ABOUT KAREN
Early Days
I first saw the light of day in Portland, a small town in Indiana farm country. Both my parents had grown up on farms and then became city-dwellers, so to speak. My dad was a telephone lineman, and my mom was a dental assistant until I, an only child, was born.
"She always knows how to entertain herself!" my Grandma Money would say about me. I was a kid with books to read, things to collect, and no sibs to mess with my stuff. I remember being conscientious at school and happy at home, playing with the neighbor kids, going with my parents to church, taking piano lessons, and attending Girl Scouts.
The teen years found me interested in high school speech competitions, boys, creative writing, boys, rock and folk music, boys, working at the local Dairy Queen, and did I mention boys?
After high school, I attended Earlham, a small private Quaker college about 50 miles from home. Many of the students were from the U.S. East Coast, and I ran head-long into many new ideas. They had deep concerns about the world -- poverty, war, crime, you-name-it, whereas I had been thinking mainly about...boys. I became more serious about life while at Earlham, and I also broadened my horizons by participating in a semester of study in London and some traveling in Europe. Back home again, I took part in a march on Washington in protest of the Vietnam War. It was my first visit to the capital, and I admit I was more pie-eyed than protester as I gawked at the sights.
After graduation from Earlham (my rebellious class, living up to a motto of the times, "Question authority," refused to wear the traditional cap and gown), I returned to London to work for a year at the Black & White Scotch Whiskey Company. It was a daring thing to try, but I decided to work as a secretary, enjoy London, and then hope to figure things out. I had become hyper-conscientious in college and had burned myself out by trying too hard. It had always seemed to me that the more intensely a person worked, the greater the success that would follow, but it hadn't exactly turned out that way. My understanding of cause-and-effect needed an update.
I returned to Indiana with full-blown malaise. I needed a graduate degree to get a job in my field (psychology), but more studying felt like stress. Having read up on primal therapy (where one released tension and angst by screaming one's lungs out under supervision), I decided on another extreme plan -- I'd fly to Los Angeles and ask to work as a student intern, just as I'd worked during college, while having primal therapy myself and learning to be a therapist.
Things didn't pan out, as the therapy required thousands of dollars, of which I had none -- only the plane fare back to Indiana. And on the plane, I had a tearful epiphany as we flew over the Grand Canyon. My life was starting to feel like a grand canyon. Maybe -- no probably -- I needed some form of a higher power in my life and the sooner the better.
Back at my parents' house, I plunged into soul searching. Was there truly a God, as I'd believed as a child in Sunday school, who became involved in human events? Could that God give me clarity and direction? Would I become a Buddhist, Hindu, or perhaps join some esoteric sect that would fit the quirky, off-beat person I was becoming?
Major Changes
Nope. I would become a born-again Christian.
My mom cajoled me into going with her to a new evangelical church in town. The people were loving, the Bible offered a clear-cut belief system that soothed my angst, and I received Christ as savior. In due time, I found a job there in my hometown helping kids who were on probation. I met my husband in 1975 (at church), we had two terrific sons, and things went well.
Then life took a different turn. My husband was diagnosed with schizophrenia and soon after, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. We eventually divorced, I had chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and my two sons and I moved in with my parents. I wrote a manuscript detailing how my faith in God floundered but ultimately survived the divorce and illness. (See the link to that e-book below.) I also began to work in the church office and as the church pianist. Our Baptist fellowship and our dear pastor had been such a support to me, and I was deeply thankful for the role they played in my return to health.
And yet...why did I experience those intense difficulties? I was committed to Christ, and my world revolved around our church. It seemed that if a person loved and served God to the best of their ability, their life would unfold more smoothly. Once again, my understanding of cause-and-effect begged to be re-examined.
For a long while, I expelled unsettling questions from my mind as I connected, via a pen pal club, with a fellow named Ed who, like me, was an evangelical Christian and single parent. We exchanged many letters, talked by phone, and eventually were married at my church in 1986. My sons and I traveled with my new husband and his two sons across the country to his home in lovely Ashland, Oregon. We were a blended family for six years, during which Ed and I had a surprise child of our own -- a little girl.
