The Spirit that Soars: Awaken to Life

By Ruth Skeens

In the United States, as in many countries, we're a culture that supports and values intellectual quotient (IQ) development in our educational systems. However, we neglect the emotional quotient (EQ) as it's not mainstream in our schools unless a person chooses to study the field of psychology. Emotions can play havoc in our personal and professional lives in times of change if we don't develop our emotional intelligence. Dr. W. Edwards Deming said, "It's not mandatory to change. Survival is not mandatory."

With all that the world faces today, the pandemic, racial tensions, frequent hurricanes, and forest fires have challenged humanity in ways unprecedented. Our moral compasses don't always point true north due to this myriad of disruptions. Our emotions, especially fear and anger, can derail a person, or groups of people quickly. We're being challenged to navigate life in new ways, which requires us to move to higher levels of consciousness, or being awake and more aware of one's surroundings.

The Spirit That Soars! contains a multitude of pathways that a person may choose to follow in "waking up" to life. This book is a compilation of true stories, experiences, and conversations. The tools and exercises have been tried and tested and found to be true to their intent; some are designed for personal use and others for groups of people. The big D of diversity is the basis of this work and relates to all cultures, ethnic backgrounds, gender, age, religious beliefs, economic levels, and education. It's time to awaken.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637106525

Book preview

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Fragmented Self

Chapter 2

Self-Awareness

Chapter 3

Brain and Behavior

Chapter 4

Navigating Change

Chapter 5

The Seeker

Chapter 6

Healing

Chapter 7

Sacred Truths

Appendix

Check-In

The Hawkins Scale

Emotional Architecture

Left-Right Brain Dialogue

Relaxation

Imagery: The Gift Box

Walking Vision of the Future

Four on the Floor

Stakeholder Circle

Respectful Contrary

Medicine Wheel

Two for One

Works Cited

cover.jpg

The

SPIRIT

That

SOARS!

Awaken to Life

Ruth Skeens

Copyright © 2021 Ruth Skeens

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books, Inc.

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2021

ISBN 978-1-63710-651-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63710-652-5 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to my husband, Lee Skeens, PhD, who’s encouraged me and has been my greatest support in my writing.

Prologue

Acouple of years ago, my son, Eric, gave me a gift he’d purchased while on vacation in Egypt called The Tree of Life . The gift was a tapestry that depicts the different stages of life represented by four birds looking forward, and the last bird looking backward, which is a symbol of experience. Eric gave me this because it was where he saw me in my life at that time. I’d just completed my first two books that were both autobiographies, and I spent a lot of time looking back while writing about the experiences I went through that helped define who I am today. This book is also about looking back over twenty years of discovery in both my personal and professional life.

A former mentor and colleague in my professional life, Magaly Rodriguez, would often say, We need to wake them up, meaning the participants in the workshops we facilitated. We worked with individuals and groups to achieve higher levels of consciousness, waking up to themselves and the world around them. This was done through education and tools to develop authenticity, positive emotional response, alignment of values with behaviors, and respect.

I certainly identified with this need to wake up. I’d been asleep for the entire decade of my twenties and had no awareness of it. The Spirit That Soars! entails what I experienced and observed in my earlier awakening years to life; however, like everyone, I’m still waking up. The book depicts different pathways for anyone to follow. We can’t move forward in life if we don’t know where we’ve been, or where we currently are in our journey. The unexamined life is not worth living is a renowned statement by Socrates. He believed that living a life where you live under the rules of others, in a continuous routine without examining what you want out of life, isn’t worth living. In the Bible, Jesus gives us the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:2–11. The Beatitudes are attitudes and heartfelt desires, not a list of laws, like the Ten Commandments. The Beatitudes are followed up in the Bible by this quote from Jesus, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17 NABRE¹).

It seems Jesus is saying the same as Socrates in that the Ten Commandments, the rules handed down by Moses, are no longer enough to enter the kingdom of heaven, or having a life worth living. We need to go deeper than the scribes and Pharisees who upheld the Mosaic Laws. We run the risk of becoming walking zombies if we don’t wake up and examine our hearts. It’s no longer enough to be righteous in our works but to also be righteous in our motivation. We need to be human beings as well as human doers. Jesus furthers states, I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20 NABRE²).

