One aspect of the Eckankar teachings is known as Soul Travel. It sounds very cosmic, doesn’t it? I thought so at first, but found it a very practical way to find balance in the face of change and uncertainty, a conscious shifting of focus, leaving one room and entering another larger room. It can be both illuminating and liberating.

One day at the gym, I returned to the locker room and found my lock had been forced open. My wallet was missing! My heart raced in a sudden panic and helplessness washed over me. All my credit cards and identification, gone! I stared into a black hole. What to do?

I notified the police and set in motion a calamity of questions and phone calls and the canceling of accounts. Reconstructing my identity seemed overwhelming. Because it was Saturday, I had to wait 48 hours with a creeping menacing worry over a mountain of nuisance.

I needed a driver’s license, so located a registry the following Monday and took an early train into town hoping to beat the crowd. There was already a long line and only one employee. I waited impatiently for an hour. The computer froze adding another hour. By the time I was called, my mood was sour. They charged twenty dollars for the replacement license. Because it was just a month before my birthday, I would have to pay again to renew registration. Oh, I was so annoyed! Why had this happened to me?

 

Sulking away with a temporary ID in hand and a storm cloud overhead, I decided to walk home thinking it might diffuse the anger. About halfway, I stopped at a fast food place, ordered an orange juice, and sat at a table stewing over my misfortune. I tried a spiritual exercise. Quietly repeating the word HU (hue), a name for God, I closed my eyes and listened. 

The ventilation was humming in unison with my chant. There was a distant high pitched sound, then the chatter of busy workers taking orders, the hissing of the grill, prattle from a few customers, traffic sounds. I noticed a familiar song on the radio. It was “The Power of Love” from the movie “Back to the Future.” The chorus began, “Don’t need money, don’t need fame, don’t need no credit card to ride this train…” I started to laugh. I didn’t have a credit card. My darkness quickly lifted turning grey skies to sunshine, as if the whole thing was planned.

I was identifying with numbers and cards until now. This was an opportunity to embrace change, reinvent myself, refresh and renew. I felt grateful and excited, walking in a bigger world with spring in my step. The air was bristling with possibility. I rounded a corner and stopped short. A twenty-dollar bill smiled up at me from the sidewalk. With a reassured grin I accepted the gift. When you give some, you get some, right? It’s the power of love!