Yep. Going to China AND Tibet!

Life is amazing, wonderful, wondrous, and filled will possibilities. Abraham has it right. Focus on what you want and you're likely to get it. Actually - you WILL get it as long as you don't also focus on what you don't want which is so easy to do. For example - if I think about this China trip, and am excited about it except for the things that could go wrong, I am not holding in the energy of what I want. I am also holding some energy of what I don't want. 

So, in my head I'm hearing some of you saying "She's deluded." Guess I need to work on that because as Terry Cole Whittaker said way back in 1988 "What You Think of Me is None of My Business." And she's right, and you are entitled to your opinion just as I am. All I can say is try it, you'll like it! Plus isn't being happy worth being deluded, especially when you realize that it isn't delusion, though I'm not sure what I want to call it. Maybe truth.

Another example that Abraham uses a lot is with money. If you want more money but you keep focusing on the fact that you don't have enough, what you're attracting is not enough. If you focus on why you want the money - it will be so nice to do whatever I want when I want it, I will love taking my friends out to lunch, I will feels so good paying all my bills on time, etc. etc., etc, you are more likely to bring that to you. Watch your feelings, they are a good indication of where you are. And if the feelings are not good then focus on something else, a child, a pet, a loved one, a nice experience you are having or have had, anything to make you feel better. Anyway, if you want more of THAT look up Abraham-Hicks on YouTube or Abraham-Hicks.com.

So, I'm going to China and Tibet! And it feels so good! I might be doing a solo tour in Tibet which is like WOW! I can ask whatever I want, stay longer where I am inspired to stay and leave if the spirit is not moving me.

I am watching Wild China on Netflix (streaming it) and I get chills every time.

Getting ready for the trip.

There are some very specific requirements about luggage size and weight when traveling by air within China. They require a suitcase 62" or under. And I cannot pay attention to what it says on the luggage tags at the store because they are excluding the wheels and handles and in China they don't do that. Also there is a 44 pound max, but that'll be later when I start packing.

So I need a new suitcase. I don't have one that fits the bill. I went to TJ Maxx to look. They didn't really have what I was looking for - close but no cigar. Then I went to Marshalls and had the same experience until saw this guy dragging around a suitcase that looked perfect. I asked him what it was, and he told me. I looked; there were no others. I went up to the counter with an okayish second. I was in line behind "my" suitcase. I asked the woman who was standing by the suitcase if I could measure it, and if I could look inside. The woman, for whom the suitcase was being bought said "Sure." Then she told me I could find another one like it at Nordstrom. The size was perfect, and the inside was perfect. It had many little pockets that would be great for shoes. They would not touch the clothes. It was just what I was looking for.

I asked the cashier if she could hold the "second best" suitcase for me until the next day. She said she could. Then I got on my phone to find another Marshalls. I'd taken a picture of the tag for the bag so I had all the numbers and the cost. The Marshalls that showed up on my phone was not one near me in Palm Desert. It was near my home a hundred miles or so away. I decided to call anyway. They had one left (of course)! I asked if I could pay for it over the phone. The woman went to ask her manager and came back to say, "No, we cannot have you pay for it on the phone, but even though it's not our policy, we will hold it for you until you get back. I told her your circumstances, and she approved it."

Wow - another miracle, another wonderful experience for this trip. I will pick up my suitcase when I get home, and cross one more item off my list. My intention is to go to LA next week to get my Visa. I am sure that all will be perfect. And I will report again my further adventures of going to China, because it is my expectation that there will be a miracle or two in the visa process as well.

So happy about all of this. And so looking forward to my next great adventure. Minutes from now!

Going to China?

I realized that in my previous posts I've been mentioning Abraham-Hicks, but I haven't really introduced them to you. So, if you're a newbie, my latest foray (actually it's been an almost 10 year foray) has been into the world of Abraham-Hicks (www.Abraham-Hicks.com). This is where I am receiving most of my "how-it-really-is" guidance these days as well as entertainment, joy, playfulness, irreverent attitude toward the world we know it, and  a bunch of tools to finally put into practice things I've believed since I was very very small. I've done a ton of personal growth work, but for some reason, at this time, this work is resonating with me like nothing else.