A person doesn’t have to be religious to be spiritual, and my religion is one way I express my spirituality. I’m not a theologian, nor have I studied theology. I’ve lived sixty-seven years of life and know the twists and turns life can offer from my personal experiences. I don’t proclaim to have the answers to which paths one follows to awaken. I recognize there are many if we are open and willing to discover them.

The stories, experiences, and conversations contained in The Spirit That Soars! took place over twenty years and are true. I don’t have a flawless memory; therefore, I know the conversations in this book are not verbatim. I believe I’ve kept the intent of those dialogues intact. Since I’m Christian, I use God and Holy Spirit to define my guidance in life. I know many people may not identify with these nouns, so feel free to substitute your belief and understanding of a Higher Power.

Chapter 1

Fragmented Self

When I was thirty-two years old, I found myself on a pathway of self-discovery prompted by a crisis in my personal life. I explained to a friend, During the decade of my twenties, it felt like I was driving down a road at a hundred miles per hour every day until I hit a brick wall. My emotions were shattered into a thousand fragments, and I spent the next four years learning how to feel again and identify emotions. This time in my life was the beginning of my awakening by becoming self-aware and is documented in my book Out of the Corner . Through this process, I felt I was climbing a mountain until I finally reached the summit. When I looked around, I saw a world I wasn’t aware of before. My awakening continues to another level triggered by a business trip to the East Coast.

The snow is falling so fast that my windshield wipers can barely keep up. It’s a wet and heavy snow that is very typical of Philadelphia weather in December. I’m grateful I had the good sense, for once in my travel life, to leave my corporate meeting two hours early to head out to the International Philadelphia Airport. The driving is slow but not heavy with traffic, which is less stressful for me. I don’t think I’ll ever become accustomed to the congested traffic of the city regardless of how many times I make this trip. Being from a small town in Iowa, rush hour is unheard of, and people don’t get in a big hurry for much of anything short of a tornado being sighted right in front of them.

Great! There’s the exit sign for the airport, and I’ve two hours to spare before my plane departs for Portland, Maine. I’m feeling immensely proud of myself in navigating the weather and timing my arrival to the airport. I dropped the car rental, which went off without a hitch since it is early afternoon on a Tuesday and is never a heavy airline travel day, even in good weather. My feelings of good fortune soon come to a screeching halt upon viewing the digital airline arrival and departure signs at check-in! My flight to Portland, Maine, has been canceled until further notice. I’ve got to get to Maine tonight as I’m scheduled to attend a workshop in a small town north of the Portland airport tomorrow morning. This trip was for personal reasons, and I nested it in with a routine corporate trip I make each month to the Philadelphia area. I had to arrive on Monday evening for a corporate meeting all day on Tuesday and another meeting on Friday morning. That left two days (Wednesday and Thursday) for me to use as I wished. I was invited to attend this workshop by the owners of the company who I met a couple of years earlier at my manufacturing plant. I’d been searching and checking out other professional opportunities for some time to leave my current corporate position.

I hurry to the customer service counter to check out my options for getting to Maine today. I learn quickly, from a frazzled customer service representative, that an ice storm has shut down the airport in Portland because power lines are out in that area. She tells me this storm is sweeping the entire East Coast, won’t pass until the middle of the night, and my chances of getting to Maine today by air is zero. I learn the only airport option that is even remotely close to Maine that I can fly into is Manchester, New Hampshire, and it’s still a long way from where I need to be in northern Maine. After viewing a map of the state line between New Hampshire and Maine, I recognize I could fly into Manchester this evening and drive early tomorrow morning to my workshop across the state line. The storm is to pass through the area tonight, and the weather is forecasted to be clear and sunny tomorrow morning. Problem solved! Since these are the days before cell phones, I call my fiancé, Lee, from a pay phone in the airport and let him know the change in my travel plans.

Upon my arrival at the Manchester airport, I question my decision to drive from here to Maine the next morning. The weather has cleared somewhat, but the roadways are a sheet of ice! I slip and slide as I walk across the airport parking lot to my rental car. I’m grateful that I booked a hotel for the night a mile from the terminal, but it’s one of the longest miles I’ve ever driven. Exhausted from the stress of the flight and the drive to my sleeping accommodations, I collapse into my bed for a truly short night of sleep.

