In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions and goal setting, this article considers the “magic” of goals or wishful thinking, and how the same elements of magic apply to other areas of life’s journey. For many years I have kept a wish cup. Into a demitasse-sized cup, I place a small piece of paper with a wish carefully written in the present tense. Then, whenever I find a penny on the ground, I put the penny into the wish cup, reread the wish aloud, and wait. By the time the cup overflows with found pennies, I have manifested the wish. Although many metaphysical principles explain how this happens [read or watch “The Secret”], that particular magic will not be discussed in this article.
Finding money on the ground is fun, and symbolically, it reaffirms that abundance flourishes everywhere we look for it. When I place the found money into my wish cup, that moment reminds me of infinite abundance and cements my faith in the natural, perfect unfolding of life’s events.
During one particular wish cup filling process, my then boyfriend marveled at how often I found money just lying on the ground. [We always find what we seek….] Not to be outdone, he created his own wish cup. Shortly thereafter, he called me and proudly announced he had finally “figured it out” about the wish cup.
This pronouncement confused me. What had he figured out? He revealed his discovery that you could find money quicker in parking lots because people often pull keys out of their pockets and that disentangles loose change as well. The change falls to the ground, creating a lode for “wish fulfillment.”
Well, the secret was out and the wind was taken out of my sail. His discovery extinguished the magic, the mystery and the joy of my wishing process. I felt annoyed that he had "ruined" it for me. Yet, after some meditation, I learned some magical wisdom from this situation.
First, I discovered that trying to figure everything out in my life often deprives me of the very magic and joy I seek. In other words, experiencing life from my “head” by trying to analyze how and why everything works drains me of the energy necessary for experiencing life sensually by how it feels in the moment.
Second, I realized that my choice to feel magic makes all the difference. Even though I now knew the “secret” to finding more pennies, my choice to see magic in the serendipitous discovery of pennies was even more fulfilling. [Isn’t this the beauty behind Santa Claus???].
As we venture into 2008, a new year full of pennies awaits discovery. Consider how you want your life to feel and where you could seek more magic. May your 2008 be full of magic and an overflowing wish cup of pennies!
Love, Nicole.
