I wrote this to someone in an email: I have never done a vision board; for some reason it has not appealed to me strongly enough to do one.

I will share a story with you. In 2010 my first book, Life With A Hole In It: That’s How The Light Gets In, came out. One day I was at a women’s spirituality group and there was a visitor. After it was over, she came up to me and said that we had 3 things in common. We had both lived in Memphis, we were both writers and we both loved Vernon Howard.

She later said she wanted 4 copies of my book to give as gifts and she came to my house to get them. She brought me a lovely hummingbird wind chime. Later I discovered that she had breast cancer. She wrote her book, Back To The Garden, while recuperating from it. My son and I visited her home twice. The last time I saw her was the second time we visited. Eight months later she was dead. Her sister held an estate sale/open house so her friends could have a chance to buy some of her lovely things. Her house was rich with arts, crafts and pottery, etc. It was a magical day where we all lingered in our happy memories of time spent in her most unique home.

I have a round pottery vase of hers on my coffee table and a few other things I got that day. Her vision board and dreamcatcher were in her bedroom. At the end of the day no one had taken them, so I did. But after awhile I let them go. Her dreams have all come true, I am sure of that. She died in hospice, apparently being conscious enough to leave her body when it was time. Many friends felt they got messages from her after her passing.

But back to our first meeting. She told me that I was a beautiful flower about to bloom and that soon my phone would be ringing with people asking me to speak. That didn’t happen and I wouldn’t have been ready for it anyway.

She also said that I should move to The Enchanted Forest where she lived. She said that my son would not have to drive me around and that I could listen to people. I thought she meant that people would come to visit me and I would listen to them. But now I go to kirtan in that part of town and I LISTEN to people playing music.

So that makes a very loving story of my friendship with Patrice Dickey, who still has a Facebook Page. No one ever took it down. She was a great inspirer of people.

Love with fond memories of Patrice,
Vicki Woodyard