Thoughts Before Breakfast

By Carole Simpson

Thoughts before Breakfast is a book full of spiritual clues which Carole has found while enjoying her own journey through life, and while striving to find the spiritual answer to every challenge that life throws at her.

Thoughts before Breakfast is a collection of Carole’s spiritualist church addresses that she has delivered over the years. Each address is Carole’s personal view on life and she likes to see herself as a spiritual detective. She is always on the lookout for spiritual clues or treasures.

Thoughts before Breakfast is a book full of wisdom and humour. Carole Simpson encourages the reader to see life as a game, and to play the game of life to their best advantage. Carole shares her personal experiences of, what she calls, ‘dog’s poo in paradise’ moments to show the reader that even in the bleakest moments of life there is a spiritual clue or answer to be found.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Dec 12, 2008
• ISBN: 9781466959354

Carole Simpson

Carole was born in 1950 and grew up in Bristol, England. She is one of ten children; she is the seventh child and the second born of twin girls. Carole enjoyed growing up in a big family and had an imaginary black bag where she would mentally store all the precious memories and lessons that her parents and many siblings had provided her with over the years. When Carole was growing up she had lots of unusual dreams and thoughts before breakfast. When she tried to share them with her family they could not understand where her funny or strange ideas came from, and thought she was a bit of an odd ball. At school, Carole sometimes felt that she didn't quite fit the normal mode. She is left handed and at the time was considered a slow learner, but later learned that she was dyslexic. Carole left school at 16 and trained to be a nursery nurse in a residential children's home. At the age of 21 she met a guy called Peter. They married in 1972, and in 1973 immigrated to New Zealand where they continue to reside. Carole spent many years bringing up her two children, and working in childcare. In her thirties she took up running, tennis, going to the gym and biking. However, due to several back injuries she had to give up the running and tennis. Carole joined a spiritualist church in 1994 where at last she felt at home, and started to share her thoughts and dreams in her church addresses to the congregation, which eventually led to writing this book, Thoughts before Breakfast.

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DEDICATION

To my mother May Elizabeth Shorland 1918-2003

Mum, I wrote this book especially for you, to say thank you for being such a great mum and sharing with me your great love of nature. My most treasured memories of growing up were our lovely country outings. Mum, thank you for giving me nine siblings. Growing up as a member of a large family was one of the best gifts you gave me.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to all the people who have helped to make this book possible; particularly to my husband Peter for allowing me to share some of his less pleasant experiences. And to other family members, Lorraine, Ian, Clarissa, Vic and Linda for also letting me share some of their experiences; Ian and Judy Davis-Goff for all their love and support; Brenda Sanders for her happy encouragement. A very big thank you to all my fellow spiritualists at Napier Spiritualist Church for always showing their appreciation for my church addresses; without their encouragement this book would not have happened. Thank you to Alex Thomas for proof reading this book. Thank you to Beryl Smith for your proof reading and editing. Thank you to Lee Howard for sharing your computer knowledge. I thank my own personal guides who have been constantly in the background giving me inspiration, encouragement and the courage to carry on when I felt overwhelmed with the task at hand.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Foreword

A Personal History

The Self-Help Group

Spiritualist Church

My First Talk At The Spiritualist Church

A Few Of My Thoughts

Words

Enthusiasm

Time

Three More Thoughts

Another Spiritualist Church

Thoughts Before Breakfast

Flower Power

Now

The Game Of Life

Toastmasters

My Second Speech At Toastmasters

Christmas

The Circle

Magical Thinking

Blowing Bubbles

Money

Touch

Dog’s Poo In Paradise Part 1

Power

Inspiration, Motivation And Cooperation

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Seeds

Dog’s Poo In Paradise Part 2

The Code

You Never Know When God Will Use You

My Life Purpose

Dog’s Poo In Paradise Part 3

Life Is Meant To Be A Struggle

Universalist

Spiritual Networking

The Big Cover Up

Walnuts

The Treadmill

Epilogue

Comments About ‘Thoughts Before Breakfast’

FOREWORD

For most of my life, in the morning before I am fully awake, my mind receives some wonderful thoughts. ‘Receive thoughts’ sounds strange. Where do thoughts come from? My early morning thoughts seem different from my daily thoughts. They seem to come from another source; they are in my mind but are not from me.

I believe these thoughts are from my spiritual guides, and I look forward to them daily. The thoughts are full of ideas, or sometimes they can be a whole lecture on life. They fill me with passion and enthusiasm, and I can feel the excitement of starting a new day.

