What is your WHY?

As I go through the ropes to move to the second round of the Next Top Spiritual Author competition, spending more and more time each day asking people to vote for me, focused on the May 3 deadline for voting, I am forced to ask myself WHY I have entered, and WHY I want to win the competition.

Is it the publishing contract with Hampton Roads Publishing (www.HRpub.com), as well as a promotional package to help market that book when it is released?  Oooh – that sounds great!  I self-published “Free and Laughing” and while it has been an amazing learning experience, I have decided that for my second (and third and fourth) book, I want a publisher.  So winning would be an answer to this prayer

Could this competition and all the nice things people are saying, be a great ego-boosting exercise?  Well, everyone loves when people say nice things – but is that enough payoff for the amount of time and energy I am devoting to this competition?

Or perhaps I am driven by the lure of the millions of dollars that will flow in to my coffers, flooding me with the financial abundance that I pray for everyday?  Hmmm …. that would be nice.; really, really nice.

But then I received this e-mail from Sandra on Sunday:

“Ms. Orane, thank you soooo much for your gift.  I look forward to reading and becoming more “Free and Laughing” as I travel this journey called life.  Nothing happens by chance, and your gift is a prayed for favour granted to me this evening.  Best wishes in the competition and I look forward to getting some info from you regarding ‘Laughter Yoga’… I recently moved to Canada and need to laugh the challenges of re-settling combined with the winter chills away!”

My heart felt so warm when I read this.  I have been moved to read it over and over.  I realize that this is my WHY – to be a channel for the goodness of the Universe to flow to other people; to help others on their life journey; to make someone’s day a little better.  I could be happy with just helping Sandra, but I realize that being the Next Top Spiritual Author would allow me to further my vision of world peace, and the joy and happiness of all human beings.

Today, ask yourself “What is my WHY”?  WHY are you doing the things you do today?  Is it in alignment with the bigger WHY of your life?  Do you even know what the bigger WHY is?  Spend some time quietly meditating on your WHY.  When you feel a sense of peace and joy, of calm and grace, you will know your WHY!

And please spend a moment to cast your vote, and to ask all your friends and family to VOTE for Marguerite as the Next Top Spiritual Author. Together we can make the whole world free and laughing!