Life Update: Meeting My Guru
January 2nd, 2015, on the top of a mountain in Joshua Tree National Park, I opened my journal and found myself writing, “To my future sons and daughters…”
What came next stopped me in my tracks. I was asked a question by a higher power—God, an Angel, Jesus—who knows, but I know it wasn’t my mind.
The question was:
Do you want all that life has in store for you?
Of course, I do, everybody does. Yet, my answer came with sacrifice. If I really wanted all that life had in store for me, what this voice was saying is that I needed to stop drinking.
I wrestled with the thought. How could I, a 25-year-old who drank multiple times a week for a better part of the last decade, be in the world without alcohol?
I didn’t know if I could do it. But as I looked down at the letter, I thought, what kind of man would I be if I didn’t answer the call?
So I finished the sentence:
To my future sons and daughters…on this day, January 2nd, 2015, I, Louis Redmond, stop drinking.
I closed the journal, and it was as if the sky opened up and poured into me the greatest amount of love and ecstasy I have ever felt.
Gloria in excelcis deo.
The proclamation to my future kids catalyzed a spiritual awakening that transformed every aspect of my life.
It's the reason I’m writing to you now, over a decade later.
Although it was hard to abstain those first years, I can honestly say I have not been drunk since.
If you’ve been around a while, you may have already heard my story. I write about it in my book Find Your Truth.
So why am I telling it now?
A Guru is a spiritual teacher who mirrors back your light and shadows and guides you toward awakening to who you really are.
I have yet to find my teacher in the way Ram Dass found Nareem Karoli Baba.
However, when I think of that decision I made in Joshua Tree, it feels like my future sons and daughters have been my Guru.
They helped me get sober, put me on a path of spiritual discipline, and led me to pursue work that aligns with my gifts and makes a positive difference.
They helped me learn how to love God with all my heart.
In that way, my unborn kids have taught me more about life than any living teacher has.
And guess what?
My wife is expecting our first child in December.
I get to meet my guru.
At the spot in Italy where we got married, a year later, my wife, Kelly Ann, now pregnant.
More to say, later.
For now, I thank you for your prayers and blessings.
I can’t wait to be a father.