Working in Los Angeles has been a wonderful experience in
many regards.
One of the things I enjoy most is the eclectic nature of my clientele.
The differences in economic, religious, cultural and karmic backgrounds are
fascinating and at times mind-boggling.
It has given me the opportunity to see abundance in a new
light.
When I first arrived in town fifteen years ago my economic
situation wasn’t strong or stable. It was actually pretty scary there for a
while.
I didn’t have my green card yet, no credit, no job.
My parents rightfully decided, after having put me through
college, that it was time for me to support myself.
Since I didn’t have any credit, LA proved to be a difficult
place to find a place to live.
(The fact that I had five cats, at the time, didn’t help!).
I had spent my last five hundred dollars on an old seventies
camping trailer, determined to figure it out. My plan was to camp out in Malibu
or Venice, secure a job and get an apartment later.
Hahaha, it turned out to be
a big joke (not at all funny at the time).
Why? Because after my “brilliant”
solution, I found out that you can’t park a beat-up trailer older than ten
years anywhere in LA County.
At the time, I didn’t have many options, so I started to
call Campgrounds all over Southern California in order to secure a short-term
solution for my home base.
Finally, thirty calls later, I located one named Follows
Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains, an old Gold Mining Camp with spaces and
cabins for long term residence.
As I drove up the dusty mountain road (an hour and a half
from Venice Beach) for the first time on a hot August day, I promised myself
this would be very, very temporary (like a month or two at the most).
My ego wasn’t amused, at all, and I was even more appalled
when a week later a wildfire broke out that left me without electricity, unable
to leave the mountain for a week. I was trapped.
My trailer didn’t have a functioning bathroom and the public
campground ones were located past the dumpster where the bears loved to spend
the night.
(That was quite an unsettling experience, especially in the
beginning).
The folks that lived up there could have been straight out
of a Western and reminded me of a different era.
There were weeks of fuel and food shortage and it was my
faith and trust in the divine plan for my life that carried me through.
This is a sketch of my humble beginnings when I first
arrived in California.
When I first started my business, I would drive all over
town to go to people’s houses.
I saw everything from the tiniest one bedroom apartment of
aspiring actors to opulent mansions; I would be greeted by a butler and served tea
while I waited for the lady of the house to emerge from her chambers.
In the beginning, I was often intimidated by the wealth and
opulence that I encountered.
There were many moments of feeling ashamed of where I was
living and where I had to drive back to after these outings.
As the years progressed and I got a chance to work with
hundreds of clients and witnessed my own soul evolution, I realized more and
more that money and status don’t determine a souls wealth.
In a few cases, the loneliness and despair I encountered in
mansions was astonishing to me.
As my ego deflated and character grew in the Follows Camp
exile, (I now think it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me) I
turned into a grateful, compassionate, diplomatic and more courageous person. I
realized I had received a huge blessing in my life that I value to this day.
I encountered a multi-millionaire a few years ago, who hated
his job and his life, and suffered from panic attacks due to his cutthroat job environment.
But he was so scared of being poor, he refused to quit his one hundred hours a
week job.
Conversely, I met some students, who worked two jobs in
order to get by, yet they felt safer in the world than some people who
seemingly had it all.
It made me realize that abundance and how rich you are in
your circumstances is relative and some people are so poor that all they have
is money!
(That of course doesn’t mean that you can’t have it all!)
