Visualize. Unwavering and undoubting. And then let it go.
Something I learned today from a small, yet significantly big moment.
Last night I went out with a friend from a late night Cabaret show and some drinks. Walking home at about 2 am and freezing out, my legs bare and the temperatures below freezing. But a soul quenching cold, the kind that sucks the blood to the surface of your skin, so that everything outside is that much more clear, that much more focused by the acid trails of ice that burn themselves to the brain, making the outlines of tree and the outline of the moon that much more defined, that much more beautiful.
That's besides the point. When I got home I was doing the lazy getting ready for bed wind down, and was reaching to my numb earlobes for my earrings. My favourite yellow and red feather earrings which had a special soft spot in my attachment section of heart. They were the first gift I had ever given to myself without feeling guilty or withholding myself from something pretty that I wanted. I know it sounds like a petty attachment, but I guess I can't word their meaning properly. What I mean to say is I never, never allow myself treats or little pleasures, always tight on money or low on self esteem I chain myself back from so many things. But one day I saw those pretty exotic looking earrings, and holding them up to my ear and seeing the way the tips dangled against my neck, I felt beautiful for once. I felt what it must feel like for those gorgeous woman who collect stares in bulk. So I bought them because it was a small token for the goddess in me who wanted to feel like she deserved to be given some beauty, but also a reason to show off her own dusty, packed away beauty.
So as I reached to delicately pull them off I noticed there was nothing there on my right earlobe. Looking in the mirror I had a moments panic. Fuck.
I lost one. Probably on that walk that I had so much enjoyed a few moments ago.
I usually give into anger when things screw up. Or sadness. But for some reason I just decided to give up this attachment. To not let it bother me tonight. I had made up my mind, tomorrow I would go looking for it, and if I found it fantastic, and if not, I tried. That reaction itself was a gift in that it is sooo not me to let things go. But either way that night I had a deep and effortless sleep.
The next afternoon, by the time I woke up, I was a bit nervous about feeling hopeful that I could find it. I mean not only was I drunk the other night, but it was dark, my earring was only a couple of inches big, and I couldn't remember the route I had taken home, what chance would I have to actually find this thing? But I visualized myself looking down and seeing it on a sidewalk, and picking it up in my hands. I felt sure that I would find it, not even doubting the possibility that I wouldn't, and then gave up my worries to the universe, content with whatever happened. So when I took my bike out, going in an direction chosen by random, I rode past 5 blocks, trying to recognize something from my route last night. Nothing seemed familiar, but I kept going. And then by chance I looked down at just the right second and there, hardly visible at all, was my earring in a crack in the crosswalk. It seems like such a small thing, but it gave me so much pleasure and thanks. I looked up to the sky and said thank you, making sure to pay respects to where its due.
So this power of positive thinking might have something to it. Not in "The Secret" way where you just visualize ways of accruing a BMW so you'll automatically get it or a means of pulling filthy wealth towards oneself. I mean in the way that visualization, trust, and giving up expectations knowing that life will be fine either way, equals success. Success in the sense of a sense of security and peace in yourself. You might ask how such a small thing could actually solidify this notion in my head? I don't know actually. What I do know is that that feeling was foreign to me, and yet felt so familiar, like a effortless calming magic trick I had learned but forgotten. All I know is from now on I am going to practice this meditation "magic" more often.