Very basically Abraham, a group of Source Energy Beings. are being channeled by Esther Hicks. Their main teaching is about the The Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction says that which is like unto itself is drawn, or more basically, one gets what one focuses on. I am cranky, I attract cranky. I am joyful and playful, I attract that. There is more to it, but that's it in a nutshell. One can go to YouTube.com and input Abraham-Hicks and get some wonderful video and audio pieces on everything from money to relationships to some of the processes that they've created and taught, or you could go to their site mentioned above.

I've been yo-yo-ing a lot the last few weeks between feeling great and feeling off kilter. But in the last few weeks, I've also gotten more consistently more of these mini-miracles I've been talking about. The latest one is very interesting to me, and I'm not yet exactly sure how it's going to turn out.

I was taking my female cat Slippers to the vet to get IV hydration (I'm not yet brave enough to stick that fat needle into my cat to do the deed at home). I was feeling a bit funky, and I started to speak with Slippers and I moaned, "I think I have to go to China." And then I said "Where the &*#)@ did that come from? I just figured I was hallucinating something or other. We went to the Vet, hydrated the cat, and then went back home. I let her out of her carrier and went up stairs to my computer. There was an e-mail that popped in as I sat down in front of the computer from the San Diego Zoo. It said "Time is Running Out" and was about their upcoming (in May) trip to China. I shook my head and deleted it. Then I un-deleted it and started to read. As I was reading the itinerary, I got excited about maybe doing this, but then I started telling myself all the reasons I shouldn't from a cat that needs IV hydration to the cost, to my commitments, to needing to find someone to house-sit, etc., etc., etc.

Since then I've spoken to my sister who says I must go. I've also been thinking about something I shared at an Abraham-Hicks workshop that I went to in Asheville in 2012 and what I told Abraham and what they told me. As well as the fact that I've been thinking lately that I want to do more in my life and have more fun and listen to myself more.

Basically what Abraham said to me when I said I didn't know what I wanted is that I was lying (a bit of a joke), because I do know that I want to know. I admitted that I did want that.

I do want, as I mentioned in post 1, to be more in tune to receiving inspiration that leads to inspired action. And telling my cat that I should go to China, and then having an e-mail show up for a trip that is just about to take place almost immediately afterwards seems like something I need to pay attention to, and I am aware that I have gotten other hits about things and ignored them, so this feels like I'm getting back what I want.

Reading the trip brochure, the final payment was due by February 18th, meaning that this is their last ditch effort to fill the trip. I have to wonder if one of those spaces was reserved for me. Though I've never really wanted to "go" to China, I loved the terracotta warriors when I saw them at the Bowers Museum in 2008, and I love Ming Dynasty pottery (and was given a beautiful necklace from a someone I once worked for that was a piece of a Ming vase), and I love photos of the Great Wall and have wondered what it would be like to walk on it, and I've been a bit obsessed with River Cruises over the last few years, and it just so happens that there is a two-day river cruise on the Yangtze River as part of this trip along with visits to the wall, the warriors, and the Ming Dynasty temple of heaven, as well as - GREAT PANDAS!!! I love the Pandas at the zoo and could just stare at them for ages. I might even get to pet one. It is sounding (and feeling) more and more like I should be getting my passport in order.

One final thing was that when my daughter was around 3 years old she wanted goldfish. We got her two and she named them Gogo and Henan. I'd never heard anything like it. Gogo and Henan? Well the weirder part was when I was listening to a show on NPR maybe a year after Gogo and Henan had joined our family, about a small province in China called Henan. So I figured that maybe Sarah had been Gogo from Henan. But maybe I'm letting my imagination take over, and if that's true. Well God bless it. I want my imagination to take over because there are books and maybe plays I need to write, and perhaps my inspiration will be in China.

