The Book of Intuition

Her paintbrush has come to the last strokes of what is left of the spruce blue. It was the perfect mix of the only two colors of five-ounce oil paint she could afford to buy. Her face begins to fill with mere disappointment as she glances upon her uncompleted canvas facing just beside the bedroom window. “Canvas number two hundred and fourteen,” she writes on the lower left-hand corner. She places it amongst the others in a line. Two hundred and fourteen canvases all with the same exact landscape. Her bedroom sits perfectly below the far galaxy that holds the gazing stars and crescent moon. It is the only canvas she has ever come to know since she was banished to her room by her father for all of eternity. It has always seemed like the normal way of life to her, until one day the stars of her fate guided her path to liberation in a way that only the Gods can explain.

Twenty years ago, Savannah was born in a small village in Little River, California. She was born into a severely impoverished family and has lived an under-privileged life ever since. Her father was sent to prison when he was twenty years old for attempted bank robbery. He has never been able to make a living for his family without the struggles of his past coming back to haunt him. The villagers despised him and shamed him whenever he would go into town. It was not until his first and only child was born that he decided it would be best to keep her hidden from the world around him. Not only was he frightened for the villagers to shame his daughter, but also for his daughter to find out about the person he was and ultimately shame him as well. For the past twenty-years, Savannah has never left her home. She knows nothing of what different beautiful landscapes the world has to offer but only that of just outside her bedroom window on a clear starry night. Her parents scrounged whatever food they could find to survive. To keep her occupied, Savannah’s father would sacrifice all that he had to buy her two five-ounce tubes of oil paint whenever he could. She has been painting since she was a little girl. She constantly shared with her mother the dreams she had about painting possibilities of other landscapes one day. But her mother only brought her back to reality with reaffirming her that they could only ever afford the two colors of paint and that would never change. Her mother was wrong.

Savannah never gave up her daydreams about being a well-rounded landscape painter. She imagined all the other colors and forms of life that existed outside of her window. She had a love for the Earth and a dying passion to explore. The urge grew more and more each waking day of her life while she was locked away in her bedroom, until now. Now, at twenty years old, she has found the answer hidden in the stars above.

After placing her uncompleted landscape of the starry night amongst the others, Savannah takes a step back to review her work. She moves along each canvas analyzing their symmetry and identity. She is feeling drawn to the stars in her painting, like they are trying to tell her something. She moves over to her window and glances at the real stars above to try and discover what it is that she is feeling. It is in that moment that she realizes the comparison between the only landscape she has ever known and the galaxy above her. One is real, and one is fake. She realizes that she has been living a fake life all along. The only way she can feel alive is to be present in the physical world. She learns in this moment that having a conversation with the stars is compelling her. Something of great force beyond what this world can understand is compelling her to leave. “What is the purpose? Why are we here?” She thinks to herself while talking to the stars. The force compelling her gets stronger. She has had enough. Savannah heads for the door and runs into the night.

With no food or shelter, she panders for survival as the sun rises. She walks for miles through places and nearby towns that she has never seen before. Her father has yet to find her. She continues her journey through a small, deserted roadway through the forest. She suddenly stops to let in the overwhelming emotions of witnessing the beautiful scenery around her. The sun shining through the luscious green trees, the birds singing in the branches, the river streams hitting the rocks so gracefully, and the earthly green grass covering the ground beneath her feet are the images going on through her hazel eyes in this very surreal moment. At last, she feels what all humans crave to feel in this life on Earth: peace. Wiping her tears of joy, Savannah is overly thrilled to use this beautiful scenery in her paintings. She has found her first landscape.

It then hits her. She has no blank canvas, no paintbrushes, and no paint. The disappointment is creeping back in, but she is determined and ambitious to fulfill this compulsion that has been touched upon her spirit from the stars the night before. She then heads back up the same deserted roadway to continue her path. Something is telling her to keep going and fighting for survival, and then she will find what she is looking for. Upon her journey along the pathway, she notices something small, dark, and square-shaped laying to the side of the road. Curious, she walks towards it to discover what it could be. A little black notebook placed perfectly in Savannah’s path. She opens it to discover handwritten notes inside containing a list of directions. It seems to be directions for a prize-winning contest.

