Manifesting Destiny - Part 3 - Allowing

I sat down to write this blog and found that it was exactly a year ago to the day that I wrote part 2 of this series, Manifesting Destiny - Part 2 - Intention (2/17/2007). My delay has to do with a perplexing question rattling in the back of my mind for the past year. I've always been intrigued by paradox and when I encounter one, I turn into Rainman, wondering "who's on first?" (that's the man's name! no, who's on first?). The paradox is this: I've always had a sense that the concept of free will and destiny are both correct. How could that be? How could you say that something was your "meant to be" destiny and at the same time say that you chose it? My title is silly! "Manifesting Destiny" is like telling the dog to sit after he has already sat, then saying "good dog!" How much of this can we choose when we exist in such a web of interlocking wills?

I listened to the book, "The Secret" on audio on my way to Indianapolis last year. Following the book's recommendation, I decided to try to manifest something small and easy, a paperclip. I thought of a paperclip, I felt how it would feel in my hand, and believed that one would show up. When I arrived in Indy, I told my sister about this and asked her how long she thought it would take me to manifest a paperclip. She just rolled her eyes. Well, the next morning, I walked out of the hotel, and in downtown Indianapolis laying in the middle of the sidewalk there was a pile of paperclips. I was excited! I took a picture! I picked them up and made them into a long necklace of 23 paperclips (no, I didn't wear it!). I ran into the hotel and I found my sister, held out my hand and said, "look what I just found!" She just said, "you dumbass, why didn't you ask for a million dollars?" Ha, ha! That's all funny, but her question is my conundrum. Asking for what is not meant to be defies the laws of the universe. If I ask for a million dollars and one of my lessons here requires me to live in squalor, then living in squalor it will be. I'm not being a pessimist, I'm not saying that we cannot get what we want. I'm saying that what we manifest has to be within the confines of our personal destiny.

This is how I have come to think of it. Life is like a river, and we each have a boat. Mine is a kayak. We are not all on the same river. I know people who travel quaintly down the Little Miami. I happen to be raging down the Upper Yok. The river is destiny, it's your path. The choices that are available and the lessons to be learned are different on the Little Miami than those on the Upper Yok. "Free will" is partly our ability to travel upstream if we choose. It's our ability to steer clear of the rocks or to pull up on the shore for a spell, or to take a detour. There are many opportunities that we can choose to partake or pass by. "Fate" puts other boats (people) in our path. Some travel along-side for a lifetime, others bump into us and go their way, but all are important.

I have learned recently that life moves along most smoothly when I'm not trying to manipulate my circumstances, to let things happen, or "flow". I think the greatest challenge for us is to let things happen in their own time. One morning in Sedona, I woke up to a picture of a turkey timer in my head, the kind that you stick in a turkey to determine when it's done. I thought, "I'm ready [for this change]". This gave me an insight into the concept of time. The day before, I was in a bookstore and opened up to a page in the middle. I was reading that "true north" is where north actually is, but "magnetic north" constantly fluctuates. A compass is a gauge that measures "magnetic north" and navigators have to take into account that it doesn't exactly coincide with "true north". When I saw the turkey timer, I thought, that's "true time". Meaning, things happen as they are ready to, not because of the clock or the calendar. If the buzzer goes off, but the timer hasn't popped, which do you believe? People operate on true time, when they are ready.

Time is just an illusion. The angels aren't peering over the clouds saying, "I wonder what Lory is doing today?" Over there, there is no today, no time. Time exists to prevent everything from happening at once. Everything cannot happen at once because we are not ready. When we are ready, everything will happen at once and we will have no need for this. I believe the story of The Garden of Eden is a story of how we became "self-aware". We were suddenly "naked", or rather, we suddenly became aware that being naked was a problem. But being naked is symbolic to being vulnerable. Perhaps when we "evolved" into these self-aware beings, we "forgot" that we are really all one with each other and with God, a spiritual "devolution". We ate of the "forbidden fruit", which was our wanting of the knowledge of good and evil. Me against you. Us against them. But I am you, we are them. When will we learn?

Wasn't it that day in the garden that we were given the "gift" of free will? When God said, "okay, dude (and dudeette), you're on your own (more or less)." Many people, and I myself believe, that we agreed to this life we are living before we were born. Our personalities and abilities were determined by the exact place and time of our birth, and the situations we find ourselves in are there to guide us toward our life lessons. I have always tried to manage my life so that bad things wouldn't happen. But my new approach is to put it out there, and let go of it. A prayer! Who knew? Do I believe in manifestation? Absolutely, within the context of my destiny. That would sound to some as though I don't fully believe, but if I chose my own destiny, that is ultimate "free will". So my new mantra is this: It was as it was, it is what it is, I am who I am, and it will be exactly as it should be.