The next morning arrived as predicted with sunshine and no precipitation. I decide to leave by 5:00 a.m. to make the 8:00 a.m. workshop. According to the map, it’s about a two-and-a-half-hour drive to where I’m headed. That’ll get me to my destination by 7:30 a.m. After thinking about my driving route, I thought it prudent to consult with the front desk attendant at my hotel before departure as the map indicates two routes I could take. One route follows the state line between New Hampshire and Maine but appears to be a secondary road. There is an interstate that I could take straight north from my hotel and then take a secondary road for about one-third of the trip east into Maine. The attendant was a young man who had no experience in navigating different areas of New Hampshire let alone the state of Maine. The interstate seems most feasible as I’m sure highway crews have been out clearing roads as soon as the weather lifted during the night. You can never be sure about secondary roads being cleared quickly based on my experience in the Midwest.

With no cell phone, or GPS to guide me, I begin my excursion north. The sun is so bright, it practically blinds me with the glare of the ice along the interstate, but true to my prediction, the road was in great shape. My biggest problem came when I approached a toll booth to enter the interstate. I couldn’t figure out how to raise my window after paying the toll booth attendant. I’ve driven many rental cars, and I can’t believe how many ways a window can be operated, and this one had me very puzzled. I was becoming frantic and began to look for a place I could pull off to figure out this high-tech window because it’s freezing in the car, even with the heater on high. Just as I spotted a rest stop to pull over, I hit on the right combination, and the window closed! What else can go wrong?

As I continued to drive to the small town where I was headed, I noticed—as I left the interstate and began the final leg of my trip on the secondary road—a sign. It said, No gas for thirty-five miles. I looked at my gas gauge, and it was still three-fourths full, so no problem there. The road hadn’t been plowed from a recent snowstorm, and it appeared I was the first person to drive on this highway since the snow fell. It was so quiet that it gave me an eerie feeling, and there were no houses along the route, or any signs of humanity. I didn’t realize that I was crossing the White Mountain National Forest to get to Maine. I did see signs for ski resorts along the way that were further up in the mountain. I became even more cautious when I saw road signs indicating moose crossings. I don’t know that I ever saw a moose in person and didn’t want to encounter one that day. There were moments when I wanted to turn around, head back to Philadelphia, and forget this trip to Maine. Yet my instincts told me this could be a life-changing opportunity, and I needed to face my fears and have courage that everything would turn out okay.

My progress was terribly slow along this route, but I kept moving ahead and praying every inch of the way. About two-thirds of the way across the mountain, an orange truck came up behind me that I recognized was a county road maintenance vehicle. The truck soon went around me as I was plugging along at a snail’s pace. I was much more comfortable having the truck in front of me as I now had tire tracks I could easily follow. When I reached the end of the roadway, it emptied into the small town where my hotel was located. I literally dropped in elevation when coming down from the mountain and into a valley. The whole driving trip took longer than anticipated, and I arrive an hour after the workshop began; better late than never.

The workshop was held in a conference room at the same hotel I was staying at the next two nights. This was a two-day workshop that was like the one I attended with my current company, DuPont. I was impressed with the facilitators and the content that was shared with us almost two years ago. Coming from a background in very traditional manufacturing, their tools and technologies were a breath of fresh air for me in my work. I reconnected recently with my former plant manager, Karen Lundquist, who brought the workshop to our plant. I learned she left DuPont to become the president of Magaly Rodriquez’s and Carol Ann Liaros’s new company, Rapid Change Technologies.

I never knew Karen well during the two years at our plant, even though my office was right across from her secretary. I knew she started with DuPont as an engineer and worked her way up to a plant manager. Even though we only had four women, out of about forty managers, we just never got to know each other. Part of it, I’m sure, was my lack of trust of anyone in upper management. I was impressed with how intelligent Karen was, and she never seemed to lose her temper. I noticed she became emotional a couple of times, a little teary eyed. Somehow it never seemed okay, in my experience, for a woman to show emotion other than anger and then she was referred to as a bitch. After hearing from Karen again, I wanted to change careers. Magaly invited me to check out their company further by attending a workshop, so I might determine whether I wanted to join their staff and help grow Rapid Change Technologies.

Karen and Michael Miner were the facilitators for this workshop. Michael had worked with Magaly and Carol Ann for years in different capacities. When I walked into the conference room, everyone was laying, or sitting on the floor. I remembered having this same experience when I participated in these unusual methods of learning. I was quickly introduced to the group as a member of the instruction team. With Rapid Change, you never just observed a workshop, you were to participate.

The members of this group were employees from a paper mill. There were about forty participants and 90 percent of them were male. It was a