Video presentation of excerpt a from the book Listen Hear, A Divine Love Story illuminated with paintings by the author Debra Clemente. 

artistdeb.com  The Art of Debra Clemente Originals and Prints

My mind used to be filled with pain and fear. Now it is filled with love and comfort.

See how far you have come. It is truly a delight. I delight in you. Delight in Me. Delight in Me in you. Oh yes, this is the way. It is and shall be. Walk with Me.

It was a whole new concept, the idea that I should fix me, not everyone else. Talk about a hard pill to swallow.

But swallow you did, not all at once for sure. You broke it up into little pieces and nibbled on it from time to time. Bitter booger wasn’t it? But see how sweet life tastes now? How you can enjoy the company of, actually delight in the company, of those who you had determined to fix if it killed you, and in fact it was.

My first decision was that I was going to learn mind control. I jokingly said that, knowing all the while that it was my own mind I wished to tame. As I explored and researched ways of doing this, new information continually came to light, very shocking and unsettling information which I didn’t just take as a truth and swallow whole. Again, I picked over each bone and investigated and tested the teachings.

Yes, you did. We were so proud of you. This is how it is supposed to be for when you did accept each concept new to you blind belief was not needed, for you knew their truth by your own testing and proving.

After having spent so many days of so many years in continual physical pain and limitation I was deeply offended to hear it said that it was of my own creation. That really pissed me off. It’s surprising now that I didn’t just slam that book shut and kick it down the stairs.

You were so curious. You were so wanting and desiring better for your life that you closed no door to possibility. This is what is needed by all an open mind. It is the mind that is “made up” that has no room to grow.

The thing that kept bugging me about the whole “law of attraction” thing was that the ideas that had until that point formed the foundation of my ideas of life, my understanding of what was and shall be were rocked, rocked back and forth. The ground beneath my feet no longer felt firm. If this was so, the law of attraction and all the tricks and tweaks to life as presented in The Secret, what was true of God and Jesus as I knew? How did all that fit in? I was not so easily swayed to believe that someone could replace the word “God” with “the Universe” or “Spirit” in a sentence and just move on.

It’s also true that prayer had lost its power and magic over me. I had continually turned to “the Church” for answers and comfort and left at a loss for all. My needs were not met. My answers were not coming. But God, or the idea I had always held of God, had a hold on me and said “Keep looking, seek and ye shall find.”  

One very important thing, actually I know it was the most important thing I have ever found, proclaimed and received is a Divine Love prayer titled, The Prayer Perfect. I found on the internet, happened upon, as it seemed while on this truth quest. The person that posted it challenged the reader to pray the prayer twice daily for fifteen minutes and that whoever did so would never experience life again the same. There would be a wondrous, internal and permanent change.

So as is always my way, I didn’t follow his prayer outline to the letter or even the word. Just as I can’t seem to follow a recipe as written, I cannot pray someone else’s prayer. So, I created my own inspired by the given prayer. Mine was simpler and flowed gracefully from my lips. Most importantly, I could remember it and creatively embellish it with flourishing concepts as I prayed and desired in prayer.

Divine Love fill me

Divine Love flow through me

Divine Love be me.

That’s pretty much the gist of it. So I did it, every time I remembered about it I stopped and said it. I wasn’t even sure what “Divine Love” was. It didn’t really feel like a prayer or sound like one, almost like an incantation or a spell.

I remember shortly there after things changing for me. More and more my actions, my seemingly thoughtless actions, surprised me. By “thoughtless,” I don’t mean not considerate of others. I mean I didn’t pre-think my actions and they were so amazingly thoughtful of others it was if I knew beyond my own mind how to be of the right help at the right time. I would continually say and do the right thing. “Hold on a minute,” I heard a voice inside me say, “You are surprised at your actions but haven’t you just been praying for God’s Love to flow through you and become you?” Was I? Did I? Is that what Divine Love was? I needed to know, for I had never heard it spoken of that way. Divine Love, what was it really? What was happening to me and had any other experienced such and written about it?

Without questions there can be no answers. Question everything. There is no such thing as too many questions. It is wrong to tell a child that they ask too many questions. Instead tell them you don’t know all the answers. Let them continue to ask and allow them to find the answers to life themselves. Allow the child to be curious. Curiosity may have killed the cat but lack of curiosity kills the ability to know and grow as a human and as a free spirit. Be a free spirit. Become a free spirit. Ask the questions you yearn to know. Then listen in with awe and wonder. The answers are there for those whom are aware.
Excerpted from the book Listen Hear, A Divine Love Story by Debra Clemente

The wonders of His love...
And wonders of His love...
And wonders, and wonders of His love.

This hymn is ringing through my head so I pick up my journal and pen to record this thought. Much the same as I have done the past two and a half years. Something comes to my head and I record it. It began as a game I played with myself. At first I recorded a word or two at time, as they came to me in snippets. I would set my paper down and click my pen closed and as soon I had dropped my pen another inspiring phrase would come to mind. I called the game “painting titles” as they sounded much the same as the phrases I had been using to title my paintings for the past several years. Soon I realized that I had over eight hundred painting titles. “What fun,” I thought “that’s a lot of paintings.”  But I did not ever consider quitting the game and so I filled journal after journal this way, filling a page here and there with a body of ever growing wisdom that seemed to just come my way.

And so began the year of 2011 with my continued journaling but somewhere along the way it became clear to me that the wisdom and inspiration I was writing was coming from someone with a much higher and clearer perspective. No, I was not scared; I was comforted for each message was so gentle and loving. And then one day I knew that what I was writing was meant for me but as well meant for you. God had found a listening ear and a willing heart and writing His word as given was to be my part.

Excerpted from the book Listen Hear, A Divine Love Story by Debra Clemente