SEVEN

The number was always 7.

Born November 7, 1942 — the digits add to 7. Life path number 7. Seven crystal Buddhas on the shelf. Seven chapters. Eight decades of seeking, building, losing, and becoming.

SEVEN: A New Beginning, As the Ending Closes In is the memoir of Edward A. Samuelson — Divine Mystic, artist, healer, and life guide — written at eighty-three from his home beside Lago de Chapala, Mexico. Structured around seven defining themes:

LOVE — from card games with Emma in childhood to his grandson Eli Samuel, from fraternity brotherhood to the particular love of a father who crosses oceans when his daughter is there.

PURPOSE — Senior Class President at seventeen. Army Commendation Medal. Master of Arts. Doctor of Divinity. The question of purpose never answered once — answered again and again, decade by decade.

FREEDOM — At sixty-three, when most people are contracting, Samuelson packed his life and crossed an international border. Not running from anything. Running toward everything.

HEALTH — From basic training to yoga to managing the Jalisco heat at eighty-three with two fans and a swamp cooler named Swampie. The body as faithful companion.

SECURITY — Not the Camelback Inn. The lake outside. The eternal blue sky. Louise Hay every morning: All is well. I am safe.

LEGACY — The friends who are gone. The name carried forward in a grandson. Legacy is not what you leave behind — it is what you chose to notice while you were here.

JOY — Thirteen consecutive Halloween costumes. Fun Fridays by the lake. I am so happy. I have so many friends. Seven words. The whole philosophy.

This is not a book about endings. It is a book about awakening — the luminous clarity that comes when you stop pretending the future is infinite and everything suddenly becomes more vivid, more precious, more worth showing up for completely.

About the author: Edward A. Samuelson (MA, DD) is a Divine Mystic, Minister of the Universal Life Church, and Doctor of Divinity. He lives in Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. He is eighty-three. He is still becoming.

The adventure was always forward. The joy was always available.