Don Clarkson's Insights

I’ll reserve judgment till I finish writing this, but this article may be of a more serious nature and lack my usual devastating wit and charm.  You may want to skip this article entirely and go to the next one!  Or press on…  you may save yourself some angst in the future.

In metaphysics we often hear of ‘the lifting of the veil’ when we suddenly have a moment of incredible clarity into the nature of some issue we’re facing.  It’s as though a fog suddenly lifted and we see reality clearly, even painfully.  And the fog or cloud metaphor is very apt, for usually the clouds come back around within moments or hours and we wonder if we really did see so clearly.  In the Tarot this is portrayed in the Tower card where lightning strikes the tower and shatters that reality, but there are clouds pictured even in the Tarot card to show that illumination is usually temporary and transitory.

I had such an experience a few days ago and it was shattering.  For about 45 seconds I saw ahead to my own death.  But it was not seeing so much as feeling it.  Yes, I know from a left brain point of view that I will die and I have made a will and have all those things in order.   But to really have a feeling of the end was quite different.  If you saw the Hitchcock movie Vertigo you remember when Jimmy Stewart was trying to climb the bell tower stairs and the floor suddenly fell out from under him.  That was part of the sense of my experience.  It was an anxiety attack, in medical terms.  And no, I’m not sick…  don’t have a thyroid problem…  not overly stressed.  It was a one shot thing.

The event lasted seconds but the effect is still with me, and I think the effect will be positive.  Once I regained my composure, I asked myself why it had upset me so to realize the obvious.  I was surprised to get the clear message that there is much left undone in my life.  The real reason for my upset wasn’t in the dying but in the regrets I felt of things undone.  And here’s the really interesting part!

Once I realized I have regrets, I tried to define just what those regrets are and I was surprised at the answer.  I assumed I regretted the long lost dreams that will never be.  I’ll never be a concert pianist; I’ll never sing at the Met; I’m too old to be a world class athlete of any kind; age now keeps me from even attempting many careers that require years of study.  I tried to really ‘get into’ a feeling of regret for any of those lost hopes.  But nothing would come.  So, back at the meditative drawing board, I asked, “SO…  just what ARE these regrets that make me feel like weeping?”

The regrets that left me speechless are: the play that I’ve already written but left unrevised on the coffee table; the book that might help readers in their lives that I have mostly written and could easily finish; the body that is not really fully developed the way I want and could be with just a bit more caution in what I eat and a bit more intensity in the time I already spend in the gym; the full relationship that eludes me because I don’t really put much effort into it.

In short…  the regrets are not for the things that cannot be but for things that could be but aren’t.  Yet.

Regrets are not from here back in time but from here forward to the end, and as the time between now and death shortens, the feeling of regret intensifies.  For many people, it can be assuaged by a few more beers, another drug, more hours at the office, or any number of distractions.   But perhaps the better way is to get deeply honest with what those regrets really are and, in the best coaching model, make a plan of attack and actually accomplish these things so at the end there is no sense of regret or longing for what might have been.  Hopefully in the meantime, when that veil lifts again,  I won’t have need for an anxiety attack over my undone life but will sit back with a smirk knowing I’m fully engaged in ‘regret proofing’ myself.

If this resonates with you and you have fear of regrets, I suggest you either hire a coach to help you identify and attain your desires or work out a concrete plan of your own whereby you write down those things that could produce regret, make a time-line for each one where you list what would be needed to attain each goal, and then MARK IN YOUR CALENDAR what you plan to do each day or week so that when your end comes you too will smile a knowing smile of accomplishment not regret!

God I hate riddles.  This is in fact not a riddle, even though the information may be as unclear and frustrating as a riddle.

I simply mean that there are times when doing a psychic reading is not the appropriate experience.  There are times when clients expect too much out of the psychic process.  We’re talking fine lines here so there is no set rule and it’s usually up to me to determine when I’m about to cross the line.  Since this has recently been an issue in several situations, I thought it appropriate to write about it.

Therapy.   There is a place for it.  I have recently seen several clients who were trying to avoid doing important therapy work by having a quick psychic reading.  I wish all problems were as simple as a quick-fix hour reading, but truth-be-told, sometimes we have to go through a longer process of insight and awakening.  A woman recently came to start coaching with me until I discovered the issue she wanted help on was her sexual molestation by two family members when she was a child.  How I was to ‘coach’ her or ‘read’ her out of this issue is beyond me, so I had to refuse to accept her as a client until she was working with a therapist on this important issue.  Once that process was started, I could work well with her on moving forward in her life with career or relationship issues, but I could not deal with the abuse issue.

Health.  My favorite issue to read on is health and medical problems.  I believe I have the best track record on this issue also.  The problem that occurs more often than you could imagine is the client believing that having a psychic reading on a medical problem somehow magically CURES the problem.  Wrong! “I’m leaving with the same problems I came,” a client recently moaned.  Well…?   Did you really expect me to cure the problem?  When the day comes that I can not only discern the problem but magically heal it, I will raise my rates and expect to be called Doctor Don.  The reading should be seen as the first step in healing perhaps, but it should be followed closely by the appropriate medical appointment.

Spying.  Ouch. I don’t even like the word.  But lots of clients want me to check in on other people to gain insights on them.  This is the most difficult area to determine that fine line.  If you ask me to ‘tune in on’ your old boyfriend to see if he’s making out with someone new, I won’t do it.  But on the other hand, I often ‘check in on’ client’s partners and give my opinion on their compatibility.   I’m not even sure how these are different, but my rule seems to be that you do have a current relationship with the person and insights about them could have material affect of you.  Foggy at best, though, I admit.

In short, much as I believe in the power of the psychic process, it is not a cure-all and is usually the first step in a series of steps to resolve or heal a situation.  Use the process but don’t expect it to raise the dead!

ALL THINGS OLD ARE NEW AGAIN

For twenty years I ran my own real estate company, starting with a small company in Lincoln City, Oregon and moving to a large company near Portland where I managed 30 other agents.  For ten years I ran a solo practice half days while I did psychic readings the rest of the day.  Now I've come back to that model when I quite accidentally discovered that the state would count my past experience and give me the necessary license to work alone.  Much to my surprise, even my old company name had been accidentally left registered to me!  (An obvious Sign From God that I am to do this…) I am once again Broker/Owner of Neighborhood Realty, Inc!  I would love to be of help in your real estate needs in the greater Portland area if you have property to sell or buy, or if you just want to talk shop.  I'm happy to give you a free comparative market analysis on your property so you can keep up with our soaring prices.  Most home owners who have lived in a property for several years are unaware of the goldmine they sit on!

By way of community and social concern, I donate 5% of my real estate income to First Unitarian Church in Portland to help build their 6 million dollar new education building which gives all of Portland a new spiritual and educational outlet.  If you have a different community outreach program you would like to support, I'm happy to donate the same percentage in your name.

Call me at 503-295-9777.

DID YOU KNOW?

On my website there are several areas of information you may find useful.  ARCHIVES: stories and articles intended to inform and inspire.  NETWORKING: practitioners I personally can recommend.   TOOLS: most of my coaching clients use the popular Grape Cluster, Cube and Visualizations described here…  all free for your use.  FORMS: even if you’re not hiring me as your coach, just filling in the forms is the major step in your own free coaching.  Feel free to use any of these website features as a gift to yourself!