Auriela McCarthy - The Power of the Possible

The Power of the Possible

A Book of Hope and Inspiration

Auriela McCarthy

Copyright 2008 by Auriela McCarthy

FIRST EDITION

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McCarthy, Auriela.
The power of the possible: a book of hope and inspiration / Auriela

McCarthy.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8253-0576-4 (alk. paper)
1. Self-help techniques. I. Title.

BF632.M355 2007
158dc22

2007027479

DISCLAIMER

Some of the names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the people whose stories have been included in this book.

Published in the United States by Beaufort Books, New York
www.beaufortbooks.com
Distributed by Midpoint Trade Books, New York
www.midpointtrade.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I dedicate this book to Lazaris, whose love is
behind everything I am and every word I write.

NO WRITER WRITES ALONE. A book is always a co-creation, even if the task of writing is a solitary one. I have written this book surrounded in a cocoon of love. I cannot begin to name all those who through their energy and inspiration made the entire process such bliss. I have felt your love. I am so grateful.

Many people have touched my life in powerful ways, both light and dark, and in doing so became incredible teachers. I could not have written this book had our paths not crossed. Thank you for your love, and thank you, also, for your incomprehensible stubbornness in refusing to change no matter how hard I tried to change you. I am forever in your debt.

Dear Lazaris, without you, this book would never be what it is. Nor would I. Its been now so many years since you first told me that I mattered a revelation that led to a profound shift. To you, I owe everything. How can I ever express the depth of my love and my gratitude for the part you play in my life? This book is for you. It is also because of you.

I feel deep gratitude for my friend Jackie Salvitti and for her team, the first to suggest that I write this book. Your inspiration and support were the wind behind my sails. I could feel them always. Thank you.

My deep appreciation and gratitude goes to David Nelson of Beaufort Books, who believed in this book from its very conception. Thank you, David, for your endless support and encouragement. I also thank the wonderful team at Beaufort, and especially Margot Atwell, the managing editor, for her attention to detail and for everything she did to bring the manuscript to its completion.

Barbara McNichols editorial help at the early stages of the manuscript was invaluable. Thank you, Barbara, for your professionalism, warmth and support. You made such a difference.

Barbara Pritchard, my assistant and friend, was the first to hear each chapter. No writer could wish for a more enthusiastic and supportive listener. Thank you for believing in this work and for letting it touch you.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to my editor, Leslie Kirk Campbell, whose amazing editorial gifts have done so much for the readability and flow of the material. Leslie, your commitment to excellence and your profound emotional response to the stories and the teachings have been such a gift.

My work with Dr. Joanna Corti led to profound insights. Thank you, Joanna, for your love, your friendship and your amazing gift of healing.

I would like to express my appreciation to David Berenson, the first to give me the insight into the power of powerlessness. David, your impact on me has been life changing. I hope you know this.

Arthur, my beloved son, you taught me more about love than any other living being. As a child, you stole my heart and changed my life forever. Raising you and then setting you free has been one of the most powerful experiences in my life. I love you more than I can ever say.

And finally, Mykaell, my love and my life. Writing this book would not have been possible had we not lived and breathed every experience, every thought, concept, insight, and idea together.

You are my home, the place where my soul rests. The two of usour own planet. Marrying you was the best thing that could have happened. You bring such lightness into my life. This book is a tribute to our love.

The Power of the Possible

When we fall utterly, something gathers us up. But our falling must be without reservation, without expectation, without hope, though not hopeless. You cant plan that kind of falling. When you abandon yourself utterly to life, the river will flow, and the log jam will free. Impossible is another word for grace. Who would have thought it, life takes another turn, and you are gathered up into a whole different way of seeing and being.

ROGER HOUSDEN, author of
Ten Poems to Change Your Life

I AM NOT MOVED TO TELL YOU MUCH of my past, simply because I lost my emotional attachment to it a long time ago. It wasnt always so, of course. Like so many others, I, too, used to live in the past continuously, reliving my experiences, carrying on endless dialogues with people I havent seen in years, regurgitating the old pain without any idea of how to end it. I functioned in the present only to the extent that it was absolutely necessary. Still, I graduated from University, immigrated from one country to another and succeeded in creating a successful art gallery. I had a family, a full personal life, albeit a very difficult one yet I was living surrounded by the fog of pain. This fog was all pervasive. And because it permeated everything in my life for such a long time, I wasnt even aware of it.

I could have written a heartfelt saga based on my life story, complete with the Russian winters, the Soviet regime and its all-seeing eye of surveillance, my grandparents hiding from the KGB in an obscure Moscow suburb, my mothers five marriages, my fathers Machiavellian gifts of emotional torture, and my eventual escape from it allalas, into a different kind of prisonand finally, coming to this county, the first home I ever had. It would have made for rich reading, even a movie, or a TV series except that I have lost my emotional attachment to it. It has become someone elses story.

Many in our culture share a predominant belief that the destructive things that happened to them in the past have scarred them forever. Not everyone is of this belief of course, but the majority still are. People become invested in their past, using it as a club to beat themselves up with, or to excuse their often reprehensible behavior, or simply because they dont believe they can ever be emotionally free from the pain that their past has caused them.

Rather than writing a metaphysical theses on why this is not so (and it is not), I have decided to tell you a few stories instead, including snippets from my lifemoments essential to my own personal journeythat have brought me to who I am today. They are true stories, stories of healing and transcendence.

To transcend is to be lifted out of your current level of life, so as to be gifted with a shift in the very core of your being. After the experience of transcendence, something inside us is not just changed, but gone, like it never was there in the first place. At times like this, it is as if a hand reaches down, lifting us out and washing us in light. There are no words for this love. Once you are so touched, all you can do is weep.