It was Friday evening, September 21, and Borders bookstore in Goleta, California, was primed for John-Roger and John Morton to visit and begin their book talk. Sue Zussman, the regional event coordinator, enthusiastically worked with her team for three weeks to prepare the place for J-R and John.
Sue and the Goleta store’s managers created a special promotional table featuring J-R’s Loving Each Day for Moms and Dads, Divine Essence, Loving Each Day, Forgiveness and Spiritual Warrior, and John Morton’s book, The Blessings Already Are. Flyers and posters were up in the store and all around town, and even the local newspapers carried announcements of the event.
The Now Productions crew — Greg Fritz, Deborah Martinez, Robert Peake, Doug Gibson, and Justin Jayne — set up the audio/video equipment and cables in what seemed like just a few minutes. Santa Barbara fans — Kay Turbak, Cleora Daily, Angela Bell, Vicki Miller and a lovely greeter named Nancy — assisted in preparing the booksigning area, with the help of various bookstore employees. This was a true testament to teamwork!
People started to assemble and a crowd it became. Soon the seats were filled, so much so that chairs were now being brought over from the cafe area, and the aisles were filling up too. I overheard two people walking into the store saying: “What is going on? Must be something big!” and they were right! We guesstimated that over 120 people attended the talk.
How great it was to see John-Roger come in, loved ones going up to him for hugs or touch-ins. John Morton entered in his own inimitable fashion, seeming to take a full circle around the store getting the perfect lay of the land. Sue, the event coordinator, was introduced to both J-R and John, and was raring to begin the event.
Sue began by saying how she imagined that most people there knew J-R and John better than she did, and she was just going to be herself and speak from her experience. Sue had read through Loving Each Day for Moms and Dads and, as a mother, found this book to be a precious way to open more to the gifts that parenthood had for her, and that this book was very real and right on for day to day parenting support. Sue also spoke about how she had picked up John Morton’s The Blessings Already Are to see if it was really true that one could pick up the book anywhere and find a key to use on the spot or that would be helpful in the moment. Yes, she said, it was true! In the moment she had found something that was perfect for her and she encouraged the group to pick up the book for themselves. And with that warm and genuine introduction, she welcomed J-R to begin.
J-R jumped right up and began schmoozing with the group about his books, reminding them to buy. J-R held the Loving Each Day book and teasingly told the group that to get the answer to the quote he read, they would need to buy the book. Then he picked up The Spiritual Warrior book and told some colorful history of the book. J-R then read the acknowledgments, stating that one of the role models that he used for The Spiritual Warrior was John Morton. With that he introduced John to the group.
John began by saying that as always J-R was full of surprises. John himself had just been settling into his chair to listen to J-R talk about each of the books, when he found himself being introduced, and that surprise was a blessing in itself. John Morton mentioned that he had done a radio interview with Jerry Cornfield of station KEYT the day before and had been asked what John would do at the bookstore talk. As John had listed some of the areas he would be covering, he spoke of doing a blessing, and Jerry Cornfield had asked him to do a “Live Blessing” to end the radio program.
So John told the group that there would be indeed “Live blessings” this evening, and indeed there were. John spoke of the “Top 10” blessings – health, wealth, happiness, abundance, prosperity, riches, loving, sharing, caring and touching. In fact the evening itself seemed one big blessing for all, as John led the group through a blessing in silence, a blessing of all that has taken place, a blessing of all in the store, and more.
To add to the blessings, as John started to take questions, one audience member commented that over the events of the last 10 days in addition to the top 10 blessings he had found a blessing of gratefulness had come forward to him. He was finding himself so grateful for all he did have in his life right now.
One gentleman asked how to bridge the notion of the terrorists considering themselves spiritual warriors with each of us being the Spiritual Warrior too, and how to bring loving into this seeming duality. John-Roger stood up and we got a short seminar as J-R tenderly and clearly spoke to this question. A key image I heard as J-R continued was that Spiritual Warrior soldiers confronting the opposite army of soldiers, would be the first to put down their weapons. J-R continued with how it might be if, like the 100th monkey, enough people instead of getting revengeful moved to loving and peace inside them, a new presence of peace might reign.
J-R also talked about his book Divine Essence and “Baraka”. How each of us has this Divine Essence. If we ran as far and as fast as we could to get away from God, God would be right where we stopped. In fact, God would be there ahead of us waiting for us.
John Morton closed the talk with a blessing for all and the booksigning began. This blessed evening was touching and sacred, full of laughs and some tears. 89 books were sold and the blessings and gifts just kept overflowing.
As a postscript, the next morning at the Santa Barbara Author and Book Festival our booth was located catty-corner from the Borders bookstore booth. The radiant Sue, our coordinator and hostess from the evening before, gave us a hug, and said it made her morning to see us right close to her.
And our booth all day had a constant flow of people who bought or leafed through the Forgiveness and Spiritual Warrior books, in particular commenting on how much these keys are needed at this time. Eagerly and gratefully the Forgiveness bookmarks were taken for the person themselves or to give to friends and families. Many children came by and took extras for their friends at school. And quite a few people stopped to pick up a Spiritual Promise or 2 or 5 for Christmas presents. Some people just wanted to talk about how to forgive during these times. And so the blessings continue.
