Walking the Beauty Way

What a glorious moment for our Earth to know we are all one. What a powerful moment this is for me to be speaking from the United States of America about beauty, harmony, and grace. My heart overflows with the interconnectedness of my family, my community, my nation, and my world. There is sanctity in this moment. There is grace as we awaken. There is strength as we remember. There is hope as we create anew.

How is it that harmony co-exists with terrorism, violence, and hatred? How can the shadow be so influential that it humbles us by the ingenuity of a few? How can justice prevail when we continue to inhabit a world of fear and yet desiring a world of love? These are the questions that have come to me since September 11, 2001. Martin Luther King said: “Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder…Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.” From my viewpoint we must change so that peace will prevail on Earth. Most of us want love, harmony, and beauty, which I see as our collective definition of peace. Many of us know the path to create peace. Only light can do it.

My own story of beauty is profound in its themes, metaphors, and symbols, reflected in the drama of my life. It is both my guide and my companion as I walk my journey of wholeness. I am Sally Aderton, healer and spiritual teacher, woman and warrior of love, and creator of a new dream of the Earth. I am certain that my story is both unique and not. I hope that by sharing my story you will be supported in the creation of your dream of the Earth. Now we have been called to serve in her creation for what affects one, affects the whole. The lives that seemed to be abruptly ended on September 11th will not be lost in vain. These souls dramatically exited for our wholeness. Through their willingness, hopefully, they will inspire the awakening of many more people to peace.

Beauty for me is the product of balance. The word “heal” I define as the “process of coming into balance.” Therefore, not only when I am healed I experience beauty but also it is in the action of healing. In this understanding, beauty is not just the reward, it is the way. I am serving all if I choose to vibrate from my beauty. It is the radiance of love that is the essence of my soul, my connection to the Divine, and the light that is indwelling. However, I do not get to this awareness by negating my negative or murdering the murder. I am whole when I embrace the negative and love it. I have learned that to be broke is to be whole. There is perfect imperfection and that only by acknowledging all-that-is can I be truly free.

For those readers who do not know me, I have been practicing as a Healer and Non-denominational Spiritual Teacher for 16 years since I was 24 years old. My tools, techniques, and style of healing are not as important as my philosophic perspective. In other words the ‘how’ is not as important as the ‘why’ of my work. I listen with my heart to help myself and others help our selves. We are all holy and deserve to live the creativity, visions, and dreams that each of us has come into life to fulfill. My philosophy has always been that as we heal ourselves we heal the world.

There is anonymous wisdom message in my country, which says: “Where your deepest wound lives is also where your greatest gift lives.” I was diagnosed in 1998 with a benign tumor on the nerve to my ear. My wounds from the brain surgery that saved my life were 1) to my confidence, 2) to the loss of function to half of my face, and 3) to the hearing in one of my ears. As I have healed I feel even more courage, even more beauty, and even more ability to deeply listen to others. These events are not coincidental but they are directly symbolic of my empowerment as a being awake with God. We are all faced with lessons to learn about love, though the story lines may be different, the outcomes are usually the same. Love is the beginning. Love is the end. Love is also what lies in between.

As a child I experience violence in the form of sexual abuse by adult males whom I loved and depended on for survival. The words used during these experiences were as damaging as the physical acts. I was told: “You are so beautiful Sally!” In my innocent mind I decided that it was not a good thing to be beautiful so I purposefully hid my light for many years. The Buddha has said that, “When one is truly ready for something, it puts in its appearance.” My memories of my abuse began to surface as I began to develop my healing skills. I had already years before committed myself to my spiritual path, the memories came as I learned that I could assist others in their spiritual journeys as well. As I become more aware of the light of Spirit in me, I became more beautiful to others and to myself.

It is not surprising that my tumor symptoms became more apparent as I became more and more radiant. My beauty grew as I owned the pain of my experience, forgave the players in my story, forgave myself, and found more balance in all levels of my experience. The diagnosis and surgery coincided with a rejection from a man. As I was wounded in my beauty by the rejection of what I thought was love, the damage to my physical form also happened.