My Cranky Day Made Better By Shopkick, A Volt, and a Purse (and then later the way that it MAY have come together)

(Just added a new piece at the end in case you've read this one)...

I know that when things seemingly go wrong, it's because that is where my energy is taking me; that is what I am attracting.

Every other Wednesday I get a box of organic fruits and vegetables. The box is generally delivered before 6:00 am. A number of weeks ago I didn't get the box till almost 11:00 (I called to find out what was up and it was coming - and it came), so when my box wasn't out there at 7:00 am, I didn't really worry. I finally called after 11:00. I was told the box had been delivered. Well, it wasn't outside, and the empty box from two weeks ago was still leaning against the wall near my front door.

I was pretty pissed, and I kept thinking, what is going on? What am I doing, thinking, etc, that is bringing this to me? I know it is me. Little irritating things have been happening a lot lately, but I haven't taken the time to "clean up my energy."

While on the phone with the agent who told me it had been delivered at 5:30 in the morning, I was getting a little snarky and hinting that I might just stop using the service. She offered to have a box delivered the next week and to take off the fee as well as to deliver another free box in April. None of that mattered, and I knew it wasn't them - it was me - but I was too cranky to even admit that or mention it. I wanted someone else to be to blame.

I decided to walk outside and look next door. Maybe my box had been dropped off at my neighbors. It wasn't, but it was in my flower bed against the garage wall. Okay, my bad it WAS there, but they had just dumped it in the dirt (the flowers are actually all gone). I never would have noticed because I never use the front door. So what was going on?

I'm still trying to figure it out. I've been tired, and eating a lot not even feigning self-control. But I know it's me. I know that I have to adjust my thinking, my focusing.

After a long and tiring day, I decided I had to get out of the house. I decided to go Shopkicking.

Shopkicking:
Basically, I run around with my cell phone to different stores where I can get points just for going into the store and sometimes scanning certain items. For my trouble, I get gift cards. Between my Discover credit card and Shopkick. I haven't paid for a Starbucks drink or an i-tunes app or song in a while. And it's fun. Like a treasure hunt. I needed to get outside of myself. I needed a change.

So I went to Albertsons to get my points. I parked and was walking toward the store entrance. There was a woman in a Volt and I waved to her that she could back out of her space. I would wait. The Volt is one of my now favorite cars - I drive a Prius Plug-In but my friend Liz drives a Volt and is getting over a thousand miles per tank of gas. I have mileage envy. As the woman pulled out I signaled for her to pull her window down. I asked her how she liked the car. She loved it, of course. I told her about Liz. She wasn't getting quite such great mileage. We had a nice chat, and then I noticed that on the seat next to her was the exact same purse I was carrying! I lifted it up and said, I think we're twins. She and I laughed and I felt like I was back on track. My miracles were still out there for the picking.

But I still need to figure out how to get more of my life like that. Actually, the idea of figuring it out is very counter the concept. I really want to just focus on those things I love - like the experience with Volt lady, and paper man and all the things that happened years ago when I was studying A Course in Miracles.

I got home and cleaned all the fruits and veggies, got them cut up and put into the fridge. I watched some TV as I did that, and then sat to pet my cat and watch a little more. I was completely bored and disengaged, and feeling like I might just as well go to bed when I realized that I need to write this up before doing anything else.

So I am writing, and l am feeling better. So perhaps the universe telling me I need to Shopkick and write, and leave all the cleaning and TV watching and finance stuff... well, that's not exactly accurate. I enjoy doing those other things, but I think I am being told that I need to go out and have more fun. So I intend to listen and inside right now I am getting a big YES! Not sure what that means or will look like, but it does feel like something is about to change.

There have been so many other little wonders and miracles that I haven't written about, and I know that I have to bring them to this forum. I must acknowledge them and make them important enough to capture and chew on. So we'll see...

Now I have to change the pee pad under my cat box as she's decided that she prefers to wet the pad rather than clump the litter. With a smile on my face and a light in my heart I will do that task and be in bed by 10 (unless I get inspired to do something else).

