8-8-88 Symbols of a Life Path

Copyright 2003 Catharine Arnold. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Arnold, Catharine, 1964

      8-8-88, symbols of a life path / Catharine Arnold.

ISBN 1-4120-0208-7

      1. Symbolism of numbers. 2. Fate and fatalism. 3. Signs and symbols.

I. Title. II. Title: Eight eight eighty-eight, symbols of a life path.

BF1623.P9A68 2003 133.3’359 C2003-902031-2

This book was published on-demand in cooperation with Trafford Publishing.

On-demand publishing is a unique process and service of making a book available for retail sale to the public taking advantage of on-demand manufacturing and Internet marketing. On-demand publishing includes promotions, retail sales, manufacturing, order fulfilment, accounting and collecting royalties on behalf of the author.

Suite 6E, 2333 Government St., Victoria, B.C. V8T 4P4, CANADA

Phone 250-383-6864 Toll-free 1-888-232-4444 (Canada & US)

Fax 250-383-6804 E-mail sales@trafTord.com

Web site www.trafford.com TRAFFORD PUBLISHING IS A DIVISION OF TRAFFORD HOLDINGS LTD. Trafford Catalogue #03-0576 www.trafFord.com/robots/03-0576.html

10   9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1

My God

Chapter 2

All Relationships

Chapter 3

Am I A Seer?

Chapter 4

Lets Do It Again

Chapter 5

My Predictions

Chapter 6

So This Is My Life

Chapter 7

Finding Me In My Soul

Chapter 8

Cause The Bible Said So

Chapter 9

Discovering My Inspirations

Chapter 10

Is It My Nature Or My Spirit?

Chapter 11

Is It Just Me?

Chapter 12

Opinions Are Like....

Chapter 13

Finding Our Roles

Chapter 14

My Energy In Me

Chapter 15

Free Will Can Lead To Accidents

Chapter 16

She’s A Character

Chapter 17

What’s Your Reason

Chapter 18

My Gifts From God

Chapter 19

Let It Roll

Chapter 20

Summing Up A Life

Acknowledgements

PREFACE

There are mountains where gains can be made, sometimes mountains are symbols. This was told to me in a reading in 1993, and then I saw it as the cover of this book in a vision. When we see all the symbols of our life coming together pointing out the path we have before us it is hard to deny what we must do. Still yet this is what we do all too often and then we wonder why everything is off center? A unique child and a series of events were not twists in my life plan. They had been preprogrammed events with a purpose in making me exactly who I am. It is not the events themselves but rather how I reacted to the events that make my life what it is.

I have tried showing myself spiritually by taking a look at what I set out before me as symbols of my life path and how I reacted to them. In spite of my own human nature to want the material there was a pull I could not resist from the spiritual that promised a greater pay off. It’s one thing to tell someone that their life is whatever fate has made it and it’s another thing to tell them they had a hand in designing that fate.

INTRODUCTION

The first time a medium told me anything about my life was on 8-8-88. I had no idea what was in store for me. My brother was the one that had the reading done but I know I’m the one it was meant for. The truth finds you no matter where you are or what you’re doing. I was having my first baby on that day so when the phone call came in from my brother I had other things on my mind. This will always be my son’s birthday first and then the day I got a glimpse of me. Eight is supposed to be a lucky number to some people I even bought in to that too for a while. Till I realized there is no such thing as luck. This was not the first symbol I ever got but those eights kind of stuck out there in my mind. The autistic boy who is now my teenage son has been living up to the reading in ways we could not imagine back then.

These pages are about me finding myself and recognizing a part of me I didn’t know existed. We can’t know all of who we are while we are here. This is to make sure we keep to our life paths. We do get a chance to peek at it now and then though. This is easier said then done to go against everything we once were taught. Soon we learn that many things have been put before us and presented as fact. When I started questioning the way I felt when I was taught these things then I realized I had the answers already. I believe my life was mapped out before I came here.

