Echo Bodine’s Heartbreaking Sacrifice

Author and psychic Echo Bodine told me a very powerful and very intimate story for my book, Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, that emphasized the importance of listening to and heeding our intuition. May Echo’s experience inspire you to find the strength and courage to listen to that still small voice within. Here is an excerpt from her profoundly moving story, beginning with her bio.

Echo Bodine

Echo Bodine, a psychic, spiritual healer, ghostbuster, and author, offers psychic development and healing classes at her Minneapolis teaching and healing center. Her abilities include clairvoyance (the gift of seeing), clairaudience (the gift of hearing) and clairsentience (the gift of sensing). Her nine books include Look for the Good and You’ll Find God, Echoes of the Soul and The Gift. Click here to visit Echo’s website.

When I was a sophomore in college, I found out I was pregnant. When my boyfriend and I talked about getting married, my inner voice very adamantly said, No! But I pretended I didn’t hear it and kept on trying to make this really difficult situation more workable for me, my boyfriend, and our families. Our premarital counselor said that, even though we were both young, we could probably make it work. But all along, my intuition kept saying, No, no, no, this is not the way to go. And, deep down, I knew I had to listen to it.

So even though I wanted to get married and keep my baby, I said no to my boyfriend. It was very hard to explain to everyone that I was saying no because that’s what felt right to me. It made sense to my mom, who taught me how to live by my intuition, but it didn’t make sense to my boyfriend or anybody else.

In 1968, it was pretty shameful to be nineteen and an unwed mother. So I went off to California and told everybody I had transferred to a different college. All throughout the pregnancy, whenever I would rebel and think, I’m going to keep this baby, my intuition kept saying, No, you’re not. And I would get the word adoption every time. Even though I had made arrangements with an adoption agency, in the back of my mind I kept thinking that when it came right down to it, I was going to take my baby home with me. Sometimes, out of desperation, I thought, Maybe the day my son is born, my intuition will tell me, Okay, now you can keep him.

My son was born on a gloomy day in San Francisco. I’ve never lived a harder day in my life. I laid in my hospital bed crying and pleading with my intuition, Can I please, please bring my baby home? but it very clearly said, No. Adoption. My boyfriend was still suggesting that we get married and raise our baby, and I had a strong desire and a strong will to do that, too. My parents had told me they would support me if I kept my baby, and the family friends I was living with in San Francisco even came to my hospital room and asked me to let them raise my son.

Yet, in spite of everything the world was saying, my inner voice was telling me to trust the guidance I was getting and that it would all work out some day. I knew I had to trust it but it was the most difficult thing I ever had to do. I cried, “Please, God, you have to talk to me, you have to tell me how this is going to turn out if I place him for adoption.” But all I heard was, It’s going to be okay.

I knew I couldn’t hold him. I knew that if I did, my will would take over. The last time they wheeled me to the nursery window to see him, the candy striper innocently said, “Oh, did you get your baby’s pictures?” I remember thinking, Oh, my God, will somebody please get me out of here! I can’t stand this kind of pain!

In the years since, there were many, many moments when I wondered if I should have kept my baby instead of listening to my intuition, especially since I never had any more children after that. And yet, my inner voice would always say, It will be okay. Someday, it will be okay.

Today, I’m thankful that I can say it did indeed turn out okay and that both his father and I no longer have any doubt that I did the right thing. In my book, A Still Small Voice, I write about finding my son twenty-five years later. He was raised in a wonderful family and we now have a wonderful relationship. I also still get along very well with his biological father. In fact, in September, the two of us went to our son’s wedding.

I really struggled whether or not to share such a personal story, but then I realized that if someone reading this is faced with a difficult situation, and their inner voice is guiding them to do something that makes no sense to them, maybe my story will speak to them and tell them, Follow it anyway.

ABOUT PHIL BOLSTA

Phil is the author of Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything, a collection of 45 inspiring, life-changing stories from prominent people he interviewed, including Joan Borysenko, Deepak Chopra, geneticist Dr. Francis Collins, acclaimed sportswriter Frank Deford, Dr. Larry Dossey, Wayne Dyer, Dan Millman, Caroline Myss, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, Dr. Bernie Siegel, James Van Praagh, singer Billy Vera, Doreen Virtue, Neale Donald Walsch, and bassist Victor Wooten.

Here is a three-minute video that introduces you to Phil and his book. Click here to buy Sixty Seconds. Click here to ask Phil to add you to his e-mail list for updates on his blog and books.

Reading this book is like spending a few minutes face to face with each of the contributors and listening to their personal stories. Click here to read unsolicited testimonials from readers. Learn more by visiting the official Sixty Seconds website.

Sixty Seconds was one of three finalists in the General Interest/How-To category at the 12th annual Visionary Awards presented by COVR (Coalition of Visionary Resources) in Denver on June 27, 2009.

Tags: Echo Bodine, giving your baby up for adoption, intuition, spiritual