"...when you have faced failure once, twice, a thousand times in your life, something wonderful will eventually happen: you will lose your fear. And that is perhaps not just half the battle, but the whole battle for most of us in this lifetime.

No fear of failure.
No fear of loss.
No fear of shame.
No fear of death.
When you lose the fear of failure, you are set free.
This freedom may happen early; it may take you many years. Or you may glimpse it in the last breath you take.
The choice of when is up to you.

When you lose the fear of failure, you are set free."--Messages from the Divine

And now for the Beyond Words Sacred Egypt grand finale, created by my husband Dr. Steve Koc and set to music by our very own Martyrs of Sounds.

And finally, our beautiful touching farewell as we arrived at the Cairo airport and soon were to head to destinations all over the globe.

After these days together on the Sacred Egypt journey, we had bonded! A great spiritual trip is one where you relax, let loose, share, meditate, heal, cry, laugh, hug, explore and learn new things about yourself. All of that happened, and more. 

So it was sad to say goodbye, and we connected one last time with a lovely group OM led by James Twyman. Our voices rose together on the tour bus, and we remembered again: we are never alone. 

As we came down to the last days in Egypt, I started to feel uncertain. Everyone around me was having big spiritual experiences. They were having "aha" moments and past life remembrances and connections with other souls. 

It's true—some of this was happening for me, especially when it came to past life remembrances. But there was a feeling I couldn't put my finger on. It was a sense of anticipation, of that was supposed to happen, but hadn't happened yet. 

And time was running out! 

By the time we boarded the small plane to fly back from Luxor back to Cairo—once again over the vast Sahara— I'd given up. What I thought was going to happened, wasn't—and this was okay. I focused on my incredible gratitude for all that I had seen and experienced, and I let go of the need for some additional "aha", and I just relaxed on the plane and talked to the person sitting next to me. 

Of course, that was when it happened.

I was sitting in the middle seat.
The other person was sitting in the aisle seat.
Nobody was in the window seat.

Until someone was. 

All of a sudden, for no reason, I felt a presence had come into my awareness. Not like a little spirit. Certainly not a human. It was a gigantic guide—so big that his head did not fit under the plane ceiling, but extended up through the ceiling. He was huge, and his presence was as calm and steady and untroubled as stone, and he took his massive hand and held my wrist.  

I sat there, transfixed by literally everything, unable to feel or think, and in that moment, I felt all of this guide's presence and I heard something along the lines of "Everything  is okay." And then in the next moment.  "Be only you." 

A simple answer. But not simple to me.

In the puzzle of my own inner spiritual work it was the absolute key to something I had been working on for a very long time. 

And so we sat there, this gigantic guide holding my wrist, and the rest of the trip—witnessing the mummies in the Museum, back at the hotel, on the 12 hour flight back to JFK, and here back to Oregon, this guide has remained. He is with me here right now. 

So who is this new guide? There will be more to tell—and  in time, there will be a great deal to channel. But for now, it is enough for me to say that there are absolute miracles, all the time. 

For me, for you.
They never stop. 

I was thrilled on our Beyond Words Sacred Egypt trip, by a dance troupe who performed in the brilliantly ornate rooms of the Old Palace at the Mena Hotel.

It was a celebration!
There were drums and percussion and horns!
There were  lively dancers doing the Sufi dance of Whirling Dervish! 

Sufi dancing is super lively and very intricate—men twirl and circle endlessly, and as the dance gets faster and louder, their skirts become more colorful and then the skirts start to split and separate, so they are spinning above and below. 

Our group practically blew a fuse when all this activity exploded! Being Americans, we all joined in with what might best be described as the Egyptian version of  "La Macarena." 

We may not have been pretty, but we sure had fun!
​
It was a good reminder that spirituality is meant to be rowdy! 
We're meant to have fun and celebrate!
We're meant to dance and laugh and get wild!

If your life seems stuck, you will do well to call upon your inner Whirling Dervish.

One spin, and you're facing a new direction.
Two spins, and you've literally changed your entire perspective.

More than 90 percent of Egypt is the Sahara Desert. As we discovered on the Beyond Words Sacred Egypt trip hosted by Beyond Words publishers Richard and Michele Cohn, this makes for a very different environment than we are used to seeing in most parts of America. 

The desert is very hot and very dry. It receives less than .4 inches of rain per year.
Yet this was not always the case. 

6,000 years ago, the Sahara was covered in grassland that received plenty of rainfall. But sudden shifts in weather patterns transformed it into some of the driest land on earth. 

How did this happen? 
No one is sure. 

We traveled by plane from Cairo to Answan, soaring high above the endless sand that was the desert. And then we traveled from Answan to Luxor by boat, cruising on the verdant Nile.

It was a study in contrasts, and it brought the clear knowing of how quickly things can change. 

Everything is changing even now. 
Not just in the desert, but everywhere, in every way. 

When we detach from trying to control everything—when we let ourselves be the nomadic souls we are, wandering the Universe for eternity—there is a certain relaxation, a certain knowing that all is well. 

Change is constant. 
Everything is okay. 

One of my favorite parts of the Beyond Words pilgrimage to Egypt was cruising on the Nile. 

We spent three days on the waterway from Aswan to Luxor, and I found my heart flooded with joy. One morning, I spent several hours sitting motionless on deck, gazing awestruck at the scenery along the banks of the Nile—trees, plants, birds, small buildings and occasionally animals or people.

I was entranced, as if under a spell. 
I was lost in remembrance. 
It felt like some long-forgotten dream. 

I have journeyed down this Nile in past lives—not as Cleopatra, I can assure you! But as a different person, experiencing the same soul as I do now. This is how we all experience past lives--different person, same soul.

As I was brought back to this remembrance, my past self and current self merged, and my heart opened into bliss. 

On the trip, I was so fortunate to lead three sessions: a Full Moon Meditation on the Nile,  that I taught under the actual full moon, in the cabana you see here. The next night, I taught a Past Life Regression in the same beautiful space. An afternoon following, I taught a Third-Eye Opening Meditation in the gardens of the Hotel Mena.

During these meditations, we were joined by celestial and nature spirits—the energy expanded, the wind picked up to answer us, animals arrived unexpectedly, and we were gifted with visions and messages of Divine guidance, the group energy elevating our own. 

It was an honor to work with everyone on the trip, and it's also an honor to share this now—because most certainly, we have all worked together many times before.