Faith…

Dear Reader,

Over the past week, we have seen an outpouring of tribute in honor of Steve Jobs after his passing. A truly remarkable man, who made a remarkable impact on this world before he left, Steve Jobs also had a truly remarkable past. If you haven’t already, you can hear a little about his past by listening to his graduation speech for the Stanford University class of 2005; it is fifteen minutes well-spent.

One of the most-repeated quotes in the many tributes I have read this week is from that speech: “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

But last night I was listening to an interview with my primary intuitive teacher, Sonia Choquette, and she mentioned another quote from that same speech, one that I love even more for right now but had forgotten: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path.”

Do you think Steve Jobs knew, in those early days when he was sleeping on friends’ floors and living off five cent bottle deposits, all that he would one day accomplish? I doubt it. He only knew what he loved, and he trusted that the dots would connect somewhere down the road.

That is faith.

Look around you at your life right now, dear reader. What do you see? If you have had some apparent disasters, failures or seemingly nonsensical events unfold in this Year of Excellence, can you have faith that sometime in the future, you will look back and be able to connect the dots?

I think you can. Because last night in her interview, my teacher Sonia added to Steve Jobs’ sentiment. She said that your spirit leads you from dot to dot, even including the losses. That indescribable something inside you, that propels you forward and is given voice by your intuition, speaking through your heart – sees you through.

When I’m at my best, I help people find their spirit and give voice to it. That is what I love most about the work I do; for me, there is nothing like it. So I dedicate this post not to Steve Jobs, because he wouldn’t want it – but to each of you, for having the courage, humor and faith to follow your spirit, heart and intuition from dot to dot to dot…

I honor your loving heart,

John