I never knew myself before this. I really wondered why I was put here on this earth. Now I know I did this with God and when I think really hard about it I know I would not screw myself over. So ultimately I have learned that there is a reason for everything. Everything we do has a purpose to it. I know that we work together and interconnect in ways we can’t see. I know I don’t get to know everything at this time. I am sure there are surprises for all of us that we had no idea were coming. Well we had no idea on this side of the veil anyway. As far as what there is for us to see on the other side is so varied as to the individuals life plan.

I got to tell you that fairness and equality has nothing to do with your life plan in the way you think. We set these things up along with God at our side for our gains in the spiritual world.

That is what it is really about not the gains we make here with our material things. The color of your skin or the religion you follow has nothing to do with your rank in Gods eyes. Never assume that you have an edge on anyone you know. The way we give each other a status in this life that can hardly be lived up to is what is unfair. If you don’t like the kind of life you got you can only blame yourself since you designed it.

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. That’s been one of my themes always, the clues are all around us but somehow we just don’t see them for what they are. Really when you look at it life is not such a mystery. The answers are everywhere you need to take the time to see things in a new perspective. Somehow along the way we made it harder on ourselves then it has to be. Human beings seem to think that it is necessary to see whatever is before them for its negative connotations first. I can’t believe I got this far in without mentioning God or Allah, call the almighty what you like, we better all come to the realization that there is a higher power and we all come from that power.

We’ve all been here before many times and doing many things. When you search yourself and these pages you’ll find I believe we try everything, name the race and religion and we’ve tried it. Sure we have our favorites but we don’t always do what is best for self now do we. I think about earth as being a school and we are here to learn, and we keep coming back until we get it right. Then it’s a little easier to understand things like "THE MEANING OF LIFE’.

I feel like I need to be as straightforward as I can be with you, first you need to know something about me. I was baptized and confirmed a Catholic in Omaha, Nebraska. I went through both public and parochial schools. I held down quite the array of jobs over the years. Although I was trained for radio broadcasting just like my father before me including going to the same broadcasting school as he did. I even managed to get the part of a nurse, with no lines of course, in the movie Terms of Endearment. Where else better to meet a movie star who is into the metaphysical?

Now Shirley Maclaine isn’t shy about her beliefs and thank God for that because it was Out on a limb that started the Journey that has led me to this point in my life where I’m telling the world my story on these pages. It was one of those symbols I had given myself I just never knew that till years later. I never got to know Shirley, I just asked for an autograph and then watched her grow spiritually through the media like the rest of the world.

When my son was only four he reminded me of my path without knowing what he did. It was Thanksgiving and he walked in the room before we left for the relatives and simply said, Get faith, get faith. Then he walked out and my husband and I looked at each other wondering where that came from. May not seem like much but that was from a boy who barely spoke at all at that time.

The most important thing I need to relay is that we each have our own Journey I can’t tell you what yours is that’s for you to figure out. I can show you some things I found along the way on my journey. Defining the truths. Everything we need to know is already before us we just haven’t seen it for what it is yet. These pages contain my beliefs, right or wrong there mine. It’s your choice to read on, something compelled you to pick it up in the first place so you might as well read on and take what you can. Who knows maybe this was designed to be in your life path right now just as Out on a Limb was for me over twenty years ago?

CHAPTER 1

MY GOD

The beginning and that is of course with God. I have a need to have there in my mind at all times that I am one with God. I really don’t know why it’s so hard for people to believe in a higher power. To me the pull from God is so strong you can’t ignore it. You know the one where you ache for that missing thing in your life and you can’t put your finger on it. Then you decide to pray. If you would have just gone to God in the first place, but no, you try every trick in the book until you find out there is no trick with God. It’s really easy all you have to do is thank God for what you have and ask him for what you need. Just remember that what you want and what you need are two different things. What you think you need and what God thinks you need are also different. I really laugh when people tell me that God doesn’t answer their prayers so why bother to pray. God answers everyone, its just that sometimes the answer is no.

I believe Gods plan for us varies as the fingerprints on our hands. Each and every one of us has something different to do. We all have different levels that we work off of. It’s important to remember that there is no higher or lower level they are just different levels. I think of it like it’s a giant webbing and we all work off each other and that giant webbing weaves right back to the God source. For the sake of argument as the pages progress I may refer to God as the higher power, or the God source as I said it before it doesn’t matter what you call your God just call.

