print) Administered by SONY/ATV TUNES LLC, 424 Church St., Suite 1200, Nashville, TN 37219

Exclusive Print Rights Administered by ALFRED MUSIC

printed with permission from Many Rivers Press, www.davidwhyte.com

David Whyte, The Journey, from the book River Flow, New and Selected Poems ©2010, David Whyte: Essentials ©2020, River Flow: New and Selected Poems, Revised Edition ©2012

©Many Rivers Press, Langley, WA USA.

Cover and interior designed by Spiro Books

Dedicated to:

All heroes on the journey home

Contents

In Gratitude

Special Acknowledgment

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1—LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN!

Who am I?

A Puzzle for the Mind to Chew on

Finding the Greatest Treasure of all

A Creation Story of the Oglala Sioux Nation of Native Americans

Chapter 2—THE SECRET REVEALED

Put it Inside of Them

Hide What?

Hide it in a Place Where They Cannot Find it Until They are Ready for it

The Great Discovery

The Leap of Faith

A Life Healing Discovery

Chapter 3—THE SPARK

The Orphan

The Finger is Not the Moon

The Adamantine Particle

A Spark of Divine Creative Potential

Thoughts from a Board-Certified Doctor of Neonatal Medicine

An Explosion of Love

Back on the Surface

Chapter 4—PARTLY FACT, PARTLY FICTION

The Power of Affirmation

The Miracle Affirmation

The Birth of a New Life Story

The Arrival of a New Life Experience

Chapter 5—THE BIRTH

The Birth Announcement

The Cherry on the Birthday Cake

Someday I’ll Wish Upon a Star

Meanwhile, Back in Kansas

Chapter 6—THE HERO’S JOURNEY

Food for the Journey

Heroes and Heroines

The Hero’s Journey

The Great Author had Something to Say

Your Journey Starts Here

An Inward Journey

The Holy Grail

Chapter 7—THE SHADOW

To the Stars through Difficulties

We are Arriving!

The Gift of God

How Wars Begin

Whodunnit?

Dorothy’s Hidden Shadow

Anatomy of Transparent Belief Systems

Dorothy’s Shadow World

Chapter 8—THE WINDS OF CHANGE

Arrival at the Temple Gate

The Threshold of Our Temple

Dismembered

Good Witch or Bad Witch?

Wherever You Go, There You Are

The Spirit of Oz

The Song

Chapter 9—RE-MEMBERING OUR WOUNDED SELVES

But What If…

The Forest Breathes. Listen.

On Being Brainless

On Being Without Love

Fear of Love

Born This Way

On Being Afraid

The Inner Critic

Back Roads and Rabbit Holes

Chapter 10—EIGHT STEPS TO FREEDOM

A Brief Introduction to Chakra Energies

The Chakras at a Glance

Meet the Family

The Fruits Come from the Roots

How did the Soil become Toxic?

The Golden Thread

Masculine/Feminine

Chapter 11—FOLLOWING THE GOLDEN THREAD

The Circular Temple of Yin/Yang

Everything is Neutral

Level One, Subterranean Basement — Root Chakra — Red — Alarm

Level Two, Ground Level — Sacral Chakra — Orange — Caution

Level Three — Solar Plexus — Yellow — Fear

A Moment’s Pause for Reflection

Time for a Break

Chapter 12—ASCENDING TO THE LIGHT

Level Four — Heart Chakra — Green

Level Five — Throat Chakra — Blue

What is Wisdom?

The Yellow Brick Road

Level Six — Third Eye — Indigo

Level Seven — Crown Chakra — Violet

Level Eight — Holy Spirit, Connection to Source; Pure White

Chapter 13—SOMETHING WITH POISON IN IT

Divine Intervention

Full Stop

On the Power of Letting Go

This is the Moment that I Die!

I wonder what it will be like to be Dead?

The Choice

The Miracle

Hey Buddy, you Okay in there?

Ricky, Phone Home?

A Reiki Healer to the Rescue

The Power of Surrender

Chapter 14—SURRENDER!

Nobody sees the Great Oz

Egos Need to Look Good

Getting Made-up for the Wizard

Surrender

The Mysterious Wizard of Oz

Proving Ourselves Worthy

The Well of Grief

Cut to the Chase

Fire

The Healing Power of Water

Hail to Dorothy

Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops

Freedom for All

A Return to the Emerald City

Chapter 15—THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH

A Transfer of Power

The Fly in the Ointment

The Egos Fundamental Purpose

Human Imagination

Is the Wizard a Wizard who will Serve?

But Wait, There’s More

Two Opposing Poles

The Great and Powerful vs. the Small and Meek

The Small and Meek

WELCOME HOME

How Do You Do?

The Past Informs the Present

Story

A State of Grace

The Courage to Love

Heaven and Hell

The New Earth

Love Heals

About the Author

Heart Inspired Presentations, LLC, offers a variety of powerful programs and products for personal growth.

