I just read Opening the Door to Your True Purpose: Memoirs of a Journey to Finding My Divine Path by Shelby Alexander Griggs. Shelby is a new friend and fellow author. When we met, the stories of our books came up, though Shelby published hers long before I did. We shared stories of book signings and Mississippi where we are also both from. Shelby mentioned her topic to me from time to time, and I finally decided I'd like to get a copy of her book and read it now that things calmed down a bit in my life. Little did I know the profound impact this book would have on me. It isn't long, but it is easy to read and chock full of deep insights. My exact words to Shelby were, "It is earth-shattering in the most wonderful way."

In Shelby's book she explores different times in life where she made decisions on friends, careers, and perceptions of self. She explores the decisions she made and the obstacles that occurred along the way. Through embracing her challenges and using them as tools to learn, Shelby found her way. She also did this through the encouragement and guidance of the loved ones around her.

Not all her decisions were easy, like her decision to leave a big corporate job or the decision to let some friends go by the way side when they weren't lifting her up. 

Overall Shelby explores the journey into self and finding the deep road to self-esteem and valuing one's own personal worth. She learns to validate herself rather than looking to others for external validation of her actions. She leans and applies the lessons to be true to her self and not function out of a need to please others. 

Her eloquent way of explaining how she cam to this realization helped me to come to a few realizations myself. I had more "a-ha moments" in the short time it took to read this book, then I have had in years, and I don't think I've ever had this many profound personal epiphanies in the span of a few hours.

In the end your path isn't that place where excitement lives and fireworks go off. It is that place where you can breathe and exist somewhat effortlessly. That doesn't mean you will not face challenges, but those hurdles are just lessons to guide you along your way, if you will just listen.