When I speak of God I really must speak of prayer that is after all the way we speak to God. Rest assured I won’t be telling you that you should be buying some fancy alter for your prayers. Anyone who tells you that you need anything to get in touch with God just wants you to buy something. Everything you need is within yourself you just may not be seeing the symbols you have within you already.

I don’t mean to down play the different religions out there they are fine for the people who need a structured way of life to help keep them in touch with God. I will always appreciate the

Catholic Church and my family for introducing me to God. I just have not had the need to go back to the church for God I find I am always with God anyway. See it doesn’t matter if you do this in some gorgeous cathedral or on your front porch watching a wonderful sunset direct from God.

The way God works is such a personal thing to each of us no one can tell you how to be spiritual, including what I tell you within these pages. Remember this is my journey and if you can gain some light from me great, but I can tell you it must be your own path you follow. I believe we make a contract with God before we come here. We chose our parents, when we get here, when we leave, who we love along the way. Even our children, there are no accidents, if we follow our life plans and that goes along with following our intuition.

It may be hard to believe that you would put something in your life plan that may on earth seem like a mistake but on the other side makes sense. It’s not the mistake you make it’s the lesson that you learn from it. We spend too much time making the same mistakes over again and again because of the follow through on them. God forgives us each time we screw up too. When I say again and again I mean not just this life but we carry them over from previous lives.

Never will we be truly at home here simply because it is not our home. When we make a contract with God before we come here think of it as signing up for school and within the school years we sign up for certain classes. Usually it’s something we just couldn’t get through our head in a previous life. For me ever since I was young I questioned why I was here. I think everyone has that same wondering thought but for me it’s been relentless and all consuming. So naturally the culmination of my life long obsession is now spilling out on these pages.

I really could go on page after page on God but the main thing I want to get across is that God is here and always has been. To reach God is very easy but may be very different for each of us. If it means you must sit in the lotus position with incense burning and crystals in each hand then do it. If it’s taking a walk and getting in touch with your thoughts then do it. If it’s 8am Mass Sunday morning at the local Catholic Church then do it. I have tried all those ways of finding God and he responds to all.

When we come here we remember everything but babies can’t communicate what they remember. Two and three year olds can though, when they start talking you start asking them what they remember. By the time there five or six the veil comes over them and they forget like the rest of us. If we can only figure out away to keep that knowledge our lives would be easier. Being easy is not always the best way to learn something. Those of us who have had a lot of pit falls in our life actually should be grateful for the life lessons we have gained from those loses. It was just such a thing that led me to these pages.

At thirty six I found myself with a soon to be twelve and a thirteen year old, a husband going through a career crisis, and me pregnant after all these years of thinking the two we had completed us just fine. Well here is one of those mysterious ways that God likes to work in. Doctors have never been on my list of favorite people, I was terrible about going, but now I had to, and that’s when they found something. I had an abnormal pap and I new it was cancer, something told me it was not serious if I took care of it now. I know I would not have gone in if it weren’t for the baby. Well needless to say everything did work out. Jackson Scott is now here and I have started these pages while recovering from a radical hysterectomy.

Nothing about it was easy I spent weeks in the hospital with a bad gall bladder that they had taken when Jack was four weeks old. Not to mention starting over with a little one. The point is if I couldn’t see that everything happened for a reason when I had events like this in my life then I must not have been looking. Sometimes I think I need to be hit over the head to see certain things so that must be what I did by piling it on like that.

Turning points happen more times then we realize. We are an ever-changing world because of the way we grow spiritually. Our goal is to be back one with God and we all have different ways of getting there. Eventually we will figure it out that until we do it together it’s not going to happen. In some peoples eyes I probably over analyze everything but I am determined to gain as much spiritual growth as possible in this life and to me that means being open to anything. If you can imagine it then it is a possibility. Frankly I have a great imagination so I look at my possibilities as being right up there.