FAST FORWARD TO THE NEXT DAY... I forgot a pretty major piece of this experience - but then it only hit me this morning in the car, so...

When I was checking out at Albertsons (they really should have put an apostrophe between the 'n' and the 's,' but they didn't...), the person who checked me out did a double take and we looked at each other knowing that we knew one another. "Zimmerman, I said, you're married to Rick who worked at the school." The bizarre thing about this is that her name is the same as my mother's maiden name - first and last - Sherry Zimmerman (so why did I not remember this immediately?).

I was thinking about this in the car this morning. The incident with the woman, her Volt, and her twin purse, and then seeing Sherry Zimmerman for the first time in maybe 8 years, and I realized that my now deceased mother must have orchestrated this exit from Crankyville. I said out loud "You did that, didn't you Mom?" I felt so lifted that I knew it must be true (and I figure that several of my friends who might be reading this are rolling their eyes).

I have so many people on the other side that I can call on to help me; I should really use them rather than waiting for them to use me.  ALSO, I know I can count on those who have passed whom I did not know if I believe (I DO believe in other-side helpers, I do, I do, I do!).

The Craziest, Biggest Miracles of My Life and How I Basically Ignored Them

For 38 years, on and off, I've been studying A Course in Miracles. It has become my "Bible."

It has, through my practice of the lessons, spawned more miraculous experiences than anything else I've ever done, and it's led me, pretty specifically, from one boat (spiritual teacher, medical practice, etc) to another. But always, I come back "home."

One of the most profound Miracles I received from working The Course was my introductory experience. I want to mention that in my life, I always seem to get the end product right at the beginning of a new endeavor. It's like the Universe says to me "If you stick with this, this is what you can have."

I was living in northern California with my parents. I'd graduated from San Diego State and finished working on my first independent, very low budget, feature film as an editor - a relatively horrid experience so I won't mention the film or the people who worked it - even though I did recently find a copy of the film and I was given lead editing credit - and it was pretty fun to watch it... but I digress...

I was not yet ready to move to Los Angeles where I knew I needed to be. I was working and taking classes at Scientology in Palo Alto. My friend Tom and I been there this fate-filled day working on our current classes (for those who care, Scientology is pretty much all self-study). When we were ready to leave, we went to dinner and then decided that we wanted to check out Eckankar. We were seekers, and Scientology was not filling all our needs.

We drove all over the SF Bay Area stopping at various Eckankar centers but could find none that were open. We walked around buildings knocking on doors and windows to no avail. Tom drove me back to my car at the Scientology Center, and we parted ways. I decided to stop at Kepler's Book Store in Los Altos. I wanted to get the latest copy of Writer's Magazine, but because it is a great bookstore I was wandering the isles looking for "something." Over the hour or so I spent there, I picked up a stack of spiritual and metaphysical books. But at one point I knew that there was nothing in any of those books for me, and put them all back. I went to the counter to pay for the magazine. Lying on said counter, as if it had been discarded by someone, was a magazine I'd never seen called New Realities. I still have that copy.  It is Vol. 1 No 1 - no date, not anywhere on the magazine - I just looked - but it seems to have been somewhere around April or May of 1977.

The cover declared "you are entitled to miracles" and had a simple painting of a yellow sun over a blue and purple swatch of color. I opened to the first article and found "Simple, dumb, boring truths & A Course in Miracles." I immediately determined that this magazine was left there just for me (not unlike the paper from my first post). I paid for both magazines and went home.

I climbed into bed and started to read the article. As I read I felt like every cell in my body had been uplifted. I felt a sensation of joy that I had rarely felt in my life. I was excited and joyful but not wildly so - it was a peaceful, bubbly sort of joy and I knew something important was happening. I HAD to call this Foundation for Inner Peace first thing in the morning. It was 11:00pm. The Foundation for Inner Peace was in New York. They were three hours ahead of us, so if I got up at 6:00am (if I could even sleep), I could call them - it would be 9am their time.

