Do life lessons seem to suddenly appear, then repeat, often when you are primed to learn them? My personal belief system allows for the concept of synchronicities that aren’t just random occurences, but a message from the universe about how to direct my life. Hearing those messages is the hard part.
I can’t help but wonder if the timing of events around me belong to some kind of universal message system–much like the postal system, only less waiting in line. Some would say this is God, and I wouldn’t argue that, despite being not particularly religious—still, I am open to all possibilities. Who am I to not believe something that I can neither prove or disprove? But wherever it originates, from God or a higher power of a different kind, I believe there is magic in it.
And yet, I have truly slacked when it comes to my role in making good things happen. As crazy as it sounds, I believe that what we send out into the universe comes back to us. Right before League of Strays was published, synchronicities were happening like crazy. I’d be walking down the street and suddenly be hit by a tremendous wave of good feeling, a sense that something amazing was about to happen. It would fade a few minutes later, and I would forget about it. At night, though, I practiced visualizing my goals and dreams. I wrote down my requests for the Universe in a journal beside my bed. Who knew if this worked, but it couldn’t hurt, right? I wrote exactly what I wanted to have happen to my book. Not all of the details came true, but the overall request most certainly did. The book found its publisher. Did it work? Didn’t it work? Who knows, but it made me sit up and take notice and wonder.
Now I am in the same boat with book two, which is currently on submission. Between you and me, I have totally forgotten about the universal message system these past few years. In fact, during this time that my book has been sent around, I’ve been admittedly negative about my chances of getting published again for a variety of reason. For example, over this past year I made the shocking observation that having been published once has little to do with getting published twice. It really comes down to finding an editor who loves your specific book and believes it will be a success. Despite having a young adult book already on the shelves, I’m not sold on the idea that I have that much of an advantage over the thousands of very talented pre-published authors. I find myself doubting the odds of getting this new one published, which have always been obscenely small in this business.
It didn’t come home for me how negative I was being about the whole thing until my very positive and wonderful writing friend, who shares my philosophies about the universe, pointed it out to me this week. She repeated back something I said to this effect, “It will be a miracle if….”, followed by something I wanted. That’s when I realized that my tendency to over-dramatize my thoughts through the words that I speak may actually be throwing a wrench in the Universal Postal System.
I can fix this; I know I can. So starting today, I will revisit my dusty old journal. I will also add a three-minute meditation, where I will visualize the good that will come for my very deserving manuscript. I know that it’s the best thing I’ve ever written, and so it deserves my good energy and unrelenting enthusiasm.
This same wise writing friend said, “What if you had a child who was being beat up at school and was not at all popular, would you write the kid off, or would you love him even more and stand behind him?” Well, of course the latter! So why then, as I face initial rejections on this submission, just like every other author in this world, do I use it as proof that things will not work out? Why am I not as supportive of THIS baby as I would be my own physical offspring?
Today I will spend some time fixing the wonky relay system to the universe. I will put those positive thoughts out there, and I will fully expect them to return like a flock of homing pigeons. And then I will wait for those waves of good feelings, which could possibly be just hope, but also might be foreshadowing. In this way, life may be like a novel, and I am willing to wait patiently for the pay-off.
