Waiting for Autumn
Debuting in the top ten on Amazon and now in its 4 th printing, Waiting for Autumn by Scott Blum has captivated readers worldwide and has joined the ranks of must-read spiritual adventure stories such as The Alchemist, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and The Celestine Prophecy . Released by Hay House in April of this year, the book has already top myriad best-sellers list and is being touted as a great summer read.
Author Scott Blum is best-known as the co-founder of the popular website DailyOM which he founded with his wife Madisyn Taylor. Inspired to share his personal spiritual journey and inspirational messages further he ventured into writing his first novel. Waiting for Autumn is a semi-autobiographical book that awakens us to new ideas, invite us to explore powerful spiritual and healing practices, and draw us into Scott's mystical world where nothing happens by mere coincidence.
This metaphysical page-turner is a fascinating and heartwarming exploration of one humble soul's profound awakening on the path to facing an extraordinary dilemma between his spiritual calling and earthly life. Waiting for Autumn is a unique journey of self-discovery, into unseen worlds where various healing and spiritual modalities are revealed, including shamanic soul retrieval, ancestral healing, energy-healing, family constellation work and more.
The book is labeled as fiction, however your name is Scott, and the main character's name is Scott. Is part of this book autobiographical? If so, why?
The book is a blend of fact and fiction, and contains many sections that are significantly based in reality. I've had many unusual experiences around my personal spiritual journey, and this book was an attempt at sharing those experiences and lessons I have learned along the way. The events contained in the book happened over a period of 20+ years, so I used a fictional thread to tie them together so that it wouldn't come across as simply a journal, or a memoir. I've always been a fan of this style of novel, and I found that by compressing those experiences into a three month period, it made the story much more readable and exciting.
In the book, Scott experiences shamanic soul retrieval, along with ancestral healing and other modes of spiritual healing such as constellation work —what is your experience with them?
Waiting for Autumn contains several different modes of spiritual healing of which I have had various levels of experience. Some of these practices are hundreds of years old, while others are relatively new. I do have experience with all of them, and I strongly believe in the power of each of them to heal. Some of my experiences are exactly as I outlined them in the book, and others were changed slightly to accommodate the plot line. However, these practices are extremely powerful and require respect and restraint by those practicing them. That is one of the main things I wanted to convey in the book; many of the more advanced healing modalities are intensely powerful, and shouldn't be treated lightly.
What is the significance of Scott's journey into the spiritual realm?
Many people are conscious of only the physical realm of existence which represents only a small portion of what is actually going on in our universe. Most of us have come in contact with the spiritual realm at least once in our lives whether we know it or not. These occurrences manifest themselves in various ways including dreams, coincidences or intuition. I hope my book will open people up to these other aspects of life that are often ignored.
Waiting for Autumn is similar to The Alchemist, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and The Celestine Prophecy . What makes Waiting for Autumn stand apart from these highly regarded books?
We each follow a spiritual path that is as personal and unique as our pursuit of any other significant aspect in our lives, such as love. My unique path manifests itself in this book by exploring lesser known modalities that haven't been seen elsewhere. The section on ancestral healing is quite unique to this type of literature, as is the underlying dilemma related to the dichotomy between the physical and spiritual realms. That being said, I love those other books and I'm honored to be included in their midst. If Waiting for Autumn can touch even one person in the way those other books have touched others, I will be very happy.
As the cofounder of DailyOM. How has your experience with DailyOM contributed to the content of this book?
DailyOM is a beacon of light that attracts intensely spiritual individuals. Whether it's our 1,000,000 subscribers, or the immensely talented modern masters we do online courses with; everyone that comes to DailyOM teaches me something about being a spiritual person in today's world. Many are also quite generous and offer to share their wisdom, which has given me several unique and rich experiences that I'm sure wouldn't have happened any other way.
What would you like readers to take from this book?
My primary objective is to share my experiences with others in a way that will give them tangible ideas on how to deepen the experience of their own spiritual path and integrate them in their everyday lives. I'm finding that in today's age, more and more people are finding themselves exposed to various spiritual modalities, and it's difficult for them to understand how to put these experiences into the context of their lives. Additionally, I find that by reading about such ideas in the context of someone else's journey it is easier for me to relate, instead of reading a straight “how to” guide that is inherently more didactic.
How can readers apply the lessons in the book towards their own lives?
One of the significant underlying threads of the book is learning how to trust your own intuitive guidance when discovering new ideas. It is my recommendation to follow your heart and only explore the ideas you are drawn to. If an idea seems to have little sparkles around it, or if a dragonfly appears out of nowhere when you're thinking about it, that's probably a good sign.
Your E-Book prequel Summer's Path debuted #1 on Kindle, and I understand is now being published in hardcover by Hay House in Spring 2010?