During the years (1988-91) that I was recovering my abuse memories, the somatic experience was releasing sorrow, anger, and shame often that my body had stored in the back right side of my head. The tumor located in the same area, of course, was the physical storage unit that my body had produced to contain those feelings and memories. When I was able to deal with them as an adult instead of as a child, when I was ready, they appeared. When I no longer needed the storage unit, the tumor let me know that it existed. Not surprisingly, with the rejection of another man in 1998, a situation that could be viewed from a victim/perpetrator model like childhood sexual abuse, the need to end this victim belief system was the basis of my healing. It was so necessary in the evolution of my consciousness that I wake up to this message, I created brain surgery to “get it!”

The nerve function to motorize the muscles to the right side of my face was profound. The nerve actually died. My face was totally asymmetrical. The right side was paralyzed. I was told by a neurosurgeon at Stanford Hospital, one of my country’s finest medical research facilities that “it will never function again”. This experience was the voice of God telling me I had to get even more committed to my wellness, my healing, and my self-love. I knew that the rejection from the man and the metaphor of “losing face”, which is shame, were connected. I worked diligently to heal on all levels: psychological-to heal the shame, physical-by daily acupuncture and exercise, emotional-by letting my feelings be whatever they were and being creative, mental-by studying for a Master’s Degree, spiritual-by prayer and meditation, and the most important was learning to see my love again. I could see God’s love in others; I was having a difficult time seeing it in me. As all of the paths of healing have the same destination, more self-love, I slowly began to see what my friends and family had always seen. The love that I am radiated through what I was defining now as a broken body.

There is a perfect example in the rainbow-maker crystals that I love to give to people as I travel. These prisms only work because they break the white light by refraction in order for us to see the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. White light is really made of diverse vibrations which by the act of breaking the light; we are able to enjoy rich independent hues as they appear in the rainbow. What a great lesson as we work to bring the Rainbow tribe of conscious beings together in one world. The refraction in the collective is a part of helping us see diversity is what makes beauty.

Though I had been on a path of spiritual consciousness since I was 14, somewhere inside I still bought the idea that I was alone. Through recovery from the subsequent damage to my hearing, my face, my balance, my self esteem, my financial stability, my relationships with clients and friends, and my perception of the world, I now know that I am never alone. This is the gift that I hope to continue to share with others as we create this world with love embracing all-that-is. My face now reflects a miracle. I can now smile, blink, and wrinkles have returned. My face is not the same as before the brain surgery. I am not the same either nor would I want to be. The metaphors and the story will continue from here. I know it is about my journey on the path and the destination is, and always will be for me the same as the way, love.

Harmony is the presence of consonance and dissonance. The ability to have vibrations that are positive and negative co-existing to create sound that is full, rich, and satisfying. For us to live in an abundant world we must learn to perceive the negative as a call to heal. It is the shadow that alerts our attention to where light is needed. If we choose to move toward the negative instead of away from it we will have the greatest power possible. Embracing instead of rejecting each other, not to make us all the same, but by honoring our diversity, we will live in harmony.

For me the terrorism that the world experienced was not just toward the United States on September 11th. This was a call to heal for all people o all nations. Grace can enter in to mend this global grief if we can open are hearts to receive. The magnetic energy that is the negative energy in the universe is the energy of the divine feminine. It is the feminine that receives as the masculine gives. As we all look inside to heal our inner terrorists, our inner hijackers, and our inner struggle with dominion, the world will come to a new balance. I am not condoning the acts. I am not defending the will of these men. I am certain that this acting out of such vengeance is a warning for us, who claim to be of light, to shine even more bright.

The unity of us with God, us with each other, and us with our enemies, mends the illusion that we are in this life alone. I believe that by walking the beauty path, by showing as much of my radiance, love, and light possible, I become a part of the solution to the problems instead of being a contribution. Let us go on together for I have also found the walk into the Great Mystery to be a lot more fun when there are others around to lighten the load, share responsibility, and see when I cannot. I will affirm again: beauty is not just a reward, it is the way for us all!

Published in Lichtwelle, Switzerland (German Magazine)