I awoke feeling exciting anticipation a little before 6am. Still aglow with the energy and joy I'd begun to feel the night before, I called. I had to get a set of those books. My conversation with the person who answered the phone was a bit frustrating. I could not connect with her and I was getting no information except that the first printing of the books had sold out. In the midst of this conversation, someone else got on the phone. It was Judy Skutch, the woman who had given the interview I'd read. I was so excited to tell her my story. She was easy to speak with and I felt understood. She totally understood my urgency to get the books, but did confirm that there were no sets available. After a pause, she asked me where I lived. I told her northern California. She asked me where. I said Los Altos. She said she knew someone in Los Altos Hills who she thought might have one last set. I laughed and told her that I was actually IN Los Altos Hills. She was not surprised, and gave me the woman's number. It was 6:15am. I did not feel it would be appropriate to call yet, so I got dressed for work and figured I'd call later that morning. 

I called and spoke with, I will call her Alice because I cannot remember her name. I told her I'd gotten her number from Judy Skutch and that Judy said she might have a set of the books.

She said "Judy WHO?"

I repeated "Judy Skutch."

She said "How did YOU get to speak with her? I've been trying to get hold of her for weeks!"

"She just picked up the phone."

Alice had a set. She had gotten it for her son, but as it turned out, he didn't want them. We made an arrangement to meet after work (this was of course all orchestrated for me - Alice purchasing them for her son - sending them off to him - his not wanting them and mailing them back. I do love how this all works).

All I can say about that day, that magical, wonderful day is that it was the potential end result. It was a day of one miracle after another. Everyone who irritated me the day before, I was in love with that day. Everything went smoothly, and quickly. It was as if a group of angles had joined me and were sprinkling my path with "your life is awesome" dust. I do believe in fairies, I do, I do, I do.

As the end of the day approached I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I drove right to Alice's house, and felt immense appreciation and gratitude when she answered the door. However, as I followed her into the house, the first thing I saw on the wall was a plaque with a picture of Jesus and some religious quote.

Did I mention I was a Jewish atheist at the time? Well. The light turned off,  just like that. I felt like Cinderella at the ball and it had just struck midnight. I just wanted to bolt and was thinking "What the hell did I get myself into?"

Then "the voice" started. It said to me, loud and clear and in a voice not my own. "You felt so good about the books when you found them. Just pay for them, and leave."

That is what I did. Though on the way home I was swearing a blue streak and freaking out. I was back to my old mental/emotional/doubting self. I got back to my parents' house, went right into my bedroom, shut the door, and opened the box the three volume set came in. I opened up the Text book, the thickest book, and saw "Jesus," "Christ," "Atonement," "Salvation," "God," I couldn't stand it so I just threw the book under the bed and opened the teacher's manual - the smallest book. The same. So it joined its partner under the bed. I held my breath and opened the Workbook.

Lesson 1 - "Nothing I see... means anything."

Lesson 2 - "I have given everything I see... all the meaning that it has for me."

Lesson 3 - I do not understand anything I see."

Lesson 4 - These thoughts do not mean anything."

Lesson 5 - I am never upset for the reason I think."

With a sigh of relief I smiled. I could do this. None of the first 13 lessons mentions anything about God, but lesson 14 does. Lesson 14 is "God did not create a meaningless world."

How I did lesson 14: ... If there is a God, which I doubt, he did not create a meaningless world.

It was lesson 29 that started to get intense with "God is in everything I see." But by that time, I was kind of okay with the idea of God. The course didn't tell me to believe anything. It only told me to do the lessons. And I did them.

Lesson 49 - 49 days after I started the course is "God's Voice speaks to me all through the day.

