"You have a very big destiny awaiting you," my Peruvian spiritual master told me the day of my initiation as a master in the Inka Spiritual Tradition. I wondered how this destiny would make itself known to me. I had moved to Cusco, Peru five years before to help manifest the vision of a multi-faith spirituality center. I was planning our first big gathering for the following year. Perhaps my destiny was related to that?

I sought guidance during my morning meditation about my upcoming trip to the States, which included a weekend of Interspiritual Dialogue in Texas to do some networking. Before that conference I would spend time in New York visiting friends and family. As was my habit, I opened myself to conversation with the Divine, asking if my time in Texas would be fruitful for the gathering planned in Peru. One of God's more playful voices responded, "Yes, Texas will be fine. But we have a surprise for you in New York City."
 
"A surprise", I responded skeptically, "What kind of surprise?"

"A BIG surprise! Don't worry. You'll like it."

And with that cryptic message in my pocket, I was on my way.

The last hot Saturday of summer, I attended a seminar on the mystical Kabala. I went to make contacts for our Peruvian gathering. There were 15 of us sitting in a circle on the wooden floor of a Soho loft. We went around the circle introducing ourselves. The handsome white haired man with an Israeli accent sitting across from me, caught my attention. He was a documentary filmmaker, he said, interested in spiritual things.

As the afternoon wore on, the rabbi leading the seminar expanded the mysteries of the Tree of Life. He said, "We should meditate and open ourselves to God's message. Because when God speaks to us, it is always a surprise, a big surprise." My ears perked up. Oh! I thought, my big surprise in New York City is imminent. Pay attention.

As we meditated, my dialogue with the Divine continued. "OK", I said, as if on a treasure hunt, "is the surprise related to this seminar? This rabbi? Or maybe the filmmaker? That's it, something with the filmmaker! Is he the surprise?"

"No", the answer came back clear as a bell. "He's not the surprise."

Still by the end of the day, after a dance-movement meditation when he and I ended up side by side, hand in hand as the circle closed and the seminar ended, I couldn't quite concede the idea that he might be the surprise. He'd been to Peru, he told me and wanted to go back. We chatted in the elevator and by the time we got to the street, we had agreed to have dinner. Our banter was quick and compelling. He was interested in making a documentary about our spiritual gathering. We agreed to stay in touch.

The rest of my week in the city was fun but uneventful. Maybe he wasn't the big surprise but as I headed up to the suburbs to visit my parents, I figured if the surprise was in New York City, he was the only thing that remotely qualified.

 
My birthday is September 8th and my father's is the 1st. So over Labor Day weekend we celebrated both birthdays at my brother's house. When it came time for presents my parents said, "We have a surprise for you!" It was tickets to the Broadway musical Wicked, a twist on the Wizard of Oz story where Dorothy is off stage and the Wicked Witch is the heroine.

The tickets were a special surprise because since childhood I loved the Wizard of Oz. I know all the lines; I know all the songs. I had played the Wicked Witch in a high school production. In my theatre days (as an actress and producer in New York) it didn't take much coaxing for me to launch into my perfect Margaret Hamilton imitation of the famous melting scene. Ask me now and I'd still be happy to oblige.

We drove into the city the night of my birthday and took our seats. As the opening number began, Glinda "the Good Witch" floated down from center stage in her bubble, just like the MGM movie. I was enraptured. Glinda and Elfaba (later to be labeled the Wicked Witch) were schoolgirl roommates at magic school. Glinda was more popular than Elfaba (who was born green-skinned and therefore ostracized). Elfaba, more clever and gifted in the magic department, was also a social justice advocate (like me in my second career as a minister in South Africa).

Her concern that all the animals in Munchkin land were being systematically silenced, led her to the Wizard in Emerald City. She arrived confident he would stop this injustice but soon she discovered that the Wizard was the mastermind of the plot. He tried to coerce Elfaba to join him, to opt for popularity with the people in power. But she refused to compromise her values and was captured. Elfaba, now labeled the Wicked Witch was blamed for all the ills of Oz. Searching for a way to fly, she cast her spell on a nearby broom and made her escape, singing the song Defying Gravity - nothing could keep her down.

My identification with Elfaba was total, down to my life long wish to fly. Like her, from childhood, I was different from others, drawn to right the wrongs of the underdog, willing to brave unpopularity for the cause of truth and freedom, labeled "bad" when I knew I was good. Defying gravity. Yes! Tears were streaming down my cheeks as she was lifted into the rafters singing her song. Mesmerized by the three rays of blue/white light shining down on the top of her head, I was momentarily blinded. Time stood still. The voice of my meditation broke though, "This is your big surprise. Happy birthday. We knew you would like it."

And the curtain came down on Act One.

How amazing was that? Everything had come together in a dazzling flash. What better vehicle could there be, wrapping my life into one big birthday package? A whole big Broadway musical redeeming my bad-girl childhood, complete with my own new theme song - Defying Gravity, nothing can keep me down. Definitely a BIG surprise!

It wasn't until I got to Texas the next day and was writing in my journal that I realized an additional significance to the message. It was the end of Act One, which meant that now was the beginning of Act Two. My "very big destiny" was knocking at the door. What new surprises did life have in store for me?

So Act Two begins.

Diane Dunn is a healer and runs the Paz y Luz (Peace and Light) Healing Center and B&B in Cusco's Sacred Valley. She is the author of a new book called Cusco: The Gateway to Inner Wisdom. www.pazyluzperu.com