Visit us online

In Gratitude:

To my wife, business partner, lover, and friend, Patricia Crane — thank you simply cannot express the depth of the gratitude I feel for all you are to me. The seeds for this book were planted well over twenty years ago with the gift of a set of look-a-like Wizard of Oz dolls you offered because of my love for the story. You have so lovingly and carefully nourished those seeds over the years with your unending support and encouragement for my work with the story. The fruits of the nearly 50,000 words on the following pages were produced from those seeds and your many blessings. My prayer is that this harvest will travel far and wide to nourish the hearts and minds of the many pilgrims working their way along the path of Love. Thank you for taking on extra work to allow me the time and energy required to create this book and for your patience and understanding of this process’s emotional ups and downs. Thank you for always offering a gentle smile, the light of a perfect affirmation to guide me through the difficult times, and the celebratory hugs for the joyful times. Thank you for the light and love you share with me as well as the world at large. The earth is a better place with you on board. I love you.

To Jane Matthews, my brilliant writing coach and editor: There are things in this vast universe that even the great poets cannot put to words, and your partnership on this creation is one of them. There is simply no way this book would exist without your gentle encouragement and guidance. Every time I told you I am not equipped to write a book, you said something like, okay, sure, so how about just another line, another paragraph, chapter, book, and so it came into being. The website WordHipo offers 137 ways to say thank you, and not one of them can fill the need here. So what can I say? As students and teachers of Louise Hay’s philosophy, we both know how to keep it simple (most days), so I will simply say thank you for all you do; I love you.

Thank you, Victoria Johnson, for your gracious offer to review the final draft to ensure a clean manuscript. Your assistance and support have proved invaluable and appreciated.

For the enormous amount of inspiration, encouragement, and prompting that finally drew this book from me, I will be forever grateful to many more people than can be listed here. In particular, I must thank every member of our beloved Heal Your Life® family, especially those I have taught personally. I have learned significant life lessons from every one of you. Thank you!

I am grateful to the many mentors and role models that have shoved, pulled, dragged, and gently led me along the path toward Love. Thank you wherever you are!

Thank you to my beloved Louise Hay for all your inspiration and guidance. From you, I discovered I must first bravely close and seal the door to my dark history to open the door to my bright future. Your teachings have always been uncomplicated — Doors closing, doors opening is the simple first instruction that set me at last on the road back to myself.

Finally, thank you to the Spirit that has guided and protected me from the beginning of this hero’s life journey. Are you a guardian angel? No, you must be a village of guardian angels, for they say it takes a village to raise a child, and that has never been truer than with me. You have saved me from one blunder after another and literally jerked me from the jaws of death on at least three occasions. I do not know how I deserve such angelic care, but I will be eternally grateful to all of you. I can only pray that when I finally arrive in your village, I will be assigned into the service of some clumsy humanoid such as I and be as helpful as you have been to me. Blessed be.

Special Acknowledgment

I must offer special acknowledgment and gratitude to L. Frank Baum, for brilliantly creating The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, his most inspiring story, published in the year 1900. It has been a treasured member of my library for many years.

Thank you to Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allen Wolf for their brilliant treatment of Baum’s book as the screenplay The Wizard of Oz. I would be remiss if I did not express my gratitude to MGM studios, the cast, and crew for their heroic effort of bringing the story to life with all the colors of a rainbow on the big screen.

Primarily, I drew the inspiration for this book out of a merger of the original story and the screenplay. I have explored them both deeply and have gained much clarity about who I am. I am delighted to share what I have discovered with my readers.

Thank you all for inspiring this book.

INTRODUCTION

"I’ve looked at love from both sides now

from win and lose and still somehow

it’s love’s illusions, I recall.

I really don’t know love at all."

~ Joni Mitchell

The verse above from the song, Both Sides Now, haunted me, I think, from the first time I heard it. Does love always have to be a win-or-lose proposition? Are there only two sides to it? What is it anyway? As a kid growing up in a dysfunctional family and environment, it was difficult to find love, never mind the potential for loss or gain. So, my thinking was the concept of love must be an illusion or a mirage. There seemed to be something comforting out there, but I could never get to it; it always eluded me.

Many people, maybe most, are afraid of love. It seems always to have strings attached to it; a risk factor involved. Take a chance on love? Hmm, maybe not; there is a lot at stake here! Thinking about the cost of this fear reminds me of a line from another song, Something Stupid. And then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like I love you. Oh, whoops! There it is again, time for me to go!

Because of the commitment they imply, expressions of love can be difficult to offer and frightening to accept. But what if there is a love that is an abundant oasis rather than a desert mirage? Would you like to discover an authentic, accessible, and trustworthy love, one that you can always depend on to be true because it is true? If so, this is the guide that will