Thursday, May 30, 2013

Mind vs. Miracle

 

For years the mind has told me that my riding a bus instead of driving the route I would have been taking the day the 35W Bridge fell was just a coincidence. “Nothing to talk about here, nothing to see, nothing to be grateful for.” - Whatever I do, “Don’t say it out loud, you’ll sound stupid.” Well here I am saying it out loud and the thought of any naysayers (people thinking this is stupid) brings up an uncomfortability, because up until now I was too conflicted to consider this as a Miracle. It's crazy how powerful & persuasive the mind can be. "Who am I to think that I'm special enough for God to take care of me in such an extravagant way?" says the mind. Well, here I go anyways...



On July 1st 2007 I moved to NE Minneapolis. The location was a quick on/off ramp away from my work. All I had to do was hop on to 35W and go south and bam, I was at work. (See map below)
 PATH TO MY WORK VIA CAR: “A” was my work. “B”is my neighborhood. The Red box is the 35W Bridge.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

It was an easy & simple drive to my job.  So why after this move to a new house was there an urge to suddenly learn how to ride a bus? Public transportation over the independence of my sweet car was not my style, but there was an urge to “RIDE THE BUS!” I thought, “Well I can read the paper and relax instead of having to sit through traffic – yeah, that would be nice.” But I still wasn’t convinced. There was NO reason for me to want to ride the bus. The bus schedule was confusing. It wasn’t a straight shot ride. I had to go through downtown and transfer to a different bus one or two times before making it south to Bloomington where I worked. It was actually quite a hassle, but for some reason I was determined to “conquer the bus system" and so, I started riding the bus. Annoying as it was, my body was automatically going through all the motions to learn the bus route, stand in the rain, sit in the uncomfortable seats and ultimately get to work. If I liked it or not I was a bus rider.


On August 1st 2007 at 6:05PM exactly one month after I started my “Bus Adventure” and within minutes/or seconds of when I would have been driving over the 35W Bridge in my car, the bridge collapsed.  I’m not being dramatic. It was the path I would have been on, and the time I was scheduled to be on the bridge (considering the day, the traffic and the time I left work).
See below: Instead of being on the path of the red box (the bridge that fell), I was on a bus safely going over a different bridge (circled in yellow) blissfully unaware of how the Divine rerouted my life one month earlier to keep me safe.

RED BOX: 35W Bridge that collapsed.
YELLOW CIRCLE: Me safely riding a bus over this bridge.


Photos of the bridge that the Divine did not want me on:

Aftermath of the fallen 35W Bridge

Overview of the fallen 35W Bridge

After the fall:
The day after the 35W Bridge collapsed, there was shock of what had happened, but internally there was peaceful feeling came through that said, “Okay, you can drive your car to work now.” And just like that, without a second thought I simply started driving my car to work. No more bus for me. It was as if the urge, determination, the NEED to “conquer the bus system, “ all of it, just left my body and I knew that it was okay for me to start driving myself to work again.
 
The Contemplation:
Since that day in 2007 the Mind has been telling me that riding the bus during the bridge collapse was not a Miracle. Today I can see that in my Heart I've always felt I was taken care of that day, but as that peaceful feeling would start to set in, the Mind would start rationalizing why I wasn't worthy enough to be taken care of in this orchestrated kind of way...and how my story sounded stupid. This back and forth between the feeling and the thought was the conflict around this experience.
 
My beautiful husband told me, "There are no feeling in your head and there are no thoughts in your heart. - Which place would you rather be?" All of a sudden it clicked. It's impossible to be in both the head and heart at one time. Being drawn to my heart but pulled away to the thoughts was the suffering & confusion.
 
The Confirmation:
I was taken care of that day the bridge fell. It was Divine intervention that rerouted my path to work, and for this I am Grateful.
 
There are two Miracles here:
1) My safety on a day that had the potential to be filled with hard lessons.
2) The Gift of seeing the Mind and living through my Heart.

Photo Courtesy of: http://www.intraawareness.com/



 

Sunday, May 26, 2013

The Original House Miracle


I've been spending lots of time contemplating Miracles. The next one that is being recalled to share involves the place I call home (seems I'm going through a "home" phase when it comes to Miracles). It's being brought to my attention that my Renovation Raiders Miracle was not the first major miracle involving my house. 


The Contemplation:
I'm realizing that since I was a little girl I always wanted a nice, clean, organized house to call home. The memory that keeps coming to me is that as a tiny little girl I would get off the school bus and walk towards our neighbors house just in case any of the children on the bus were watching. I was hoping that they would think I lived in the nice red rambler next door instead of the paint chipping, kind of falling apart house that some might consider a cabin (in need of some love and care). Of course everyone knew what house I came from, but my little tiny mind felt better just thinking that someone, anyone, on the bus might think I belonged in that one story rambler with pretty bright red paint. I guess my prayers to God about wanting a nice house started earlier than I let myself remember.

The Miracle:
My second house miracle is short... but once again involves the internet, and winning things. I see a theme starting here.