I titled this book Thoughts before Breakfast. I have shared some of my thoughts before breakfast with my local spiritualist church when it has been my turn to do the address. Over the years, the congregation have said how much they enjoy my speeches and really look forward to them. Some of the regular church goers have told me how one of my speeches helped change their way of thinking, and actually changed their lives for the better. You may notice that I have repeated parts of stories; this is how they have occurred in my life.

Though I have called this book Thoughts before Breakfast I also receive some wonderful thoughts when sitting in my garden or in other places of beauty, so of course I have included them in this book.

Carole Simpson

A PERSONAL HISTORY

I am from a family of ten children; I am number seven, and a twin. I grew up in Bristol, England.

When I was 21, I met a lovely man called Peter. We decided that we would be married. We planned all the details carefully, and intended to buy a small, new house in Bristol, straight off the plan of a new housing estate. One of my brothers, Tim, was a contractor on the site so we were able to choose a house plan without any difficulty. All we had to do was to wait until the house was built.

One morning when I was cleaning my teeth, just before Peter came to pick me up, I had a clear vision in my mind. I saw myself washing the dishes, looking out of a little kitchen window in my new house. It gave me a sad, closed-in feeling, and I could see a future of spending my life in a little house, washing dishes. I thought, I could wash dishes anywhere else in the world.

Peter arrived a short time later and the first thing I said to him, when we were in the car, was, I can wash dishes anywhere in the world and not just in Bristol. Much to my surprise, Peter agreed, and we started to think about other countries. We decided Canada was too cold, Australia had snakes, and then Peter mentioned that he had an uncle who lived in New Zealand. I didn’t know anything about New Zealand but we both thought we could live there.

When we went to London to visit the New Zealand Embassy, they told us New Zealand didn’t need our skills, so we left feeling disappointed.

Peter’s mother cleaned house for her neighbour who just happened to be a New Zealander. One day, she gave Peter a New Zealand newspaper which she found in the neighbour’s wastepaper basket. She thought Peter might like to look at it, because he was interested in New Zealand. In the newspaper was an advertisement, for English soccer players to play soccer in New Zealand. Now Peter was very good at soccer, and he replied to the advertisement. Peter is a painter and decorator. A painting firm in New Zealand said they would sponsor him and he could work for them, and play soccer for the town’s soccer team. Within a few months of having a vision of looking out a little window while washing dishes, we were on our way to a new life in New Zealand.

I believe when the universe would like you to do something, it gives you a helping hand. I think the universe had worked out my future. Within a 15 month time frame; I met Peter, we were engaged, married and immigrated to New Zealand, and I felt that we were guided every step of the way.

THE SELF-HELP GROUP

About 14 years ago, I joined a self-help group, where we sat around in a circle, and each one of us shared our week of highs and lows. Each week, one member of the group was chairperson, and opened the meeting with a little prayer, and then read from a collection of inspirational readings. The meetings were run on the same lines as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA’s) 12 step programme.

At first I was reluctant to join the group, thinking I did not need such a group. However, a friend encouraged me to go along to three meetings, and then decide whether to leave or stay.

The meetings were held in a building in the same grounds as an addiction centre. For several years I had passed the addiction centre, and could not understand how people become addicted to drugs and alcohol.

On my first meeting I sat there looking at all the other group members. I listened carefully to the readings, and then to each member’s highs and lows, and how they were managing to cope with life’s challenges, I was amazed. Some of the group were from the addiction centre, and I was overcome with the emotion and compassion I felt for them, and thought how lucky I was, not to be in their shoes. At the end of the meeting we all stood in a circle and said the Serenity Prayer out loud.

I continued to go to the meetings each week and was filled with awe, observing the changes in the addiction group members. During the first week of their course they would come into the room with their heads down, and sit, crumpled in their chairs, and would either mumble or whisper or refuse to talk. However, with each passing week, I could see their confidence and self-esteem soar. By week eight they would be chairing the group. I really enjoyed going to the meetings and seeing the miracles.

After a couple weeks I was confident enough to share my own highs and lows, and read a passage or two from an inspirational book.

A little while later, I volunteered to chair the group, and I chose the inspirational reading and the topic for the evening.

I chose my topic by looking at situations in life, and finding secret messages or lessons. I am also able to see visions which make it easier for me to share what I have learnt. I didn’t realize I was having such an impact on the group, until some of the members told me after the sessions, how much they really look forward to what I have to say, and how I say it in such a way that it’s easy for them to understand. They said that I have a gift for talking. Well, they could have knocked me down with a feather! I am dyslexic and sometimes have trouble pronouncing words properly. How could I have a gift for talking?

One member of the group brought along a flyer for International Toastmasters’, and gave it to me saying, You ought to join this club. I kept that flyer for years, before I was brave enough to ring the phone number on the flyer, and inquire about joining Toastmasters’.