Ed and I and the kids attended a vibrant Baptist church, where Ed taught a Bible study class. I loved the people there, among whom several became dear friends. However, doubts about my Christian faith gnawed at me. I began to read widely in the realm of self-help and broader spirituality. When the church took a stand against homosexuality, I knew I could not concur.
Soon after that, Ed died suddenly from a heart arrhythmia at age 43 while at a YMCA karate class. Deeply sad and puzzled over losing my partner, I eventually left the church and my precious Christian friends. I needed to reflect, and I needed to explore.
On a Quest for Understanding
Ashland was chock full of New Age healers and gurus who advocated many spiritual paths, and I set about checking them out. I learned to meditate, practiced yoga, and walked in labyrinths. I visited groups that explored UFOs, dousing, astrology, numerology, and crystals. I was searching for an overriding truth -- the truth that would at last make sense to me and that would address the psychological and spiritual questions I'd accumulated by the basketful.
After my two stepsons and two sons had graduated from Ashland High School, I decided to move (with my ninety-year-old mom and my ten-year-old daughter) to Florida -- specifically Orlando because...well, why not? I was ready for a warmer climate, a new environment, and some sort of a fresh perspective on life.
I found it in the strangest way.
It began when a good friend in Ashland mailed me a few cassette tapes recorded at Abraham-Hicks workshops. Alice insisted that she had loaned me some Abraham tapes when I still lived in Ashland, but I didn't remember them, and I was surprised to learn that Abraham had held workshops in Ashland itself at a hotel not far from where I had lived. Surely I'd never heard of Abraham while in Ashland, which rendered those tapes that arrived in my Florida mailbox oddly intriguing.
The Abraham perspective involved focusing in a positive way, but some of the ideas went against the grain -- especially with regard to choosing to be happy in a world that seemed to me filled with problems, aggression, and stupidity, not to mention toxic chemicals. I eventually encountered some people in Florida who loaned me more Abraham tapes, and as I continued to listen, I seemed to grasp the teachings on an increasingly deeper level. My long-held questions about the nature of reality began to be answered, and the oddities of the Abraham perspective began to seem more like aha-ities.
When a friend and I attended our first Abraham discussion group in a home in Orlando, I knew I was hooked.
Making Sense of Things
This all began for me in the year 2000, and Abraham-Hicks has been my beloved inspiration since then. Most of the e-books I've written (shared here on this site) are inspired by Abe. I also began a Facebook group, Abraham Fun, where thousands of us discuss the Abe teachings and how we can apply them to daily life.
My partner, Mark, whom I met here in Florida, is also all about Abraham-Hicks and the importance of a positive mental focus. He and I held Abraham-Hicks discussion groups in our home for many years and recently began holding meetings at the local public library.
In all my exploration, I have never come across any belief system that resembles that of Abraham-Hicks. It is beyond unique, comprehensive, and logical. Did I mention that I'm a big fan?
From Abe I learned that well-being is a natural phenomenon when we focus in positive ways. I learned the value of live-and-let-live and tending to my own business. I discovered the role of emotions in human experience. (Who knew!?!) And I finally grasped the principle of Law of Attraction -- the cause-and-effect behind human existence (like attracts like with regard to our thoughts).
It has been quite a journey, and life has been good here in Orlando. My older son is a statistician in this area, and my younger son is an attorney in Houston, Texas. My daughter, a librarian, graduated from the University of Central Florida and lives nearby. I have two precious daughters-in-law and two granddaughters. My late husband Ed's older son lives in Ukraine, where he teaches English, and Ed's younger son lives in California.
Mark and I share our home with our puddy tats -- Cindy Lou, Heidi, and Lola. Our pets, along with the Abraham teachings, have shown us how to relax and allow good things to come instead of trying to control and force things to be as we want them. Life is sweet these days -- and logical and clear.
I first saw the light of day in Portland, a small town in Indiana farm country. Both my parents had grown up on farms and then became city-dwellers, so to speak. My dad was a telephone lineman, and my mom was a dental assistant until I, an only child, was born.
"She always knows how to entertain herself!" my Grandma Money would say about me. I was a kid with books to read, things to collect, and no sibs to mess with my stuff. I remember being conscientious at school and happy at home, playing with the neighbor kids, going with my parents to church, taking piano lessons, and attending Girl Scouts.
