Excerpt 2: The Soul Keys by Jim Oakley (SpirituallyFit.com)

	The Soul Keys
	By Jim Oakley

Ream Johnson had lost his sight as the result of a bizarre incident which was impossible to anticipate before it happened. A freak wave as it is called by ocean going sailors.

For days, weeks, and months waves come from the same predictable direction. Then, one day, an unannounced wave comes from a different direction, as big as your life, knocking your life down. It could be caused by an earthquake, a shift of a continental plate, or even a tidal wave. You don't believe one can happen until it does. Then you question everything, even your god. In a similar way, a freak ricochet bullet during a convenience store holdup not only shattered the optic nerve of Ream Johnson, who was an innocent bystander, but it also demolished his spirit.

This devastation which results in the shattered self, or soul shock, is experienced by many war veterans, kidnap hostages, rape victims, and holocaust survivors. Until such an event, most people are unaware they have been living on the thin crust of life. For those who have had their spirit broken, it is as if they have fallen through the floor of life and there is no footing from which to get up.

Some never recoup from a fragmented and mangled spirit. Others become more from the experience because they are not really complete until they deal with an infirmity which is bigger than themselves. These unique souls have scrutinized all of existence to decipher their dilemma because for them to understand their plight is also to be freed from it.

On the day of the holdup, Ream Johnson, at 50, was the vice president of a large hotel chain. Ream looked the seasoned executive part with sandy gray hair and a clean shaven face. He was handsome in a kindly way and physically proportional to his six foot height. Not especially athletic looking, yet he still looked fairly trim in his blue jeans on that weekend. He was the average hard working, white collar American male who had followed the script all of his life. He had a fair share of achievements and disappointments. He wasn't unhappy, but yet he wasn't happy. He was aware that somewhere inside him simmered a question hanging in mid air that couldn't be brought into focus. There was a haunting something which did not fit, wasn't right or complete. As if he had come to the train station to wait for an old friend, not knowing who it was, or what train the friend would ride.

Photo of Jim Oakley's "Biffer"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JIM OAKLEY - In his mid-40s Jim Oakley took a sabbatical leave from business lasting over 3 years. He acquired a Top Ten National Champion Arabian horse with an unlikely name of Fred and moved to Sedona, in Arizona red rock country. It was in this setting of philosophical and religious diversity that he came to more fully develop his own spirituality. While riding here in God’s Church, he discovered a seemingly mystical “Principle” from his Arabian horse. He says, “this Principle was the most important thing he has ever learned about horses, people and life.” Soon thereafter he decided to write a book about it.

He spent two years writing the first draft of “A Cowboy Mends a Man”, which later became “The Soul Keys”. In all, ten years later, it was finished. Meanwhile, during this same period, he found more independence in his business, allowing him the freedom to live a casual, relaxed life style, close to nature. He says, “such a fortunate soul has three or four poetic things to do in life, one is to write a book, another is to ride a majestic Arabian horse, another is to build a handmade—homemade cabin on a mountain top, but most important it is to love and be loved.”

Grateful that even late in life, he has met woman of his dreams, Pattilee. They spend much of their time in their cabin high atop a mountain in Arizona.

Jim Oakley

To order The Soul Keys visit this web site:

thesoulkeys.com