YES, Summer's Path was release as an E-book first and is the back-story leading up to Waiting for Autumn . The new hardcover edition includes two new chapters that weren't available in the E-book. Although the events in Summer's Path happen before Waiting for Autumn , they are intended to be read in whichever order you come to them. The book centers around Don Newport, an engineer who, after losing his job and his health insurance, learns he has a terminal disease and only a few months left to live. In order to spare his beloved wife the burden of exorbitant medical fees, Don begins to seek a way to end his life that won't further traumatize his wife or cause her undue pain. His answer comes when he meets Robert, a brazen angel of death who offers him a rare and unexpected option. As the story unfolds, Robert assists Don with his final preparations and guides him through the physical, emotional and spiritual matters involved in completing a life.
Through the journey Don takes, we are reminded that it's never too late to learn important life lessons about ourselves and our loved ones.
The first three chapters of Waiting for Autumn are available for free online at www.Scottblum.net - Enjoy the first chapter of Waiting for Autumn here:
He was the happiest homeless person I had ever seen. His smile was warm and friendly, and his shoulder-length hair matched his matted red beard. Although he seemed to be wearing the same ratty brown clothes from the day before and smelled like he hadn't bathed in a week, something about his water-blue eyes put me at ease.
As I carried my groceries across the Co-op parking lot, I read the hand-lettered cardboard sign he was holding:
Always receive with grace.
His smile widened knowingly as I walked past, and when I looked down, I noticed a small black puppy asleep at his feet. Once I was nearly past him, I whispered to myself, “That's ironic.”
“What's ironic?” he asked.
Startled, I took another step, hoping to act like I didn't hear him.
“What's ironic?” he repeated.
I stopped and slowly turned around. Embarrassed, I said, “It's ironic that you're giving advice on how to receive, when you're asking for money.”
“I'm not asking for anything,” he smirked. “Right now I'm giving.”
I took the bait without even thinking. “So when are you going to give me something?”
“I already have, but you wouldn't accept it in the manner it was offered.”
“Oh, I think you're mistaken—you definitely haven't given me anything. Perhaps you confused me with someone else.”
“No, I didn't confuse you with anyone else!” He was clearly annoyed. “Please leave now; I'm very busy.”
I looked around and there wasn't anyone within 100 yards of us.
“Please leave now,” he repeated and turned away from me.
Embarrassed, I carried my groceries up the hill to my apartment. I didn't know what I'd said to offend him, but he clearly wasn't happy with the way I had handled myself.
When I returned to the apartment, I was still profoundly disturbed by what had happened. I tried to shake it off and convince myself that he was probably just confusing me with someone else. I wanted to forget about it and go on with my day, but I simply couldn't. I didn't usually care what other people thought of me, but I had a strange connection to him and didn't want to let it go.
Less than an hour later, I picked up my wallet and made my way back down the hill. I wasn't sure what I was going to say, but I had to try.
I was relieved to see his matted red hair and his small black puppy as I approached the Co-op. As I got closer, I saw that he had a new sign that read: I want an orange.
What do you want?
I smiled and thought that this was a good idea for a peace offering. I went into the store and bought the best navel I could find and picked up a few odds and ends I hadn't had room to carry before.
As I passed through the glass double doors, I tossed him the orange and decided to give it another shot. “Here you go,” I said as the orange left my hand.
“Thanks.” He smiled, and genuinely seemed grateful for the orange. “That's the best thing that happened to me all day.”
His words instantly made me feel much better, and I decided to be a bit playful.
“So you can help me get what I want?” I smirked.
“Of course I can.”
“How can you do that?”
“You can manifest anything you want.”
“Oh, really? Why don't you do it?”
“I do, every day.”
“Then why are you still homeless?”
“Why do you think I'm homeless?”
Oh dear , I thought. I would definitely need to watch my words more carefully if I was going to spend more time with him. “What do you manifest?” I asked, trying my best to change the subject.
“Today I manifested an orange.”
I laughed. “All you did was write a sign that said you wanted an orange.”
“And you gave me one. So clearly I was successful at manifesting.” He smiled proudly.
“So if I want a million dollars, all I have to do is make a sign that says ‘Give me a million dollars' and someone will just give it to me?”
“Do you believe that will happen?”
“Of course not! There's no way some guy is going to see a sign and give me a million bucks!”
“Then you answered your own question. So you agree—you can't just make anything you want appear out of nowhere.”
“No. I simply agree you don't believe that's the right way to manifest a million dollars. Manifesting isn't about making a halfhearted effort and then failing. Manifesting is about aligning your goals and your destiny so they become one. You have to believe without a doubt and act without pause, or else you're wasting your time. Do you really want a million dollars?”
“Of course I do.”