Now that was an interesting day. It was a Saturday or Sunday because I didn't have to work. I decided to do my first of the 4 five-minute practice sessions right after I got up. It was a lovely, quiet meditation. It was just a nice, easy day, and I decided to do the second mediation a few hours later at the far point of a run I would take with our family dog, Snoopy. Snoopy and I ran and walked about 2 miles down a beautiful road in Los Altos Hills. We came to an area that was off the road where I could sit quietly and do my five minute mediation. I sat in a lotus position, in the grass overlooking a beautiful meadow. It was peaceful and nice. At one point I heard the voice that had visited me at Alice's house say, "Okay, you're done." I said back to it, "No, I want to sit here for a few more minutes."

Within 30 seconds, several girls on horseback came by. As they passed behind me, they stopped talking. They obviously looked at the weirdo sitting in a cross-legged posture on the side of the road with a little black beagle-like creature and were stunned into silence. I felt embarrassed. The Voice laughed. Not a mean laugh, just a laugh. Then it said, "See, if you'd gotten up when I told you to, you could have avoided that embarrassment."

I got up, and the voice said "Now you can run back." Well, I hadn't run 2 miles at that point in my life (not athletic at all), but I figured I had better do what I was told.

In retrospect, I didn't find it at all weird that this voice was speaking to me but it hasn't come back since that period of time.

Snoopy and I ran back almost to the turn off for our street when a huge furry excuse for a dog came lunging at us. I stopped, turned, looked at it and a bark/growl came out of my throat. I knew what I had said, and it sat right down and whimpered at me and I knew what it was saying. This freaked me out a bit and Snoopy and I ran back to the house where I showered and did whatever it was I did during those weekends.

The last mediation of the day was later at night. I was sitting in my room, on the floor, in a lotus position when the Voice returned.

It said, "Get comfortable."

I got into a half lotus.

With a sigh, a few minutes later, the Voice said "Get comfortable."

So I sat cross legged and leaned against my bed.

Again, with a sigh, the Voice said "Get comfortable." So I lay down on the floor, and I felt myself lifted and light and that lasted for a while. Then I heard Gregorian type Chanting all around me saying "God is dead, God is dead, God is dead." I sat bolt upright and said out loud. "No!" And that was the real beginning for me.

The next day, I did my first meditation for Lesson 50 (comfortably on my back on the floor) - "I am sustained by the Love of God," At the end of it, I decided to pull the text book out from under the bed. As I scanned the pages, I became aware that the "words," no longer had an effect on me. I didn't feel particularly positive about them, but I no longer felt any negativity either. They were neutral, and I had done NOTHING to change that. It was at that point that I knew the course was doing something.

Fast forward to today. I have to admit, I have never finished all 365 lessons, though I have done the first 100 or so several times. Having written this, I'm inspired to perhaps start them again, or maybe break my pattern and start with lesson 49 - the life changing lesson. I am also amazed at the gift I was given and did not - at least then - appreciate. I guess I shouldn't say that because I did appreciate it to the level that I could - but I am sure I did not see where it could take me. I feel like I just stopped.

I've heard a number of Spiritual teachers since that time say don't carry the steps with you, but let them go when you are done with them. But that's only started to make sense recently when I was listening to an Abraham-Hicks tape. What I heard was that getting upset with ourselves for not completing something we start makes no sense. We might think we're headed one way, but then something else becomes more urgent to us. We are on a constant path, not necessarily moving to a consistent destination (except perhaps greater loving, peace, caring, understanding, joy, etc.)

What I got was that I am being guided, as the course says, "very specifically," and I all need to do is listen, follow, and not judge.

This does NOT mean giving up free will. It does mean, looking at what I really want in each moment and asking if my current action or direction is moving me closer or further away. Hot hot hotter or cold cold colder.

What I am looking for now is inspired action - a phrase that Abraham speaks to a lot. When I am inspired, things are always working out for me (another Abrahameese - you may be getting that that path is now a close second to the CIM. When I do not follow that inspiration, I almost always regret it. What I am aware of now is that it's about following the energy and being appreciative and joyful for the steps that are getting me from point A to point B. Life is not meant to be static but flowing and joyful, and that is where I am right now.

