Happy almost New Year!!
In this month’s issue of O magazine, Martha Beck’s article, The Wonder Years, suggests quite convincingly that we can all become miracle workers and create magic.
It’s a good reminder for the new year—to be open to instigating and receiving gifts from the universe we wouldn’t normally expect.
Frankly, I’m no stranger to dabbling in this stuff. Even more so this past year. Especially with regard to my love life. Before I digress and risk you wondering what my love life has to do with publishing, let me say that sometimes lessening your focus in one area to make life more balanced creates more success in all areas.
So, back to kissing boys… Or, the boy…
Like Martha, I’ve found that “seeing is believing” and the irrational can become amazingly rational. This year I played with creating my miraculous life while looking for my soulmate. And, I had a hunch that in wanting to create a miraculous love, I first had to work miracles on myself.
I made lists of what I wanted—the values and traits I ached to find and live with the rest of my life. Then I made sure I embodied those same values and traits (excluding, of course, the deep voice and chin stubble) so that the guy I’d be attracted to would also be attracted to me.
I walked my dog morning and night while talking to God—begging, really—while envisioning this man being everything I wanted.
I’d doze off wearing radically uncomfortable earplugs, listening to a romantic love CD—yes, I know, sounds pathetic—telling me and my unconscious that I was indeed worthy of a deep, long-lasting love. (In other words, in the verbiage of my brother-in-law—I was committing to no longer metaphorically selling my “Ferrari self for $500 dollars on the used car lot.” Thank you, brother Bill. I think.)
I woke up in the morning and read financial books in hopes that I’d clean up my divorce debt easily and attract a man with a better head for numbers than me—maybe someone who even had the time and ease to travel with me every once in a while.
I read books like Christian Carter’s, Catch Him & Keep Him, in order to understand the male psyche. I ordered Why Men Disappear by Evan Marc Katz, to see if I could wrap my mind around the male Houdini effect. I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s historical treatise on marriage in Committed (with its horrifying stats on marriage), and stayed up all night laughing and crying through my dear friend, Laura Munson’s book, This Is Not The Story You Think It is, to remind me not to take any of it so personally.
Then I found the hunk I’d been looking for.
Soon enough, everything began to get easy…
Within months, he’d taken me on three trips, culminating in eight days in Hawaii for Christmas!
He freakishly color coordinates his closet, as do I.
His alma mater is USC. Mine, too.
He doesn’t drink a lick of alcohol (nor do I) and never has.
One of his greatest joys is hiking really tall mountains, for fun, often.
Ditto.
He dreams of building a little retirement home in Montana. I’ve seen this vision a hundred times before.
We grew up 20 minutes from each other. We both edit other people’s writing with the same brand of red pen. We run businesses and have the same outlook on working with others. We’re sport fanatics and cooking enthusiasts and each have only one (grown) child. He lives minutes from me, in my favorite part of town. Neither of us has ever spent much time sleeping and yet now we snuggle up like teenagers. I could go on and on, but the gist is this:
I prayed for a partner who’d get me, and the ease with which our lives fit feels like a miracle.
Maybe your miracle isn’t finding a soulmate.
Maybe it’s just finding your passion.
Or a new home.
Or the car of your dreams.
Or your writing muse.
Whatever it is, or wherever it is, my wish for you is that the magic leading to its fulfillment unfolds with ease and grace in 2011. Keep an open mind. You, like Martha Beck, might just find that your experiences turn into a “gallery of miracles,” where you wander around “dazzled.” I know I do.
You just never know.
Many, many blessings to you and yours,
Linda Sivertsen
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindasivertsen
http://twitter.com/LindaSivertsen
http://lindasivertsen.wordpress.com/
(323) 769-5153
