The Reincarnation of Clara

"I want very much to tell my story. You see, there may not be another story like this in all the world." So begins the tale of eighty-five-year-old Clara Cabot's remarkable journey through time and history. Clara relates her life story to a reporter, as she has been eyewitness to the rise and fall of a small Utah town and its nearby military base for sixty years. However, much more than a simple tale of history, Clara's unique narrative describes how actions from previous lives have set in motion her experiences in the present. Her relationship to her younger sister is karmic and associated with the child she abandoned in 19th century Wyoming. Her attraction to a self-centered husband is connected to fantasies she acquired during a seventeenth century life in England, when she longed to be with a self-center lord. Her psychic talent has been a part of her soul since becoming involved in mysticism in early Palestine. Clara's highly developed intuitive sense, which she calls "looking sideways," reveals how the tragedies and challenges of the present are simply the continuation of patterns set in motion in the long ago past. At first a complete skeptic, the reporter is eventually won over by the narrative and eventually comes to understand her own surprising connection to Clara Cabot through time. Clara's story portrays the amazing saga of the soul and some surprising revelations about the nature of life and the responsibility each of us shares in co-creating our lives.