The teen years found me interested in high school speech competitions, boys, creative writing, boys, rock and folk music, boys, working at the local Dairy Queen, and did I mention boys?
After high school, I attended Earlham, a small private Quaker college about 50 miles from home. Many of the students were from the U.S. East Coast, and I ran head-long into many new ideas. They had deep concerns about the world -- poverty, war, crime, you-name-it, whereas I had been thinking mainly about...boys. I became more serious about life while at Earlham, and I also broadened my horizons by participating in a semester of study in London and some traveling in Europe. Back home again, I took part in a march on Washington in protest of the Vietnam War. It was my first visit to the capital, and I admit I was more pie-eyed than protester as I gawked at the sights.
After graduation from Earlham (my rebellious class, living up to a motto of the times, "Question authority," refused to wear the traditional cap and gown), I returned to London to work for a year at the Black & White Scotch Whiskey Company. It was a daring thing to try, but I decided to work as a secretary, enjoy London, and then hope to figure things out. I had become hyper-conscientious in college and had burned myself out by trying too hard. It had always seemed to me that the more intensely a person worked, the greater the success that would follow, but it hadn't exactly turned out that way. My understanding of cause-and-effect needed an update.
I returned to Indiana with full-blown malaise. I needed a graduate degree to get a job in my field (psychology), but more studying felt like stress. Having read up on primal therapy (where one released tension and angst by screaming one's lungs out under supervision), I decided on another extreme plan -- I'd fly to Los Angeles and ask to work as a student intern, just as I'd worked during college, while having primal therapy myself and learning to be a therapist.
Things didn't pan out, as the therapy required thousands of dollars, of which I had none -- only the plane fare back to Indiana. And on the plane, I had a tearful epiphany as we flew over the Grand Canyon. My life was starting to feel like a grand canyon. Maybe -- no probably -- I needed some form of a higher power in my life and the sooner the better.
Back at my parents' house, I plunged into soul searching. Was there truly a God, as I'd believed as a child in Sunday school, who became involved in human events? Could that God give me clarity and direction? Would I become a Buddhist, Hindu, or perhaps join some esoteric sect that would fit the quirky, off-beat person I was becoming?
Major Changes
Nope. I would become a born-again Christian.
My mom cajoled me into going with her to a new evangelical church in town. The people were loving, the Bible offered a clear-cut belief system that soothed my angst, and I received Christ as savior. In due time, I found a job there in my hometown helping kids who were on probation. I met my husband in 1975 (at church), we had two terrific sons, and things went well.
Then life took a different turn. My husband was diagnosed with schizophrenia and soon after, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. We eventually divorced, I had chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and my two sons and I moved in with my parents. I wrote a manuscript detailing how my faith in God floundered but ultimately survived the divorce and illness. (See the link to that e-book below.) I also began to work in the church office and as the church pianist. Our Baptist fellowship and our dear pastor had been such a support to me, and I was deeply thankful for the role they played in my return to health.
And yet...why did I experience those intense difficulties? I was committed to Christ, and my world revolved around our church. It seemed that if a person loved and served God to the best of their ability, their life would unfold more smoothly. Once again, my understanding of cause-and-effect begged to be re-examined.
For a long while, I expelled unsettling questions from my mind as I connected, via a pen pal club, with a fellow named Ed who, like me, was an evangelical Christian and single parent. We exchanged many letters, talked by phone, and eventually were married at my church in 1986. My sons and I traveled with my new husband and his two sons across the country to his home in lovely Ashland, Oregon. We were a blended family for six years, during which Ed and I had a surprise child of our own -- a little girl.
Ed and I and the kids attended a vibrant Baptist church, where Ed taught a Bible study class. I loved the people there, among whom several became dear friends. However, doubts about my Christian faith gnawed at me. I began to read widely in the realm of self-help and broader spirituality. When the church took a stand against homosexuality, I knew I could not concur.
Soon after that, Ed died suddenly from a heart arrhythmia at age 43 while at a YMCA karate class. Deeply sad and puzzled over losing my partner, I eventually left the church and my precious Christian friends. I needed to reflect, and I needed to explore.
