Sometimes it takes many calls to convince us of a calling.  The Hebrew judge and prophet, Samuel, needed three callings and the help of old, wise Eli to work through his confusion.  Jonah needed God’s voice, a storm at sea and the belly of the whale to overcome his resistance.

The Rev. Samuel Schaal, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Texas, approached me at a Life Planning workshop in the fall of 2011 where I had shared the vision of the Golden Room.  He asked me if I would write it down for him, because he felt it could be useful for others.  It was just one more in a long series of calls spanning two decades, but it was the one that finally convinced me that I had a calling to bring this project to life.

It came along with a growing sense of urgency.

Time is short.  It doesn’t matter whether we die at 25 or 95, our lives are too short to put off for another hour dwelling in the Golden Room.  Our best, truest self, our unique gifts, our dream of a way to be or a goal to accomplish—these are things that cause us pain to neglect, and that bring us joy to fulfill.  Look at your life from a death-bed perspective and you will feel the urgency to find your own Golden Room and dwell there.

Time is short for the world, too.  Human civilization seems unsustainable on its current path.  We need to make changes that require creative vision and a willingness to place the good of the world and the good of our neighbor above our own self-interest.  We need to see our unity with all people and all the earth.  We need to find the gifts we each have to offer our community in this time of transition.  There is no way to the developmental growth and spiritual awakening the world needs other than for us each to awaken to what is in our heart’s core.  The world urgently needs us each to make the hero’s journey within and bring back what we find in our Golden Room to serve the world.

This website shares your sense of urgency and is here to help.