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FROM THE HEART both agreed that they shared the same adventure with a small
group of Oregon high school students. Now, 20 years later,
they were seated at the same table in an out-of-the-way
restaurant in Maui. Bruce and I just “happened” to bring up
Alan Cohen is the author of many popular books, that subject. A week later the woman sent me an email with
including the bestselling The Tao Made Easy. Be-
come a certified professional life coach through a photo of her and Bruce standing outside the tour bus in an
Alan’s transformational Life Coach Training African plain. What are the chances?
beginning February 1, 2019. For more info visit
www.alancohen.com. A Course in Miracles tells us, “Chance plays no part in God’s
plan.” Every person you encounter, from the family you are
born into, to the person with whom you share a brief elevator
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? ride, to the customer service agent who takes your phone call,
to the clients in your business, to your spouse, to your chil-
Do you believe that the universe operates at random, dren, all come to you as friends and teachers on your spiritual
or is there a higher intelligence that orchestrates path. Some empower you with love, and other challenge you.
encounters, events, and a stream of destiny? After In all cases there is a gift for you. When you recognize the
observing many uncanny synchronicities, I have a firm belief gift, extract it, appreciate it, and use it, your journey become
that, despite appearances of haphazardness, a brilliant and far lighter and you accelerate your spiritual advancement and
loving hand guides us to our right place at the right time for deepen your soul reward.
the right purpose.
Wayne Dyer offered the analogy of entering a junk yard and
Sonia, a woman from Paris, attended my Life Coach Train- finding a fully-intact Boeing 747 airplane. “After examin-
ing retreat at a remote area in Hawaii. During the program ing the plane and recognizing the perfect integration of all
she chatted with another student, Andie, who told her that of its elements and systems, would you conclude that all of
years ago she had participated in a six-month French language the intricate pieces came together at random, or would you
immersion program in Paris. “I stayed with a woman named have to believe that some vast intelligence orchestrated the
Marie St. Ives,” Andie recounted. Sonia’s eyes bulged. “That manufacture of this highly complex yet meticulously functional
is the woman I purchased my apartment from.” After confirm- system?”
ing details, it became clear that Andie had once stayed in the
very apartment Sonia now owned. What are the chances? The engineering of a 747 is a mere pittance in comparison to
the engineering of the universe. I love to garden in a papaya
At another time I went out to dinner with my friend Bruce, orchard I started from seeds. It is utterly amazing to me that
at a tiny restaurant in a small town in Maui. The restaurant I can take a tiny papaya seed about 1/10 inch in diameter,
was crowded that night, so patrons had to sit close to each plant it and nurture it, and it grows into a tall tree producing
other on picnic benches. Bruce and I got to reminiscing about hundreds of delicious papayas over its lifetime. I look around
our high school days. “The most meaningful thing I did in high the orchard of 25 trees and see an abundance of gorgeous,
school was a trip to Africa I took with some other students. We sweet, nutritional fruit. Who set up that system? No human
toured around some of the safari parks and got to interface being invented a papaya and imbued in it the genetic genius
with the natives.” Bruce then described some details of the to reproduce itself forever and feed many people and animals.
trip. We can cooperate with the system and cultivate papaya, but
we did not initiate it. God did.
At that moment a woman sitting next to me on the picnic
bench leaned over and said, “Excuse me for interrupting. In my book The Tao Made Easy I underscore and celebrate that
I couldn’t help but overhear your story about your trip to the universe is functioning meticulously and there is indeed a
Africa. I was on that trip with you.” After comparing notes, plan that works when we tap into it. We do not have to invent
the plan. It is already well in place. We just have to cooperate
with it. Many new age and new thought teachers state, “you
SPIRITUALIST CHAPEL of Melbourne create your own reality.” What you do create is your experi-
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