When I was five years old I said, “I want to be a cowboy when I grow up!” I’m still not grown up but I’ve changed my mind and dropped the cowboy thing. One thing I didn’t consider until recently was being a writer. But the Universe sent me a story, so I wrote it down and it morphed into a book, A Forever Place.

I am grateful you are reading the book and I appreciate the profound remarks you are sending me. I must share them. (I edited some of these, so if you want to post your complete remarks, please submit a “comment” to this blog post.)

Dave said: “I am not much of a book reader and couldn’t tell you when I finished one last. I read your book Tuesday night, and granted, it’s an easy read but I couldn’t stop till I was finished. I want to read it again to absorb more. […3 weeks later…] I finally re-read your book. It left me wanting more (again). It really grabbed my imagination! What a wonderful experience it must have been for you. Start sleeping more so we can hear the sequel soon!”

Rick: “I’ve read this book 4 times and I’m still not finished. Wow!”

Kathleen: “A Forever Place ~ touching, enlightening & inspiring! What a lovely gift, coffee table book and source of connection & conversation! I highly recommend David’s book to everyone!”

Gina: “This is not a book you read. It’s a book you experience.”

DeeDee: “I had a dream like yours but I never gave it enough thought to share it with anyone. I was in a room with no time or space… It was so beautiful that I wanted to stay in that room and admire it forever.”

Ken: “You sure do pack a lot into only a few words.”

Thank you for your comments. I am humbled.

Warm Regards,
David

The human perspective of our universe is small, and until I was given the dream experiences in my book A Forever Place, I didn’t think too much about the possibility of other Universes.

Ponder these ideas…

• A few thousand years ago, conventional wisdom said the world was flat.
• A few hundred years ago, it was commonly believed that Earth was the center of the universe.
• A couple hundred years ago, air travel was considered impossible.
• About a century ago heroin was available over the counter at the corner drugstore, and was touted as a wonder drug that clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, calms the stomach, and is a perfect guardian of health.

Back when these concepts were “the truth,” a person would likely face despair, misfortune or death if they happened to be the first to suggest “the truth” might actually be false. For instance, when Galileo began promoting Copernicus’ notion that perhaps the earth DID revolve around the sun, he was convicted of heresy and ordered to house arrest.

I’ll take the risk of being tossed in the slammer and make some wild suggestions:

• The world is round,
• The earth is not the center of the universe,
• I can hop on an airplane and fly from New York to L.A. in less than 6 hours, and
• Heroin may give buoyancy to the mind but is probably not a perfect guardian of health.

(There may be an occasional exception to such definitive announcements. My old boss thinks he’s the Center of the Universe. By extrapolating I could conclude that Earth is an approximation for the center of the universe if I use the boss-is-the-center-of-the-universe theory!)

For now, my challenge is to consider this: What are the things I currently believe to be THE TRUTH, but given more time, will discover to be false? The more I ponder this question, the more I discover about our Universe and things beyond the four dimensions I commonly take for granted: length, width, height, and time.

Recently I read a story about an ant’s perspective: An ant’s knowledge includes the surface of the ground to and from its nest. It also knows about finding food and defending its home. But the ant knows nothing about human love, or…the international space station, or…the color blue. What if the ant was able to move out of its dimension into ours? Think what the ant would learn! And what if we were able to move out of our current dimension into the next? We know of the ant’s existence and can study and describe it to other humans. Who (or what) knows of our existence and can study it and describe it to others of its kind? [paraphrased from a story told by Osho]

What are the things I believe to be true, but really are not?

Oh, the things I don’t know…yet.

Inquisitively,
David Wine

“Who is God” has been done before, but I want to take my turn.

The question and its cousin “Is there a God?” are actually small-minded questions. A slightly larger, and perhaps more meaningful question might be, “How is God” or maybe “Why is God?”

I wrote about Him when he showed up in two of my dreams in my short story A Forever Place. In the book I call Him “The Presence:”

I sense Someone slightly behind me and to the right—Something I know I will not “see” with my eyes, yet is vastly familiar and very different from the “God in a Box” I learned as a child.

Later in the dreams The Presence reveals that He is far beyond my intellectual grasp. He shows that He has a sense of humor, is insatiably curious and takes care to reveal knowledge at a pace I can keep up with (almost).

I spent some time researching “Who Is God” and found a wide assortment of opinions and sentiments ranging from non-emotional denial all the way to angry, pulpit-pounding of the “Fire & Brimstoners.” I found attempts to “prove” God exists using scientific analysis, as well as the not-so-compelling, emotional argument that God exists “because I know He does; I just know it!”

