The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle changed my world.

The change that the book created is as extraordinary as the story of how I came across the book in the first place.

I believe it was sent to me on purpose.

Imagine you are recently qualified massage therapist you have just started your own business, you are renting rooms at two separate locations,  in a gym and at a hairdressers which means you have to pack up your table and shift all your kit from one venue to the other it was ok to start with but now it feels like a lot of work. The solution is to buy more equipment and kit out both spaces.

Now imagine obsessing over shopping for your equipment. 

For me, the height of my lustful fantasy featured an Oakworks brand of massage table and an Earthlite massage chair both manufactured in America.

So I went to ebay and set up an alert and indulged in the fantasy of owning the table and massage chair of my dreams. I thought about how comfortable my clients would be, I could actually feel what it would feel like to lie on the table, see it made up in my treatment space and how great it would be leaving it set up all the time. The chair got its fair share dreaming too. I could see the chair set up at my onsite event work. Ooh, the treatments I would do, the clients I would have… the equipment fantasy became more embellished and frequent, as the weeks went by…

The ebay alert binged in my inbox.

An oakworks table! Woo hoo AMAZING.

 Then another bing! 

An Earthlite Massage Chair!  WOW! 

 Oh my goodness  – both in my area and both being sold by the same vendor what were the chances?

 I contacted them straight away and bought them sight unseen. Set up a date,time and place to exchange cash for goods.

 The location raised an eyebrow and fact check from my husband – the waste land on the industrial estate at Edinburgh airport?  Yes – I replied – the vendor said it was because of the free parking and proximity to the Motorway. 

 What could go wrong? Right?

 Arriving at the industrial estate there was only one car on the strip of wasteland.

It was tiny, all the windows were steamed up, and I could just make out that it was packed full. I pulled up behind the vehicle, it was raining. I thought of my husband and my kids then my safety.

 I nervously approached the parked car. The drivers’ window began to roll down and a smiling face asked are you, Christine?

 With great relief I replied ‘yes’ and the woman still smiling said ‘you can help me move the equipment.’

 I go back to my car and open the boot and go to her car to help carry the massage table and chair. 

It was then I realised that the tiny lady standing in the rain is a Nun in full uniform.

 I was surprised.

 This was my first encounter with a real Nun. Previous Nun knowledge had been gleaned from watching the sound of music, sister act 1 and 2 and various bad portrayals of abusive institutions. My brain was in does-not-compute-must-be-bad mode.

We moved the massage table and chair for her car to mine then she said this “come and sit in my car with me you can give the cash there. I have a little snack for you”

What? Excuse me? Stranger danger!

Reluctantly I did as she asked. Even though the News headlines flashed through my brain.

I thought the ‘snack’ was going to be drugged and I would wake up in a cult, never to see my family again.

I sat in the passenger seat full of mistrust and prejudice. She gave me a juice box and reached over to the glove box and pulled out a copy of The Power of Now. 

She told me it was the most important and profound book she had ever read in her whole life.

That shocked me and she immediately had my attention.

She flicked through it and showed me where she had underlined passages and explained that she wanted to share this knowledge with me and that this book was now mine.

She explained that the massage equipment wasn’t hers. It belonged to Sister Mary Katherine who had just returned to Scotland from New York City where she had spent a year doing good works and massaging the needy and homeless.

I was stunned by the whole experience. I paid her and drove home reeling.

Over the next few weeks, I began to read the book and sure enough it awoke me.

It was a catalyst for a lifelong journey into self-awareness, self-compassion, and personal development.

If you have not read this book, follow the advice of the Nun I met on the waste ground in an Industrial estate beside Edinburgh airport.

I guarantee it will change your life.

Cheers,

Christine