Intention is a powerful thought form, an energy that guides my behavior. Please note that I said "guides" rather than "controls." When I was younger, others instructed me to control my thoughts and my behavior. I wanted to be a good person so I set out to control myself. Generally speaking, it did not work very well. In fact, it created an inner atmosphere of resentment because I felt judged by the voices in my head and by those around me. I desperately wanted to be free to just be me. Lack of life experience and tools to know myself made that freedom impossible. In my late twenties, a loving pastor listened as I talked and wept in frustration. As I wound down, he looked into my eyes and quietly said, "Catherine, there are some things you just can't understand until you have lived long enough to understand them. Let it be okay to just be where you are." The door to personal freedom began to open.

As I awoke this morning, a mere forty+ years later, I lay with eyes still closed and...