“Debbie Carr is an unusual person.”
As you read this exceptional book, you’ll find out what an understatement this is.
Debbie Carr and I met on a blind date, and our spirits immediately connected. It was something about her eyes: I saw a depth of awareness and knowing that most people just don’t possess. At the same time, those eyes manifested pain that, at the time, I couldn’t identify, until Debbie told me the story of her brother, Gary.
How did Debbie enter the wonderful world of professional speaking? A month after we started dating, a company asked me to make a presentation at its annual conference, to be held at a five-star resort in Fiji. The CEO invited Debbie to join me and spend some time with them for a week. Debbie didn’t have to be asked twice. She had packed her suitcase almost before we had finished our telephone conversation!
After I completed my two presentations, we spent a day on an island not too far from Nadi. We had enjoyed a pleasant lunch with the clients and were sunbathing on the beach when Debbie turned to me and said, “So, this is ‘work’ for you, isn’t it?”
“Well, some clients can be demanding, but you have to go along with it, don’t you?” I replied, not thinking anything about it.
“So what do I have to do to be part of this?” she asked, surprising me.
“Well,” I replied, “You can become a professional speaker or run a speakers’ agency.”
When we returned to Australia, Debbie went right to work and created a speakers’ agency from the ground-up. That’s just the kind of person she is.
Later still, I was to find that to know Debbie well, you also really need to know her family.
After we had been dating for a couple of months, it was time for the inevitable “meet the parents” lunch. Her parents were extraordinarily hospitable and receptive, and Debbie’s mother, Sylvia, did all she could to ensure that I felt comfortable.
The four of us at that luncheon was a bit like being at the United Nations; Sylvia was born and raised in Wales; Debbie’s father, Eddie, is eminently and unmistakably Irish; all of my grandparents were born in China; and I was born, raised and educated in Australia
After a rare pause in conversation, Sylvia politely asked, “Ron, have you eaten much Australian food?” Eddie, a tough-as-nails stonemason and builder, was clearly embarrassed as well as amused, but when Debbie and I started falling off our chairs laughing and he saw that I wasn’t offended, he joined in. This was the beginning of a running gag.
Over the next two years of living and working together, I found that Debbie is inordinately opinionated, passionate, compassionate, focused and fearless.
I also had the privilege of listening to the recording that Debbie’s brother made shortly before his suicide, and I was deeply moved, but oddly enough, not as affected as I was when reading Debbie’s account of the incidents before and after Gary’s transformation from his human form. After all, death is nothing more and nothing less than a transference of energy and matter that inevitably manifests in a more highly evolved form.
There you have it: a glimpse into the life of your author.
I can assure you that after reading this book, you will gain some insights into the human condition that you had never known existed. You will be both stirred and shaken. You will become angry and frustrated. But mostly, you will become more enlightened and inspired by the humanity and spirituality contained within these chapters.
Authors Note: Ron Lee, CSP The Corporate Ninja, is a motivational speaker who is represented by my speaker's agency