Sedona - Day 7 - Her Name Was Sofiaaaaaahahaaaa!

Her name was not just Sofia, it was Sofiaaaaahahaha! That I met her was without a doubt the hand of fate. I had checked out of the time share and was looking for a place to stay for my last two nights. I found a motel at the very edge of town and went in to ask about the price of a room. Since the price was a reasonable $50, it was an uncharacteristic move for me then to drive to the Best Western down the road to shop around. This little detour had me walking back into that motel at 12:05, just ahead of a petite asian woman. As the man behind the counter ran my credit card, he asked her how he could help her. "How long wok to airport?", she asked. "About two hours", he replied. She was clearly disappointed. She said she had heard the best view was at the airport. I told her that I would give her a ride. "Back tooooo?", she said. We headed toward the car and I noticed she didn't really walk. She either skipped or jumped or maybe even floated. My name Sofiaaaaa. Ha, ha, ha! I cleared off my passenger seat and we were off. She asked, "where you wok?" "I make web sites", I said. "Noooooo, where you wok", as she made walking motions with her two fingers. "Oh", I said, "where do I like to go hiking?" "Yeesssss! Ha, ha ,ha ,ha!" And thus began a two hour game of charades. She told me that she was from Taipai, Taiwan. She works as a home economics teacher, and this was her first time in the United States. It was the 21st country that she had visited. She was with a group that had stopped their tour bus in Sedona on their way to the Grand Canyan. "Others went on cheep tour", she said. "A cheap tour??" "Nooooo, cheep tour." She made a driving motion. "Oohhhh, a Jeep Tour." "Yeeessss. Cheep tour, Ha, ha ,ha ,ha! Too expensive!"

We found a beautiful overlook near the airport and took some pictures, but then she insisted that we go to the terminal. She just had to find the best view. We asked a man behind the counter where that view might be. He said it was the overlook where we had just been. "I want to get picture by airplane!" I was thinking that there was no way they were going to let us onto the flightline with airport security as it is. The man said, "I can't let you out there……..but I can take you out. My jaw dropped and I looked at Sofiaaaaahahaha! I could tell it was just life as usual. She just expected to see the best view, so the universe provided a person with a car, and now she was getting a picture with an airplane. I asked, "all the things to see in Sedona and you want to get your picture taken with one of these little planes?" Her reply? "Yessssssssss! Ha, ha ,ha!" No explanation, she just wanted to! I was thoroughly amused. The man snapped a couple pictures and we were off again. We had an hour and a half left and so much to see!

We climbed up to another overlook – "Sooo Beauuuuteefullllll!!!". What I noticed is how people reacted to her. She was like a beacon and her laugh was contagious. She said she really wanted to see the "church in the rock". Off we went. I asked her questions about her country and their political system. Taiwan is a republic that has was liberated from China 97 years ago. It is smaller than the state of Ohio with a population of 27 million people. I have always wondered what life was like in countries where there are so many people. I asked, "how many people live in your house?" "Oh, jus meeee." "Well, how big is your house?" "Oh, I have biiiggggg house, 400 square feet! Ha, ha ,ha!" Then she said, "You soooo lucky you live here. You travel anywhere." I said, "Yea, but I don't travel nearly as much as you do." She said that when she went to a place she would find a store that sells postcards. She would find the very best view and that is where she would go. It struck me that she must save every spare yen or whatever they have there just for trips like these. Finding the best view is almost always FREE. Wow, what a lesson. I decided right then that I would do that. I would seek out the best view and soak it in. It made me wish that I could go on to the Grand Canyon with her so that I could see her raw excitement over one of the best views in the world! I pictured her with her arms out like wings saying, "Soooo Beauuuuuuuteeeeful!", while the others on her tour bus shuffled into a 3D IMAX presentation of the Grand Canyon. We returned to town just in time for her to catch her bus.

Here I am in Sedona, Arizona, a place considered by many to be a spiritual mecca. I set out to find what it is in myself that keeps me from experiencing life fully, to find the source of my inhibitions I've always felt. Sofiaaaaahahaha blew in and out of my life in an hour and 50 minutes. If I never see her again, I will always remember her. In less than two hours, the universe gave me not only a friend, but an example of what it's like to truly live. We exchanged information, and she said next year she wants to go to the other coast. I couldn't believe that I had trouble thinking of wonderful views for her to see there. I have absolutely no doubt she will find them, though.