Katherine McClelland - Power Coupling: Coming Together When Life Is Falling Apart

Coming Together
When Life is
Falling Apart

K atherine
M c C lelland

NEW YORK

LONDONNASHVILLEMELBOURNEVANCOUVER

Power Coupling

Coming Together When Life is Falling Apart

2020 Katherine McClelland

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing in partnership with Difference Press. Morgan James is a trademark of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

ISBN 9781642794854 paperback

ISBN 9781642794861 eBook

ISBN 9781642795882 audiobook

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019901526

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Interior Design by:

Christopher Kirk

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Coming Home to You

At the

Edge of the Dream,

throw yourself

all the way

In.

CEO. Mother. Lover. Wife.

Happy Mama. Happy Life.

T his book is dedicated to the work of Spirit in the world to unite us as One and draw us nearer each other in our hearts each day.

To my mother who gave the world everything she had to give, living every day fully with a heart of a true adventurer, she lived her life in service and love. She was an inspiration to many as she forged her own way. She has given me strength.

To the powerful women who have given myself and many others the tools with which to heal and empower themselves, whom I myself have come to know and love; and who have all contributed to this book through my adaptations of their teachings all have conspired to teach me and guide me so that I now have access to creativity and power within to share with you in deepest gratitude and with special kudos for healing and tools of growth to Mary Hulnick, Kathlyn Hendricks, Byron Katie, and to the men who have stood with them in partnership, Ron Hulnick, Gay Hendricks, and Stephen Mitchell (all accomplished men in their own right) and specifically for this book, special recognition to Alison Armstrong for supplying me with a new set of tools for partnership, many of which are adapted and shared in my own way with her permission here, and to her husband, co-conspirator, and partner Greg and their fishbowl partnership learning laboratory that I and many others have learned so much from and to all women everywhere in their devotion to their wholeness are healing themselves and this planet through their dedication to their full expression of themselves as the power of love and to the men who love and support them too.

To Jack Ma and the inspiration of LQ.

And to Daron, Tucker, and Brooks for being an invitation and inspiration to be the best human being I can be each day since I have had them in my life, and for the love and forgiveness in them that has made it all worthwhile.

T he process of writing this book has been magical and mysterious. I set out to write a book that was based in my past experience and share with you how my life journey became easier and joyful for me when I grounded myself in my life from a different source, and found my way home.

The Universe had different plans. The entire time I have been writing this book I have had to prove myself as committed to these principles or I would never have gotten this book done. This book reflects my authentic journey. I have walked this book in my life each day as I have written this book with you in my heart knowing if I could handle what I was up to, I could trust that you could too.

The entire time I have been writing this book I have been also holding space for and assisting with my 95-year-old mothers declining health. It has been a full-on challenge to hold both and the rest of life as well this experience has guided my writing. This is the culmination of the meta point of the book having a full life invites us to make a choice to either be to be hyper vigilant, tense and irritable, attempting to control everything, or to be calm and aware and choosing our attention moment to moment. If we choose the latter we can attend to our full lives with an easeful grace and without missing what is most important to us in each moment of each day.

I am starting with gratitude to all those who supported me in allowing and trusting right along with me, ensuring that I know them as my sacred circle, and the Universe for all the grace you have granted me in this process. And to my mother, Frances McClelland, for this final lesson of love.

Just as the final edit of this book was due, my mother died. I was there. Despite my book deadlines, I was there.

And now I realize why I needed to write this book in the past, in my overwhelm, I very likely would have missed these last moments with my mother. But because as I wrote this book I had to impeccably live into what I was teaching, I was given a miracle. I want this same miraculous life available to you. If you have the time or inclination, I offer my newest experience of grace below.

The night before my mother died, I was sitting at home facing a very big book deadline for 6 oclock the next morning and I had a long way to go. I had a sudden nudge to call my mother. As I did so, I was hoping that maybe I would get away with a ten-minute phone call, just see how she was and to reassure myself that the caregiver was tending to her needs, and then get back to work. When I asked my mother how her day was, instead of her standard recent response, I just keep on keeping on, did some crosswords, ate some lunch, she said, I dont know, today was different. I sat in my chair and thought about my life a lot. Something, maybe the tone of her voice and her choice to spend the day sitting in quiet rumination, maybe something deeper, spurred me out of my chair to her door. Within two minutes of my arrival we were immersed in a full-on crisis as my mother had some sort of heart or mind event that began the end of her life. I was there to breathe with her, to hold her in her fear, to reassure her, to give her the morphine that would bring her relief. I was there. And I was there until she died. Long after 6 a.m. No final draft turned in. I just trusted that it was going to be okay. I made my choice. I was committed to being there for my mother. Period.

Except of course, I needed to take care of me too.

In the later morning, having not slept much and needing some care myself, I went home and slept for a couple of hours, showered, and came back. She was stable through the night and into the early morning. Once I was back, I got in bed and talked to her, sang her a few lullabies, and snuggled up. She was no longer conscious and I had no idea what to expect. And then in the middle of the day, in a very unassuming way, she sweetly and elegantly took a gentle last breath and was gone.

I am so grateful for the way I live my life that I now know how to stay present and that I have learned to listen. The intuition that guided me to pick up the phone to call in that moment was not strong but it was there, and I followed it. Then again to pause in the space of my deadline, to really hear the significance of her words amidst it, to experience my intuition again, heed its call, propelling me into action to her side, this will make all the difference in my own life. My grief will be mine and unique, but it will not carry the sadness of having missed that moment of her fear and pain. I was there. And now, I am again committed even more to living my life in tune with mySelf in such a way as to even in my full life, to be able to hear when I am being called to give comfort, kindness or for direction for my day. I want that for you too. I am in awe of the knowing beyond knowing and I celebrate my ability to be connected, present, and available to that moment, to that divine direction. I know that what comes first in my life is always in flux and to know that in my listening I will find my way, amidst what could be chaos, to the highest calling of love, that is my great joy.