This question is usually discussed along a defined set of religious beliefs. When answering the question, religious enthusiasts quote biblical scripture and atheists use “logic” (supported or not). In my research, I found definitions for monotheism (belief in the existence of one deity or oneness of A God) and pantheism (the concept that the universe and God are equivalent). But at the end of my research I was still faced with the most important question: What do I believe?

My answer to that question is truly the one that matters most for me, just as your answer matters most to you.

I won’t be so arrogant as to tell you what you should believe. Also, I’m not going to be a fanatic on your computer monitor or try to coerce you to believe my way. However, I do challenge you to be willing to change your mind when new information comes along. Insist on adjusting your God-concept as you evolve and learn.

Returning to the original question: Who is God? I think this is a small-minded question so I propose a bigger one: God Is?

My conclusion: Yes, God Is.

How else would I describe God?

Inquisitively,

David Wine

At the encouragement of my son, I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s an inspiring story; I liked it. A Spanish boy named Santiago meets, Melchizedek who instructs the boy to watch for omens. Apparently an omen can be a message from God and can carry great meaning, offering inspiration to a person if he or she is able to identify the omen, understand its meaning and act on its instruction. I consider an omen neither good nor bad–just simply a sign.

My difficulty with this is not the part about an omen being important or prophetic. The part I struggle with is knowing exactly how to recognize an omen.

Last night something happened that, at first, seemed like a coincidence. However I have heard there are no coincidences; all things happen for a purpose. A guy I work with asked if I had read The Shack (I have) and we ended up having a long conversation about spiritual things and even talked about my book A Forever Place. This was an opportunity for me to do some one-on-one marketing for my book, but the “coincidence” was this guy actually enjoys reading and discussing spiritual things. Was that a coincidence? Or was it an omen?

Then this morning my favorite coffee barrister asked me a question that came from nowhere. “Have you ever been to counseling?” (I have. It was good. Thank you, Margaret!). My Barrister and I have never had deep discussions about personal matters, but I guess she felt comfortable enough to ask about my past emotional struggles. We ended up having a meaningful conversation about counseling and I was grateful to share my experiences. Was it a coincidence? Or was it an omen?

One of the routes I drive on my way home from work includes a long, banking curve on the interstate that allows cars to continue through the turn at 65 m.p.h. This evening, as I drove home from work, a motorcycle was in the outer lane and the rider and I accelerated at the apex of the curve, both at the same time. Was it a coincidence, or an omen?

It seems that I could interpret just about anything to be an omen. A song that comes on the radio, a particular shirt a co-worker wears, whether the trash can is full or empty, etc. Someone recently told me that there are no coincidences. All things happen for a reason and a purpose.

But which “signs” are truly omens from God or messages from the angels, and which day-to-day events are simply Life Happening?

Inquisitively,
David Wine

My name is David Wine. I am 48. At my other job I am an accountant. I enjoy learning new things and my mind is in constant motion. Read more about me in ABOUT.

I wrote a book called A Forever Place and it is almost finished. It’s about two very profound dream experiences I had a couple years ago. Please consider buying a copy of the book for you and another for a friend.

One of the people helping me with this project suggested I start blogging about those dream experiences, maybe some spiritual transformation stuff and other related topics. At first I thought blogging would be difficult. I’m an accountant, not a writer! But now I’m discovering I actually have a lot to say. I think if I focus only on Spiritual Transformation, I’ll probably get bored, so I plan to discuss other related topics like meditation, the concept of God, my thoughts about learning new things, how big is the Universe, and other similar things.

The dream experiences I wrote about in A Forever Place actually happened to me. They were overwhelming (like when I delivered my youngest son when he was born). When I woke up from each of the dream experiences, my heart was pounding, my skin was prickling from goose bumps and I was breathing heavily. In each of the dreams “…I stared at Infinity and Infinity stared back at me.” –Very intense!– Also, “…I was not alone. Someone was there behind me and to my right, but I knew that if I turned to look I would see nothing with these finite human eyes.”

I wanted to write about these experiences in a way that was so descriptive you could be there with me in A Forever Place. I hired professionals to help me write in an appealing and descriptive manner and I very much want for you to experience the intensity of those experiences as much as I did.

I will try to stay on appropriate topics from week to week, but I may wander a bit now and then.

Join me in my life’s journey.

David Wine