“Welcome to Hay House.”

Those were the words I heard last week.

Welcome. To. Hay. House.

Even now, I have to say them very slowly to myself, as if saying them quickly makes them less true.

But it doesn’t matter how I say them… they’re very real, they’re very true.

And they mean a very big dream is coming true for me… a dream I’ve had since I was very young.

Hold up, I’m getting ahead of myself…

Let me go back to the beginning.

 

When I was little, I was book-obsessed.

Does anyone remember those book catalogues they’d hand out at primary school?

You wrote down which books you wanted to order, took the form home so your parents could fill out their credit card details and waited for the books to be delivered through school.

I loved book delivery day at school.

I devoured whole series faster than the books could be released.

The Saddle Club and the Thoroughbred series were my favourite.

(Yes, I was also horse-obsessed and my horse riding friends and I would imagine ourselves living together on a farm one day.)

In my early teens, I had a stack of books next to my bedside table. I would read a chapter of each book before I could fall asleep (sometimes as many as thirteen books each night) so eager was I to not miss out on one book, and not knowing which book to start with, I read them all at the same time.

In my mid-teens, I told my parents I’d be an author one day.

I didn’t know what I’d write about, or when I’d write it, but I could feel it in my bones… I knew that one day, I’d be an author.

Last year it felt like that dream could come true.

I put a post-it on the pin board above my desk.

“Book deal 2014” it said.

Then last September I attended the Hay House Writer’s Workshop.

They’re held each year; attendees are able to submit a book proposal, and Hay House decides on a winner from the flood of proposals sent to them after the workshop. The winner receives an international publishing deal, those who come second and third receive self-publishing deals through their sister publishing house, Balboa Press.

So off I went to the workshop, notebook in hand, curious as to how this would all pan out, but not holding onto any tight outcome or expectation.

I left the workshop that weekend, feeling an urgent desire to start my proposal that day. (In fact, I had to leave early as it was my granny’s birthday lunch.)

But then a week or so passed, and I felt myself faltering.

You see, I’d been planning to launch the Body Harmony Society courses in early 2015 and that weekend my zooming-ahead brain was already thinking, “Well, if I win, what will happen to my courses? Can I do both?” 

So I let the idea sink in and settle.

Months passed, the proposal due date was coming up and I’d only written my cover letter.

I went to Byron Bay on holiday with my family, and coming home that Sunday night I had this inexplicable and urgent desire to write my proposal, but with the deadline being that Friday, and a full week of clients coming up, I knew I’d have to be put my mind to it in order to make it happen.

I believe in synchronicity.

I believe in serendipity.

I believe the universe was conspiring in my favour on this one (and in fact, all the time).

There are a few synchronicities in this story… a few examples where I can look back and say, oh, thank you universe.

Here’s the first synchronicity: the week I decided to write my proposal, all but two of my clients rescheduled their appointments.

Seriously, almost everyone moved their appointment over just a few days. It had started on the Friday before I returned home, and on the Monday my clients were still calling reception to reschedule.

Nothing had changed – I hadn’t asked my clients to move, or told them I was sick.

I hadn’t told anyone except my family about my plan to write the proposal.

But something greater than me was at play, and it said, “You want to write? Here’s some space. Write.”

So in three days I had my proposal.

I submitted it at 7pm on the Friday night (it was due at midnight) and as soon as I submitted it, I let it go.

I didn’t hold on to the outcome. I thought “If I win, that’ll be amazing. If I don’t, that’s what’s supposed to happen and everything will still be amazing… or better.”

I carried on as if nothing were going to change.

I wrote almost 100,000 words for my Body Harmony Society‘s range of online courses + guides (and yes, I can gratefully confirm we’re still good for an April launch).

And then one day, last week, my phone rang.

(And here’s the second synchronicity.)

It was a number I didn’t recognise, and my first client of the day was about to arrive. For a minute I thought it must be my client, saying she was going to be late, even though it was a landline calling and she was due any minute.

I decided to quickly answer it before she arrived.

“Hello, Cassie speaking”, I said.

“Hi Cassie, it’s Hay House calling.”

A lump rises in my throat as I write those words now.

It’s Hay House calling.

I jumped up from my seat, like they could see me.

I thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t missed this call.

“We’ve got our final choices down for the competition, and you’re one of them.”

 

Fast-forward to the next day, and I’m sitting in their offices.

As I wait to be called into the meeting room, I glance to the little side table on my left.

On it sits a deck of Doreen Virtue’s angel cards.

So obviously, I pull one.

All Is Well. Archangel Jeremiel: “Everything is happening exactly as it is supposed to, with hidden blessings you will soon understand.”

Oooh okay… if you say so!

I’m called into the room. We chat book proposals, book sizes and authors. I giggle nervously and sip some water. It’s surreal.

After our meeting, I’m taken downstairs to the warehouse and book after book after book after oracle card deck from Hay House authors are placed in my arms, until they’re piled so high I feel like it’s a scene from a movie.

A very awesome movie that I want to watch again, and again, and again.

I’m given a hug.

“Welcome to Hay House.”

I get in my car, hands shaking, eyes tearing up.

I jump out again quickly and like a tourist I take a photo of the Hay House logo on the side of the building.

I hop back in my car, hoping no one saw me do that because be cool Cass, okay? Be cool.

 

They tell me they’re having a final meeting the next day, and they’ll give me a call when they’ve made their final decision.

Here’s the third synchronicity: I was driving to meet a friend for lunch, and as I’m getting out of the car, my phone rings again. If they’d called 2 minutes later, I may not have heard my phone in the noise of a Surry Hills café.

This time, I think I know who it is, but I still say “Hello, Cassie speaking.”

Hay House is on the phone.

They’re going into their final meeting.

They’ll call me back soon.

 

Here’s the fourth synchronicity.

I got into the café, slightly shaky, nervous and excited.

My phone sits next to me, the whole time.

Quietly.

The second I get into my car, my phone rings.

Hay House is on the phone.

They’re just finished their final meeting.

I’m joint first place (with the lovely Celina Gregory).

I have an international publishing deal with Hay House.

“Welcome to Hay House.”

 

Here’s the fifth synchronicity.

This all happened on a new moon.

The perfect time to be manifesting and planting seeds for what’s to come.

The perfect time to welcome in what’s been made manifest, after I’d dreamed about it, submitted a proposal and then… let it go.

 

Here’s the thing…

I almost didn’t write the proposal.

I almost didn’t… but I did.

I wrote it because I felt like I had to, urgently.

Here’s the other thing.

That post-it I told you about, the one that said “Book deal 2014”?

I took it down at the end of 2014 and I thought, “That’s okay, it’ll happen when it needs to happen.”

I even wrote this post right after I attended the Hay House workshop, and signed it off by saying, “Dear Universe, I’m ready for that book deal whenever you are.”

And then?

I was patient. 

 

This is still sinking in.

And I know there’s still so much work ahead of me, and I know that I don’t know what it all looks like, but I know one thing.

I’m ready for it.

Dear Universe, I’m ready for that book deal whenever you are.

I’m ready now.

 

Oh, and there’s one more small synchronicity.

The last phone call, the one that said Welcome to Hay House, came on the day I went back to my first art class with my art teacher who I’ve been to on and off for years, since I was a teenager.

Writing, painting… it’s all art.

The next day I pulled an oracle card.

God of the Arts: the artist within you is about to emerge.

Oh, the Divine and delightful timing of life.

I’m ready.

I also have to say I’m absolutely honoured to be sharing this with Celina Gregory (we are joint first-place) and Kate Wright from Inspired Mood.

Let the writing, creating, and birthing of new books begin!

Love,