As I think back on my life, the successful use of the Law of Attraction is not necessarily coming to me in chronological order. This makes sense, as I've always had trouble with keeping time, place, and order-of-events in line in my head, much to the dismay of my family and friends. Did it happen last week or last year?.. um... not sure. So, that disclaimer out of the way, here is how I got the briefcase I needed.
I attended the Art Institute of Seattle in the early 90s. The homework load was heavy, as was the constant rain that year. I was in the Visual Communications program, and also doing freelance graphic design work through the job board at the school, and the student studio program. I lived up on top of Queen Anne Hill and it was quite a trek down that long hill to the water front where the school is, and even more of one on the way back up, especially with a giant portfolio bag full of art supplies and media boards. The bag wasn't just heavy, it was awkward and cumbersome.
I toughed it out for two years and made my daily trek up and down the hill and occasionally hopped a bus if it was just too darn windy and wet. Getting to school and back was fine and all, but I also had a lot of client meetings for that freelance work I mentioned above. Going to meetings I generally took the bus and yes, that giant portfolio bag came with me too.
One day I had to go meet a client with layouts on a few sheets of 8-1/2 x 11 paper. It was pouring down rain and the wind was howling, so I didn't risk putting the work in anything I wasn't certain was waterproof. So, off I go with my giant bag, just to carry a few sheets of paper, to meet the bus that would take me to my meeting.
The wind kept grabbing my bag and pulling me this way and that, so I had to kind of twist to carry it. The bus came and after I stuck my dollar in the slot and turned around to head back to a seat, I accidentally swiped a lady with my wet bag. I immediately apologized, but she was furious and yelled at me, thinking I had disrespected her on purpose. Face red, feeling awful, I sloshed my way to an open seat at the back of the bus.
I had had enough. If only I had a nice briefcase that I could use when going out to client meetings. It would have to be big enough to carry 9 x 12 boards at least, and have pockets for the various items I generally need. And while I was at it, defining this life-improving item, wouldn't it be just perfect if it matched my nice leather datebook. I imagined this perfect bag and saw it clearly in my mind. I would look and feel so professional and together then, instead of tromping into people's offices with my giant school bag. Alas, I sighed, I had been to the art stores and the office supply stores many times and mooned over all those nice leather portfolio bags and briefcases and the truth was, I just didn't have the money for it. I let the idea go and got off at my stop, promptly forgetting about it.
Flash forward now a week or two later.
It was a beautiful day to walk home from school. I tromped happily up Queen Anne and off to the house my boyfriend and I shared with a handful of students. I was always trying to get my boyfriend to go for walks with me around Queen Anne, and I often walked with my friends. Though he'd always say that he'd love to go, "some other day," that day never seemed to materialize. This day I walked into the house and there he was saying what a beautiful day, why don't we go take that walk? I was thrilled. I deposited my school stuff and off we went on the one-and-only walkabout we ever took together through Queen Anne.
I had explored these streets many times with my friends, even had a once-a-week walking date with a neighbor girl, in our feeble attempt to get fit. This day my boyfriend and I took a long route around Queen Anne, enjoying looking at all the big houses and their various lovely gardens. Seattle in Springtime is a lush and beautiful flowering heaven. The smell of damp earth and grasses, the perfume of flowers and trees filled our senses. That rare sun shone down and warmed us as we traveled down side streets and up roads and back down, criss-crossing our way down the hill. We traveled along roads I had never explored before in all my wanderings. It was a perfect day.
Finally we were getting tired and thinking to start heading back home. We decided to switch over down one more street and loop around back up the hill. Just as we turned the corner there was a house having a garage sale. Well, "had" a garage sale is more like it. Now the signs were down in a heap and all the stuff was piled up at the curb with a big square of wood on which someone had spray painted "FREE STUFF." Sitting right on top of that pile, immediately next to that sign, a briefcase. Not any briefcase, THE briefcase. The exact briefcase I had imagined, the exact same color, texture and material as my datebook. Just the right size, multiple pockets to keep projects separated, and smaller pockets perfectly designed to hold my supplies.
At first I was afraid to touch it. I looked at my boyfriend, "Did you know this was here?" He swears he didn't, though he did know I was wanting a briefcase. He swore he had never been down this road before, just like me. "Why, do you want that briefcase?" he asked. Of course I did, but I was suddenly afraid to touch it, I couldn't believe that it wasn't a mistake. I'd walk over there and someone would run out of the house shouting at me, "Hey, what are you doing? Thief! Thief!" All these ideas raced through my head, interrupted by my boyfriend. "You gonna stand here all day? Just go get it so we can go home, I'm tired."
That was all the pushing I needed. I grabbed the briefcase, that free, perfect briefcase and marveled at my good luck, filled with a giddy joy. I used that briefcase at the very next meeting I had with that same client I had when I first envisioned it. I did feel more professional, and it was a whole lot easier to carry with me to meetings.
This is one of the situations I think about often. I think about how that briefcase came about and try to replicate that success, and it doesn't always work. That has been the big mystery for me over the years. Why did the Law of Attraction work for me sometimes, but not other times? That is what I hope to discover as I continue with these blogs and experiment with the process. How to make this work every time.
Cheers!
Kelle
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