When it comes down to it no one can really say Gods purpose, not your priest or rabbi or the minister. Everything we know up to this point is purely speculation. No matter where you get your information from the Bible, the Koran, the Torah. They all have some similar truths about them. Prophets have been telling us things over the millenniums that all point to the fact that there is a higher power and we are not alone. So would you freak out if that higher power were an alien life form?

Now we can argue till we’re blue in the face about whether Jesus was the Son of God and our Savior or was he just another prophet? Cases could be made for both. It’s all just the way you want to look at it as to what level your working off of in this life. Think about it would you really want to come in to this life having everything handed to you knowing when you add up your spiritual gains they come up far shorter then your material gains? Lets face it you don’t take your material things with you but you do take your spirit.

All this talk about spiritual gains has made me think about what really makes it all go around. KARMA that big kick in the butt we all get now and then and usually are too blind to see where it came from. What goes around comes around. ‘Do unto others as you would have done unto you’. Remember what ever you do will come back to you ten fold, just don’t forget that covers the good and the bad. It’s not that I’m such a good person I just don’t see how someone would want to put forth the effort to be bad. It takes so much more energy to be negative and frankly I’m too lazy for that.

I may hold back something to spare someone but when pressed I really can’t lie the older I get. I can’t imagine living any other way either. Life is to short to screw it up all the time. Karma is God’s way of self-balancing our system that is built into us. In the long range we can have health problems directly related to bad karma. On the immediate side we can see problems just in our daily living. As an example think about a time where maybe you cut somebody off in traffic and by the time you get to work someone has taken your parking place. I just know if I want goodness in my life then I had to start putting better things out there.

If you’re expecting a reward from God every time you do a good deed you’ll be waiting a long time. It must be a second nature to you. Next time you have a run of bad luck take a look around you, do you like the way you have been conducting your life or can you see that what you gave out is coming back? Nothing changed for me in my gains until I made an effort to bea better person.

Skeptics are everywhere when it comes to talking about God. They need proof, if there isn’t a solid piece of evidence to go with then all motives are questioned. What has happened to faith? Does anyone still believe that God is there and looking out for us. The moment a tragedy happens it’s ‘why did God let this happen’. Well he didn’t, you did. Remember I told you we all set up or own life plans before we get here and though it may sound crazy to purposely set up some tragedy. That may be just what you need to learn that particular lesson. God allows us to make these mistakes as a way to learn from them. That’s also why we have the veil of forgetfulness over us. If you knew what was coming you would probably approach it different. Why else would we come here and put ourselves through the kind of things we do if it wasn’t for the lesson and spiritual growth we gain? I know I wouldn’t be here without a purpose.

I really don’t care if it sounds hokey but I have drilled it in my head if I want the answers to my purpose in life then I must pray to God for answers. It’s kind of like the person who wants to loose weight. Fad diets don’t work only healthy food and exercise do. If you want to know Gods purpose for you, don’t you think you should go to the source? Since God answered my spiritual prayers about my life path I think I’ll put it in his hands to help me loose weight now.

There are few things about God that I’m sure of and that is that God is love in a pure sense we will never know on this side. God is not vengeful, hateful, and spiteful, when we screw up God will not fly into a rage at us and demean us. God will weep for us and feel our sorrow with us. There is no doubt in my mind that God is all-forgiving no matter the sin. We can pretty much do anything and always know that in the end God will be there for us. I’m not telling you to do what you want so don’t go out and try something stupid and blame it on me. Deliberate acts of stupidity get you nowhere.

I think I have learned the most from the people who I disagree with the most. I really try to get people to talk to me when they tell me that they don’t believe in God. I figure if I know where they’re coming from on there beliefs I can understand them better as a person. The one thing I have found with those who don’t believe and those who are just indifferent to God, they’re the most negative people I have ever come across. It’s like nothing anyone says can change their mind, and the more you try to convince them the more they will pull back. They tend to have complicated lives as well, the more the chaos the better they feel. If you could get a look at their life plans you would probably find some differences in the path planned and the one they’re leading.

All of our trials