On a Quest for Understanding
Ashland was chock full of New Age healers and gurus who advocated many spiritual paths, and I set about checking them out. I learned to meditate, practiced yoga, and walked in labyrinths. I visited groups that explored UFOs, dousing, astrology, numerology, and crystals. I was searching for an overriding truth -- the truth that would at last make sense to me and that would address the psychological and spiritual questions I'd accumulated by the basketful.
After my two stepsons and two sons had graduated from Ashland High School, I decided to move (with my ninety-year-old mom and my ten-year-old daughter) to Florida -- specifically Orlando because...well, why not? I was ready for a warmer climate, a new environment, and some sort of a fresh perspective on life.
I found it in the strangest way.
It began when a good friend in Ashland mailed me a few cassette tapes recorded at Abraham-Hicks workshops. Alice insisted that she had loaned me some Abraham tapes when I still lived in Ashland, but I didn't remember them, and I was surprised to learn that Abraham had held workshops in Ashland itself at a hotel not far from where I had lived. Surely I'd never heard of Abraham while in Ashland, which rendered those tapes that arrived in my Florida mailbox oddly intriguing.
The Abraham perspective involved focusing in a positive way, but some of the ideas went against the grain -- especially with regard to choosing to be happy in a world that seemed to me filled with problems, aggression, and stupidity, not to mention toxic chemicals. I eventually encountered some people in Florida who loaned me more Abraham tapes, and as I continued to listen, I seemed to grasp the teachings on an increasingly deeper level. My long-held questions about the nature of reality began to be answered, and the oddities of the Abraham perspective began to seem more like aha-ities.
When a friend and I attended our first Abraham discussion group in a home in Orlando, I knew I was hooked.
Making Sense of Things
This all began for me in the year 2000, and Abraham-Hicks has been my beloved inspiration since then. Most of the e-books I've written (shared here on this site) are inspired by Abe. I also began a Facebook group, Abraham Fun, where thousands of us discuss the Abe teachings and how we can apply them to daily life.
My partner, Mark, whom I met here in Florida, is also all about Abraham-Hicks and the importance of a positive mental focus. He and I held Abraham-Hicks discussion groups in our home for many years and recently began holding meetings at the local public library.
In all my exploration, I have never come across any belief system that resembles that of Abraham-Hicks. It is beyond unique, comprehensive, and logical. Did I mention that I'm a big fan?
From Abe I learned that well-being is a natural phenomenon when we focus in positive ways. I learned the value of live-and-let-live and tending to my own business. I discovered the role of emotions in human experience. (Who knew!?!) And I finally grasped the principle of Law of Attraction -- the cause-and-effect behind human existence (like attracts like with regard to our thoughts).
It has been quite a journey, and life has been good here in Orlando. My older son is a statistician in this area, and my younger son is an attorney in Houston, Texas. My daughter, a librarian, graduated from the University of Central Florida and lives nearby. I have two precious daughters-in-law and two granddaughters. My late husband Ed's older son lives in Ukraine, where he teaches English, and Ed's younger son lives in California.
Mark and I share our home with our puddy tats -- Cindy Lou, Heidi, and Lola. Our pets, along with the Abraham teachings, have shown us how to relax and allow good things to come instead of trying to control and force things to be as we want them. Life is sweet these days -- and logical and clear.
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Jesus and Chemo
On a Rock in a Hard Place
by Karen Money Williams
Amazon Kindle Edition
Apple iBooks Edition
Overview
At age 31, Karen was dealing with a challenging marriage and trying to find God's will in the matter when she developed breathing problems. When she took her toddler son for a check-up, the doctor listened to her lungs and immediately ordered tests. The results? Hodgkin's disease -- a cancer of the lymph tissue, stage 4b. And pregnancy. Karen's faith would be tested as never before as she fought for the life of her unborn child as well as her own.
On a Rock in a Hard Place
by Karen Money Williams
Amazon Kindle Edition
Apple iBooks Edition
Overview
At age 31, Karen was dealing with a challenging marriage and trying to find God's will in the matter when she developed breathing problems. When she took her toddler son for a check-up, the doctor listened to her lungs and immediately ordered tests. The results? Hodgkin's disease -- a cancer of the lymph tissue, stage 4b. And pregnancy. Karen's faith would be tested as never before as she fought for the life of her unborn child as well as her own.