I love a local magazine called Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine. Before the economic downturn in the US companies would have contests to give away their products as promotions. One random day I was called to go to the website of my favorite local magazine (note: no angel voices this time, but back then my antenna had foggy reception).

Here's the website as you would see it today:
http://mspmag.com/Contests-And-Promotions/


Back then they were giving away a ton of free Christmas gifts (today the economy still hasn't recovered enough for companies to warrant promotions like they did back then). This particular promotion was titled, "What's on your Christmas List", basically all I had to do was go down a checklist they had set up and click on anything that I would like to win and get from Santa. Easy enough, right? So, out of a list of 25-40 things ranging from dinners to local restaurants, vacations to exotic places, and gift certificates to boutiques I chose very carefully. I didn't want to click on too many items because I thought it would take away my chances of getting what I really wanted - new Cambria counter tops for my kitchen. What are Cambria counter tops you ask? Well here's a link to view some of their fine products:

http://www.cambriausa.com/en/designs/photos-and-videos/

As you can see, they are very high quality items and I felt I would be very lucky to have such an amazing gift in my kitchen.

I forgot about the contest until a few months later when I received a phone call. Turns out the Divine wanted me to have nice kitchen counter tops! Wow. This is one lucky girl!

I could not see putting such nice new counter tops on the 1951 cabinets that were currently in the kitchen. A project started and the whole kitchen was going to get a makeover.  This too is a miracle, because there was no budget for a new kitchen but somehow things just fell into place.

The Lesson:
I can see now how wishes from when I was 8yrs. old were being put in a bank. A big God bank. When do withdrawals happen? I have no idea, but I'm seeing how Gratitude is like knowing the account number and password. That's all for now.





Oh, want to see some photos of the kitchen God gave me? .... The photos are not the best. I almost didn't get "before" photos at all, and took them after the demo started so please excuse the mess ;) however, I think you can get the idea of the transformation!


BEFORE




AFTER






BEFORE

AFTER


Thursday, May 23, 2013

Angels watch HGTV - Angels talk to me (and I listen)

 

I just returned from a life changing 24 day trip to India, there I learned that the Universe sees sharing the Miracles of our lives (large and small), as an act of Gratitude. The more we share the joys in our lives the more they multiply.

Imagine doing a favor for a friend and then knowing that they are grateful purely from their heart. This causes us to want to do more favors for that friend. Is it not?

By sharing Miracles we are essentially building a relationship with our Divine. The more we call on it and have gratitude, the more the Divine shows up.

Here is my HGTV Renovation Raiders Miracle Story. My Gratitude for this Miracle is beyond words, but I will do my best...



Sitting in the quiet one day I was pondering how I would love to make our house cozier. You see, I purchased our house previous to meeting my husband. What I noticed was that with every room we painted together, tile we laid, or flower we planted “my house” became “our house.” It felt amazing to be building a home together. Enter: My wish to make our living room a more welcoming place to relax and host guided meditations for our family & friends.
I started adding up the costs of what we dreamed of doing to our living room, and the mountain of money that it would take. New carpet for living room & dining room: $6,000, knock down a load bearing wall to reveal a staircase: $(who knows), New fireplace wall: $(who knows), Painting: $(A lot), Tile around the entry way door: $(who knows)… etc. etc.  The list went on. It would be expensive and probably would need to happen over the next 3 years in stages. In my heart it was something that I really wanted and in that moment it was like I was begging for a way to have it happen, then all of a sudden I heard three sweet little voices say, “Someone will do it for you” – have you ever seen those photos of Cherub Angels? That is what these voices sounded like. The sound of the voices was very playful, sincere and sweet. I am open to receiving messages from Angels and in the past have experienced conversations with Angels, Guides, deceased relatives, etc. - but these three little voices were new and I knew right away that I liked them!

 

What do you do when little Angel voices tell you that someone will remodel your house for you? Well, I asked, “Ok, How!?!” then suddenly in my mind’s eye, I saw the Google box. This was my queue to go to the internet and open the Google site. So I did. I asked, “Now what?” and the Angels said playfully, “You know...” With no thought in my head, my hands just started typing: MINNEAPOLIS, HOME, MAKOVER, and CASTING. It was a strange moment when the mind was dead silent, but by body was automatically moving. A page of websites was revealed with those 4 magical words. Within the search results I clicked on a link for a local Television Production company. Under their Casting page I saw that they were looking for people who wanted to “Surprise Their Spouse with a Room Remodel at little or NO cost to us.” It was a brand new television show and they were casting for their first season – “Yes! (I was talking to the website), how did you know that this is EXACTLY what I would love to do!?!”
 
Within 20 minutes I had submitted a super-secret application. It was super-secret because I could not tell my husband that I was even applying for this opportunity – hence the whole point of the show “Surprising your Spouse.” Fast forward 8 amazing weeks later and see the link below…  My miracle is revealed in photos 1 and 19-31!
 
My gratitude to the Miracle of Angels.  Please feel free to share any Miracles large or small in your life! The more we share, the more they multiply and who doesn't love a good Miracle?