“I don't believe you.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have an orange, and it doesn't look like you have anywhere near a million dollars in your pocket.”
Perhaps he had a point.
“What do you really want?”
His eyes felt like they were drilling holes straight through me. “To be happy,” I answered after a long pause.
“Now that's something I can help you with. Once you're honest with yourself, you're halfway there. I'm Robert,” he said with his hand outstretched.
“I'm Scott.” I shook his hand.
“Nice to meet you, Scott. And this is my puppy, Don. Come back here tomorrow around the same time, and I'll have something for you.”
As I walked away, I was both intrigued by and afraid of how drawn to Robert I was. There was something foreign to me about how open and warm people in Ashland were, and I was still getting used to it. Back in Los Angeles, I had grown comfortable with the blanket of anonymity provided by the city crowds. And when I first discovered how friendly the people were in this small mountain town of southern Oregon, I felt ashamed by how closed off I had become over the years and vowed to open back up. In this town, nobody knew how jaded and distrusting I'd been in L.A., and I wanted to reinvent myself as a friendly person who only saw the good in others. It was a great mental exercise and almost immediately began to give me back some of the optimism of my childhood. I decided to hold on to that ideal as I made my way back up the hill and continued to unpack more boxes.
***
I loved my new apartment, and it was in a great location, only three short blocks from Lithia Park in the northerly hills above downtown Ashland. Tucked between mature oaks on a tree-lined street, the pale yellow duplex was much larger than I was used to and seemed more like a house than an apartment—especially with its huge backyard. The bedroom had a great view, and it was also month-to-month, so if Ashland didn't work out, I could always continue on my journey north and wouldn't be stuck there for more than a month at a time.
A few days earlier I had been on my way to Portland to start my life over after once again losing my job in the coldhearted entertainment industry. Ever since I moved to Los Angeles, a string of bad luck prevented me from keeping a job for more than a few months at a time. There were always budget reasons, but the truth was, I never found a niche in any of the companies I worked at and was always the first to go if times got tough. And because I had a knack for always picking the wrong employer, I would be out of work more often than not.
Finally, I promised myself that if I lost my job again, I would leave the city before my savings dwindled to the point where I would never be able to do so. Luckily, one of the first people I'd met in Los Angeles was a young, ambitious band manager named Clark. He worked at the same record label I did when I first arrived in L.A., and he was always working on a get-rich-quick scheme. We hit it off pretty quickly, but when we met, he was already on his way out. He'd had his fill of the Hollywood scene and decided to move to Portland to start an independent record label to take advantage of their burgeoning music scene. He had offered me a job as soon as he got his new company set up in Oregon, and I finally decided to take him up on it after I received my most recent two weeks' notice. I just threw everything I could fit into a U-Haul trailer and started driving north. I was gone within a day of losing my job, without even bothering to say good-bye to anyone I knew.
After driving twelve hours straight, I crossed the California-Oregon border, and my old Volvo dramatically died on the Siskiyou mountain pass after a loud explosion and a huge plume of thick black smoke. I should have stopped at a gas station to check my car before starting up the summit, as I was already familiar with how hard the Siskiyous were on old cars. I'd grown up in a small town in Northern California about 50 miles south of the Oregon border, so I had scaled that very mountain pass many times. However, my family had moved to the Midwest several years before, and all of my old friends were long gone, so there was no reason to stop on my way through. Although in retrospect, double-checking the oil in Yreka would have been a good idea.
Luckily, a highway patrol was just a few miles behind me when my car exploded, and he blocked off the narrow lane it was in until the tow truck arrived. I had my car and trailer towed to the first available mechanic, who was in Ashland. And when I found out how much it was going to cost to fix the car, I needed to decide if I was going to get a bus ticket to Portland or spend all of my savings to resuscitate my Volvo.
I nearly bought a bus ticket out of Ashland, but something told me I should put off the decision for a few days and just stay put. I hadn't really been attached to Portland as much as I just wanted to get out of L.A. Although I technically already had a job waiting for me up there, I had enough money to support myself for a few months while I tried to find work.
I'd forgotten how much I liked Ashland—it was one of my favorite places from when I was younger. I remembered visiting the idyllic tourist town to go shopping, eat at restaurants, or see an occasional Shakespeare play. The town was beautiful, the air was clean, it had culture, and most important, I simply liked it. I felt comfortable in Ashland, and I hadn't felt comfortable anywhere (including my own skin) since before I could remember.
After I found myself stranded in Ashland for a few days, life instantly seemed much easier, and I quickly abandoned my original plan and decided to stay in southern Oregon. I was already much happier than I had ever been in L.A., and soon I even got used to the idea of living without a car. I'd been on foot the entire time since I had arrived, and it was liberating to be car free after being bound for so many years.
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