This excerpt was taken from Chapter 15 of Whispers from Our Soul by, Valerie Wilkinson and Russell Reed, with the permission from the publisher, Hampton Roads.

Why did Tahkamenon keep talking about choices when all that we wanted was the order of the words and the clearest relationship between the thoughts? How did the parts fit together? What was the message? How could we present a comprehensive whole?

You are both a piece of the puzzle and the universal truth the puzzle strives to represent. A single note that vibrates with the entire melody. Simultaneously an instrument and a symphony. This is the concept that defies your linear thinking. You are each a part, yet the whole exists within you, within each of you, each piece shining with the truth.

It appears a reversal on the physical plane, the whole within a part, but not in the spiritual. Understand that each piece holds the answer. Each piece is the answer. The placement merely serves your need to see. The puzzle need not be complete for you to understand and accept. Yet in your acceptance, the picture will be clear.

Paradox exists only in your world, a by-product of linear thinking. Acceptance of the power of the third dimension holds the key to all that is spiritual, to all that is universal. When you abandon linear logic, truth appears clearly within your heart, not to be seen but to be understood.

You have the advantage of being both human and spirit, both limited and limitless. If only you would come to accept this, your understanding would be complete.

This is the promise of the physical world.

"Nice promise," I snapped, "but how about some real guidance? Why don't you just show us which path we are supposed to choose?"

Remember always that each step holds the answer. Each piece of the puzzle is representative of the whole. You will recognize your course when you become accustomed to experiencing the truth. Imagine that each step holds fulfillment in and of itself.

Do you understand the difference this will make in the emptiness of your life? It means that you alone have the ability to alter your course. You have been programmed to focus on the destination, so you accept the emptiness and isolation of the path and justify the pain as a means to an end. Now you must focus on each step, individually and in progression, finding meaning in the movement, finding love in each moment of your travel.

Why are you so afraid to accept the truth? Is not the promise of fulfillment preferable to the loneliness that you now experience? You are lonely not for lack of contact with each other, but for lack of contact with the truth. You are empty because you do not allow each moment to vibrate with love. And now I offer you a way that vibrates always in the light and ask that you allow its warmth to penetrate your soul.

Russ and I read the words in frustration but could not help but draw from their encouragement. So we crept forward in confusion, struggling with the layout, the order, the context. But not with the content. That never slowed us. We never questioned the truthfulness of the words that filled our hearts and poured from our souls.

Through this moment, you enter eternity. The spirit exists only in the present, not in the past, not in the future. This moment alone vibrates with potential. And the choices that you make today alter your course, define your path.

The stirrings of this moment will ripple through your life, creating large waves, rolling out toward distant shores. You are one with the spirit. We are one with each other.

I come to lead you home, not by force but by the weight of your own desire. I have come to remind you of your ability to define your course. So it is now upon you to embrace the spirit, to step upon your path, to find the courage to follow your heart.

It is within your ability. It is within your destiny.

Have faith.

And we did. So the words continued. Words more of guidance than of direction. Tahkamenon refused to give us the order, only the indication that each piece, each passage, held the answer within. So I focused less on the placement and more on the movement, trying to step without fearing the repercussions. Still I tripped over the physical alignment as I concentrated on the content. I continued to question the need for this form, for a book to contain a message, for a body to contain a soul. Tahkamenon quickly reminded me of the delusion of my thoughts.

Ali, but that is the illusion you have come to believe. Your soul is not contained within your body; your body exists always within the power of the spirit. The spirit is with in you and without, comforting your center, guiding your path.

I searched for the courage to trust in my soul, to stop playing the victim, to embrace my heart. Inspired by Tahkamenon, I began to view my humanity not as a shield but as a tool, a method of definition, a symbol of faith.

It is your fear, not your body, that constrains your soul. Only that which is unseen has the power to hold you back. And even that, even your fear, even your doubt, has the power to restrain you only so long as you allow it. You can never renounce your spirit; but each moment is a unique opportunity to forsake your fear, to follow your heart, to fill your life with love.

Understand that the power of the spirit surrounds you, permeating your being, saturating your existence. It is a wonder that for so long you have ignored that which is everywhere, and yet it is precisely those things that are with you without fail that you often refuse to see. You focus on the search and forget what you are looking for, so easily distracted, so obviously worn from the effort.

Well, that much was right. I was certainly "worn from the effort." But I was also sustained by the beauty of the message. The words touched me. They changed me. "Each moment is a unique opportunity to forsake your fear, to follow your heart, to fill your life with love." What a statement of freedom. The previous steps did not matter. The present mould not be constrained by the past. Each moment remained mine for the choosing, each step mine for the taking. A game plan formed in the recesses of my mind. I felt more than knew it-a vague recognition of the patchwork of choices that made up my life. I heard the faintest of melodies, the most familiar of sounds. It was only much later, much deeper, that I could look back and hear the sound for what it was.