Melody Beattie - Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul

This book is dedicated to life, the creative force in this universe, and the Creator. I wrote it for people on the path of discovering and trusting their soul. I hope that people interested in spiritual growth and those involved in creative endeavors, including artists, writers, and healers, will find it useful.

My heartfelt thanks to Nichole Marie and Shane Anthony for their continual love and support.

My thanks to Dr. Steve Sherwin.

I also want to acknowledge and thank Ann Poe. She was again more than an editor. For the third time in my writing career, she was a midwife.

The meditations and stories in this book were written on a journey across the western part of the United States. I dont know the names of many of the people who shared their stories with me. Some were strangers I talked to for just a short while. But I thank them for opening their hearts to me.

I also want to acknowledge the places I visited that inspired and breathed life into me and the book. The meditations were actually written in the places I visited. I did it so the energy of the magical, mysterious places I found could find its way into the pages of this book. Because of the influence of these places on the pages of this book, I wish to thank them too.

Here they are, listed in the order I visited them:

Desert Hot Springs, California

Sedona, Arizona

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

Ojo Caliente, New Mexico

Chimayo, New Mexico

Pikes Peak, Colorado

Cottonwood, Colorado

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
Tempe, Arizona

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
Lava Hot Springs, Idaho

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Hot Springs, Montana

Olympic National Park, Washington

Hoh Rain Forest, Washington

Willamette National Forest, Oregon

Mount Shasta, California

Redwood National Park, California

Cleone, California

Kings Canyon National Park, California

Sequoia National Park, California

Colony Beach, California

Melody Beattie

July 17, 1995

Meditations take us to a different place

After weeks of wrestling with trying to write this book, I finally got the message. The idea, the vision, for how to write this book came suddenly, spontaneously, clearly, the way ideas come lately. I would drive to sacred, healing, spiritual places around the country, absorb the energy from these Meccas, and let it infuse me, and this book. I would begin this pilgrimage with no set plan, no itineraryjust a map, my intuition, some vague notions of where I was going, and faith that the universe would take care of the rest. That the journey would unfold.

The trip would test my beliefs, remind me of old lessons, and teach me some new ones. It would breathe life into this book. I would take the journey of a lifetime and transform it into the adventure of a year.

Two days later, I loaded some boxes into my Jeep, bought a portable computer, said my good-byes, and headed out for parts unknown, at least to me. As I traveled down the 10 East past the clamor of LA, wondering if I had brought enough supplies but fairly certain I had brought too many, a friends prophetic words from years ago worked their way back into my consciousness. Youre not going to be finding your stories anymore, Melody, she had said. Youre going to be living them.

Soon, I became aware of another idea. In my sixteen years of professional writing, this is the eighth book Ive worked or collaborated on and the second meditation book Ive written. Yet it is a first. It is the only one that has not been based on, rooted in, grounded in , the concept of overcoming devastating pain. Instead, the book, like my journey, reflects a spirit of excitement, adventure, freedom, and joy. Yes, sometimes pain is still part of it, but suffering no longer plays the role it once did.

Meditations open the heart, free the soul

Thats what Ive attempted to do in the pages of this book, in the pages of my life. This is not a travelogue, nor a book about recovery. It is a book about discovery. Use it as a map or guide for your souls journey through the year. Read each day according to the date. Or meditate on your need, then read where you open the book. Or just open the book and read consecutively, obsessively, until you find what you need.

Meditations take us to places of power, healing, peace

Come with me now, as we travel to the mystical, healing vortexes of Sedona, the ancient ruins of Chaco Canyon, the enchanted forests of the Pacific Northwest. Let the healing mineral waters of Desert Hot Springs wash away your aches and pains. Touch the sacred earth at the sanctuary in Chimayo. Breathe in the magic and the mystery of the universe around us, then return to your life renewed, refreshed.

Meditations take us to a different place

Come with me now as we travel to places of peace, healing, and power; then know that you can find those places, each day, in yourself.

Begin your journey to the heart.