On three occasions my talk really hit home, and the members of the group gave me heartfelt thanks for the inspiration I had given them.

The first occasion was about my 19 year old son, Ian, who was recovering from a serious bout of glandular fever. Ian had bought an old Suzuki jeep; it had quite a few rust spots in it. However my son loved every bit of that Suzuki jeep, even the rust spots, and he spent many happy hours sanding and bogging away the rust. He loved the whole jeep, not just the good bits, and that is what we have to do with our bodies, love the whole of us, and love working on our rusty bits to improve ourselves.

The second was about something I saw as I was leaving a previous meeting. On my way out of the meeting, I saw a can for cigarette ends, and the label on the can read, ‘Put your butts here.’ That label gave me my next subject to talk about. I explained about the label on the can, and said we could all do with our own personal can with a label saying, ‘Put your butts here,’ because we all tend to make up excuses for not doing something with a ‘but’. If we start a sentence with a ‘but’, we can be sure we are making an excuse to avoid some task that may be good for us, but requires some effort on our part.

The third came to me when I was out on a country bush walk. At the beginning of the bush walk there is a big board with a map of the area. On the map there is a red arrow that points to where you are; at the beginning of the walk. Under the red arrow, in big bold words reads, ‘You are here.’

I told the group about the bush walk and the sign. I explained how the sign made me aware of where I was in life at that moment.

Before we can make any changes to our lives, we have to start from where we are at the present moment. If we need to lose weight, we have to accept the weight we are now, as our starting point, and then we need to map out the course we are going to follow to reach our desired weight. We can’t go from the now, straight to the end, without doing the hard yards. However, that is what we sometimes try and do. We moan and feel dissatisfied with where we are now, but refuse to take any action to move off the spot. It’s amazing how far one step at a time can take us.

I stayed with the self-help group for several years, until it disbanded. I am truly grateful for that group, because it was an excellent training ground for me. It gave me the confidence to speak up for myself, and was a place for me to practise my newly found skills.

SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

Around the same time I was in the self-help group, I also visited a local spiritualist church. I have always felt a spiritual connection with the universe, and love being in nature. When I am outside on a perfect day, when the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the colour of the flowers and trees all look vibrant, I feel a real oneness with everything, and say to myself, Thank you God for giving me such a wonderful life.

The first time I went to the church, my son, Ian, came with me, and we had no idea what to expect. It wasn’t really a church; the service was held in a little community hall. There wasn’t a vicar or a priest leading the service. It was run by the spiritualists themselves. We sang some hymns from a little spiritualist hymn book while a lady managed to bang some music from a very old piano. Next there was a spiritual based reading, then another hymn, followed by an address of about fifteen minutes, which was followed by another hymn. There was the free will offering, another hymn and then it was time for the clairvoyance. Ian and I had no idea what to expect, so were shocked when the medium looked at me and said, Can I come to you? He told me that I was blessed with many spiritual gifts and was welcome to join their church. He said lots more, but that was the part that stayed with me. There were two mediums working that night, and my son was also given a reading. After the clairvoyance, there was a final hymn and a closing prayer. At the end of the service you could have some spiritual healing, and tea and biscuits.

My son went to the spiritualist church only once, but I continued to go weekly, and then joined the spiritualist church awareness group. I really enjoyed going to the awareness group. We learnt how to tune into our guides, how to meditate, and how to do clairvoyance.

After a few group sessions I was encouraged to be part of the service. I started off by just doing the reading, and later I would be chairing the meeting. Once the leader of the church thought I was ready to go to the next stage, she invited me to join the circle. This was a weekly meeting where a small group of us sat in a circle, and it always opened with a prayer of love and protection. This would be usually followed with a group healing session. During the circle we would practise different ways of doing clairvoyance, and have meditations, and then share what we learnt from our meditations. We would also tune into our guides to see if we could receive some spiritual guidance. We always finished each circle with a closing prayer of love and protection.

After a couple of months of being in circle, the members would run the church service. The first few times we would give a mini- address which would be a few minutes long.

I thought of the topic for my first church talk in the early hours of the morning, when I was in that state between sleep and awake. One sentence came into my head, and that sentence sparked a complete little speech. I also saw a vision which helped me to create the speech.

MY FIRST TALK AT THE SPIRITUALIST

CHURCH

Good Evening Everyone

Welcome to my first talk at this spiritualist church.

When I first came along to the church, I think it was around April or May; I sat back and enjoyed listening to the people running the service, thinking to myself, Gosh, they are brave, standing up there talking to us. I would be far too nervous to speak in public; thank goodness I will not have to do it. I will just come along and listen to what they have to say.

But I made a big error and started to go to the Tuesday night awareness group. I didn’t know what