“Don’t die with your music still inside you.” ~Dr. Wayne Dyer
I first became aware of Wayne Dyer after my mother brought home a copy of the book “Your Erroneous Zones.” I didn’t read it and I wasn’t really paying attention, as it became one of the top selling books of all time – selling almost 40 million copies & leading the best-seller list for two whole years. No book in my lifetime has made that kind of impact on the planet, and yet I truly paid no mind to it until my mother passed away and I was going through her personal items.
She had folded the corners of the pages, underlined sentences in three different colors, and written in the margin next to certain passages. I never knew until then that she had been guided by Dr. Dyer’s teachings.
This was the very first self-help book written by Wayne Dyer. And years after he had established himself as the #1 selling author of self-help & spirituality books on the planet, there he was sitting in my office chatting with me. I told him the story of how my mother had loved “Your Erroneous Zones.” I revealed that I had never read the book but that I was in love with his “new” book “The Power of Intention,” which I had read three times and then I showed him my highlighted and marked up copy.
He was gracious. He was graceful. He laughed as if the story had tickled him. He told me he also had a copy of “Your Erroneous Zones” that was dog-eared and written in. He asked me for my copy of “The Power of Intention,” he thumbed through it smiling as he saw what had captured my attention & then he autographed it for me. He made me feel so at home with his authenticity & humility.
In 2010, when I confessed to him that I was struggling with my best friend being diagnosed with cancer, he replied, “Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him.” Then he stared so deeply into my eyes, it cracked me open & changed the way I see the world forever.
[Tweet “Circumstances do not make a man, they reveal him. -Wayne Dyer davidji.com”]
Over the years, we kindled a friendship that blossomed at my first Hay House I Can Do It! conference where he introduced me to his magnificently talented daughter – the gifted vocalist Skye Dyer, whom he described as “the personification of divine love.” The two of them could weave an evening of deep profound transformation with Wayne quoting life-changing passages from the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Vashista, and the Tao Te Ching, and Skye’s angelic healing voice transporting us to higher states of consciousness with her versions of “Amazing Grace” & “I Am Light.” That night he said, “When you stay on purpose and refuse to be discouraged by fear, you align with the infinite self, in which all possibilities exist.”
Consistently over the years, Wayne acknowledged the gifts of those around him; so many in his position choose smugness, arrogance, or aloofness. Not Wayne Dyer – clearly embedded in pure compassion, he selflessly flowed compliments to those around him, gave credit to all the people in his presence, and led with love… consistently taking time to stop, hug, and say a kind word.
He was the true fusion of authenticity, wisdom, and love — transforming millions every day!!!!
When I asked him if he would write a testimonial for #destressifying, he graciously agreed. But after a month, he hadn’t responded, so I reached out to him to see if he was still okay endorsing the book. He said he hadn’t finished it yet and he wanted to drink every page in fully so he could endorse it whole-heartedly. I was deeply touched and honored that he would take the time to read every page & go through every exercise. When he was finished, he wrote a heart-felt endorsement and told me he loved the book. That was just last month – our last interaction… bittersweet.
That simple response exemplified Wayne Dyer. He lived the life that Henry David Thoreau espoused in Walden, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.”
So many talk it… Wayne Dyer lived it. And that should inspire us to live our most authentic lives right now. Please join me in honoring one of the greatest teachers of our lifetime by living our life with rededicated passion.
With his passing, another brilliant BEing of light has returned to the Source so it can burn even brighter. He joins the eternal flame of love, compassion & wisdom. He is the lesson we all need to live. The lesson that your life is bigger than you are and that if we dedicate each moment to the awareness of our divine nature, we will flow our best version. Thank you Dr. Wayne Dyer – your light shines so brightly from every corner of the universe – we are forever humbled by your love. And hopefully, over time, as your wisdom settles in more deeply to our innocent hearts & starts to ripple through us with each word, with each thought, with each action… we will shift from missing you… to flowing you. We are your legacy!
Namaste. -davidji