Savannah follows the directions precisely. The directions were like a scavenger hunt filled with deeds the person who found it must accomplish to discover the purpose of the book. The directions stated to bring a basket filled with one fruit, one vegetable, and flowers to the little log cabin in the woods directly 1 mile north of where the book was placed. This seemed like an odd request to her, but Savannah was determined to win the prize hoping it would buy her at least one of each of the supplies she needed to get started on her new painting. She marks the spot where the book was with stones to remember where to return.

Savannah starts her journey to finding the items as she approached a town square in a small neighboring city. Although she has no money and no means to purchase the required items, the one thing she does have with her is her kindness. She witnesses an elderly woman exiting the grocery store struggling with her heavy bags. Savannah walks up to the woman and carries the bags for her to her car.

“Thank you so much dear, I would have tripped and hurt my back carrying those bags! You look famished, here is an apple and some carrots as a thank you for being so kind,” the woman says gracefully while handing the items to Savannah. She wanted to eat them to satisfy her longing hunger, but she knew she had a task to win the prize of the contest in the book. She now has one fruit and one vegetable.

She heads back down her original path near the woods to search for some flowers. She notices a baby rabbit eating something along trees. She has never seen another animal before, so this creature instantly amazes her eyes. She takes a moment to appreciate the nature of the Earth unfolding before her. The rabbit moves along to other trees nearby and reveals what it was eating. To Savannah’s bliss, along the tree lies beautifully bloomed yellow dandelions ready for her picking. She now has all three items ready to be taken to the little log cabin in the woods. Along her journey through the woods, she crafts a handmade basket out of twigs to hold the items in. Savannah makes her way to the stones she placed where the book was originally placed.

As she heads north from the marked spot, she notices a light ahead. She has found the little cabin described in the book. She is eager to present her findings to the book’s author, but she is also afraid of the disappointment that may arise if this was all a fake show to simply bring a stranger his grocery list. She reaches the door and gives a gentle knock. A man wearing a suit opens the door.

“Greetings. My name is Savannah. I have discovered your little black book of directions along the road a mile back. I have brought to you the items you have requested. I am intrigued by the contest you have stated. May I ask what this is all for, sir?”

“Hello Savannah. My name is Jack Maxwell. I am so glad someone found my book. Thank you for participating in my contest. Only the man above knows just how much this means to me right now.”

Jack recently founded a non-profit organization in memory of his daughter whom he lost to cancer when she was just twenty years old. It has been his mission to keep her memory alive by fulfilling her life dreams. Through the organization, he started a contest. It began with filling out the instructions in his little black notebook and placing it in a random place where it would be stumbled upon by a complete stranger. If anyone were lucky enough to find it and follow the directions, the person would win the contest prize as a grant from the organization — $20,000. The contest was a way to honor his daughter. All she wanted to do was follow her dreams and be surprised with what life had to offer. She wanted to be a farmer. He used a fruit, vegetable, and flower in the contest as a symbolic representation of her fulfilling her life dream. In a seemingly odd but destined fate, Jack’s daughter’s name was also Savannah. Both of their paths were destined to be crossed. Jack hands Savannah the check for $20,000. In that moment, Savannah felt all her fears and trauma melt away as she knew she was destined to be standing on that porch that day. She is finally free.

“So, what do you plan to do with your contest winnings?” The man asks eagerly.

“I am going to the paint shop,” Savannah replies with a smile from ear to ear.

Savannah is able to get herself food, clothes, and a shelter to stay for a while with the money she won. Eventually, she set up her canvas in that same exact spot in the woods and began to mix her palette filled with all the bright colors that her paintbrush has never seen before. She completes the landscape of the forest scene filled with trees, birds, sunshine, and a river stream. She glances at her work from the canvas to the physical scene and smiles, remembering the day she decided to listen to the stars. “Canvas one,” she writes in the lower left-hand corner.

Savannah learned the importance of enjoying the journey and adventure of wherever life may take you, because it is going to take you where you need to be in the end. Most importantly, she learned to trust her intuition and listen to her guides from above. Everything was placed perfectly in her path to get her to where she needed to be. She was compelled and determined to keep going and find her way. Eventually she did, all thanks to a little book of intuition placed in her path.