Speaking of which, the need for paper was not, I discovered, a need at all (see previous post). I was inspired to go get the paper so I could have that wonderful experience that got me to do this. A few days after the paper experience I found a ream of paper in plain sight. I so appreciate that whatever part of me controls those things made me NOT see the ream at that time.

What I realize now is that the Course taught me an important lesson. Do it until it no longer speaks to me, and then do something else. And if I'm listening and hearing, that something else will be a perfect next step.

For the ignored part - in retrospect, I cannot believe that I didn't actively cultivate that "voice" - that clear, direct, inner guidance. I want it back now. Not demanding, but desiring. This blog is being an amazing gift because I am really starting to see what was, what is, and how it's all perfect.

My Mini Miracle or Why This Blog Exists

Where the Title of This Blog Comes From:

In Chapter 1 of the text book of A Course In Miracles - "The Meaning of Miracles," one learns about the Principles of Miracles.

Principle #6 is: "Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong."

Somehow I've always known this, and the most spirit-lifting things to me are the little synchronicities and unexpected serendipitous experiences that happen all the time. The purpose of this blog is for me to finally and actively take notice.

My Decision to Write this Blog:

I was in the middle of coordinating many many pages to be signed and notarized by various people, none of whom I would be with to guide through the process when I ran out of paper. I NEVER run out of paper. Ever.

I CAN BE very organized (though I don't always practice that skill) but for this project, because of the confusion of where to sign and in what capacity (seller/buyer/grantee/grantor/etc), I had all the locations needing signatures and notarizations labeled with different colored post-its depending upon who needed to do what. I also had post-its with directions for different line items. I'd been at it for two days, and was, frankly, mentally exhausted. I felt good, I was happy, I was having fun (I am a detail geek), and I was just really really tired, but I needed paper. I had to finish what I was doing that evening. I called Costco, and yahoo yahoo, they were still open.

I drove there, grabbed a cart, and walked, rather jauntily for someone who could keel over at any moment, to the isle that housed the paper. It was next to the cell phone kiosk. I looked at the paper and my exhaustion kicked in. I thought, how the hell am I going to get that huge box into this cart? But there was already a carton of paper, the kind I was wanting to buy, in a cart, balanced in the place where one would place a child. I looked around and asked the Cell Phone Guy if someone was coming back for the cart.

"Nope. It's been there for hours. I almost put it back but it seems pretty well balanced so I just left it."

I smiled at him. "Thanks. It's mine." I said walking to the check out stand.

I was in line playing Candy Crush on my phone waiting my turn. I pretend that I only play games when I'm in situations like this where there really is nothing else to do, but that's a lie. I play games all the time.

As I was standing there, a very nice gentleman, older than my 62 years, tapped me on the shoulder. "Hi, I'm checking out over there," he said pointing to an aisle two lanes away, "I'd be happy to help you get your paper into your car if you'd like."

"Yes! Please! Thank you thank you thank you. Usually I'm really strong and could do this, but today I am kind of exhausted, so thanks a million."

I paid for the paper and met him by the door. He was nice. We talked about prop 13, and living in Orange County. And he did indeed lift the box easily into the back of my Prius. We talked about saving gas and the Tesla and a few other things. It was a very pleasant encounter.

At home I cut open the box, which I left in the car for the next two days, and took a ream of paper upstairs with me. I felt so good that I easily finished everything I needed to do.

Later I talked to a friend about this lovely synchronistic, beautiful, series of events, and during our conversation I decided I wanted to blog about miracles because I want to remember them. I guess I want to show them that I appreciate them, and that they are important and meaningful to me. Also, I've often found that what I focus on, I get more of. I've had a lot of interesting miracles in my life - and I'll talk about some of them later, but now I want to take my butterfly net of joy - gently capture them and display them mostly for myself, but if anyone else wants to enjoy the process with me, I can just say - I hope you are tracking your own miracles or whatever it is that makes you feel joy, peace, playfulness, wholeness, and delight.