Outback Miracle

By Laine Cunningham

I had come halfway around the world for a solo adventure. If I could do that, surely I could change the rest of my life.

Some years ago, I called it quits and spent six months camping alone in the Australian outback. The trip was a way to opt out of my high-stress lifestyle. Then I had to decide whether to call it quits on life itself.

My plans for my sabbatical weren’t detailed but I did have a general idea of what I wanted. I had decided to knock around the U.K. for a while. That would allow me to explore part of my heritage and maybe even to find a job overseas. I sold everything I owned, including my car. I had no idea whether I was going to return to the US or if I did, where I might live.

Less than thirty days before I was supposed to go to Ireland, dreams of kangaroos and the red desert visited my sleep. The dreams returned relentlessly and were vivid beyond any I had experienced before. Finally I threw up my hands. All right, already! I’ll go to Australia!

I knew nothing about the country or what I might do there. Clearly something was waiting for me, though. I bought the ticket.

Two weeks before my departure, I experienced a profound vision. I saw my corpse lying beneath a lonely tree in the outback. Prophetic? Yes. But I decided not to cancel the trip. Even if the vision came true, I would have lived fully during my journey. I had to call it quits, even if that meant giving up my life.

In Sydney, I purchased a twenty-year-old Ford sedan. Roads in the desert were so rough they would eventually chew through five tires. Spare gasoline and a two-week supply of food and water were tucked into the trunk. Every night I pulled off on some lonely patch of ground, cooked over an open fire and slept under the stars.

One day I was traveling along a raised roadbed. During the rainy season, roads that are level with the surrounding ground flood. The roadbed was perhaps four feet off the ground with no shoulders and crumbling edges. The Ford was cruising up around 85 mph when one of the tires blew.

The car was thrown off the ridge and literally bounced across the desert. Only sheer luck kept it from flipping. A single tree appeared. It was the same one I’d seen in my vision. I was going to die.

I can still feel the metal springs in the seat pushing against my back. I wasn’t afraid but I was very, very aware of every second passing. The tree rushed closer in a rubbery sort of slow motion.

Suddenly my mind flooded with a crystalline clarity. This was not what I wanted. I was willing to sacrifice everything, to leave this world if that was the only way to make a change. But I had come halfway around the world for a solo adventure. If I could do that, surely I could change the rest of my life.

I glanced back at the road. It was further away than the tree and only seconds remained before impact. Yet the moment I thought, That’s where I want to be, the car was back on the road.

A few minutes later, another car came along. The driver refused to believe the Ford had gone off the road. There was no way the sedan could have made it up or down the embankment without flipping. Unless, of course, I had been blessed with a miracle.

Although the experience changed me, I failed to apply the lesson right away. When I returned to the U.S., my company offered me a promotion, a bigger salary, a higher security clearance and an expense-paid move to California. I began working on reports that calculated how many birth defects, childhood diseases, cancers and deaths were “acceptable” compared to the cost of cleaning up pollutants. Within months I was unable to continue weighing money against human life.

I walked out and started writing fulltime. I was finally ready to apply what I had learned after calling it quits. And yes, that meant I had to call it quits twice! The memoir based on my outback journey, the first thing I wrote, won an award and received a contract offer from a small publisher. My first novel, Message Stick, was set in the outback and won two national awards.

To this day, the spiritual foundation built in the outback is the most important thing I have. It weaves a tapestry of meaning and messages through all my books and every day of my life. I share some of those messages through a free newsletter. Every week I hear back from readers about how the messages have touched their lives.

Before I left for Australia, many people told me they wanted to take their own journeys but obligations like children, a spouse or a mortgage held them back. Actually, they were making a choice. They traded their journey for something they valued more. If you are in the same situation, embrace the choice…and call it quits on anything that doesn’t serve that choice.

Laine Cunningham is a Spiritual Messenger and Modern Shaman who has been quoted on MSNBC, Awareness magazine and The Sydney Morning Herald. For ten years she has blended the best ancient wisdom with cutting edge science and psychology to address spiritual challenges. She is the author of the upcoming Seven Sisters: Messages from Aboriginal Australia. The book addresses challenges ranging from dating and marriage to friendships, community relations and international issues. Sign up for her free weekly newsletter at www.lainecunningham.com.