Manifesting Madonna

Have you ever heard of a vision board?  It’s like a collage – a visual representation of what you’d like to have happen in the future.  It’s a fun way to articulate your goals or dreams, and strangely, once you put it out there in words and pictures, circumstances begin to align to allow your dreams to actually happen! Some people might call it magic, or harnessing the energy of the universe or angels – but it’s really quite practical.   It’s just like when you learn a new vocabulary word – one you never even knew existed, and then you see it everywhere.  You won’t notice something until you put your attention toward it.

I like to play with vision boards.  I like thinking about what I want and then finding the words and images to go with my vision.  So about six months ago, I made a vision board about my business.  And one of the images I put on it was Madonna.  She was in dark glasses and red lipstick.  She looked confident and composed.  She’s Madonna, after all!  I put her on the board because I wanted to channel Madonna’s fearless energy, her willingness to push boundaries, her total comfort in her own skin.  Madonna is a badass.  And I admire her for that.

A couple of days after I made the vision board I read somewhere that Madonna was coming to New Orleans in October.  And I thought, “Huh.  Maybe I can manifest some Madonna tickets too.  Wouldn’t that be cool if I end up at the Madonna concert in October?  Then I’ll really believe in this vision boarding stuff!”  And then I looked up the prices and thought, “No way.”  And I forgot about it for the summer.

October came.  And nothing.  Oh well.  Then the night before the concert, I was having cocktails with a dear friend and she mentioned a friend of hers was trying to get rid of Madonna tickets. My ears perked right up – Madonna tickets?  Say more!  Did my friend want to ask about them?  Did she want to go?  Yes and yes.  So she texted and asked if the tickets were still available.  We continued to sip cocktails and snack and chat while we waited about 45 minutes to hear back.

Yes – they were ours!  I thought, “Why not?”  I never, ever, ever buy big arena concert tickets – the last arena show I saw was the Grateful Dead in 1990 or so and before that maybe Peter Gabriel in 1987.  Seemed it was time to go ahead and go for it.  I told my friend my cool vision boarding story.  How I’d manifested Madonna.

She said, “That’s not manifesting.  You still have to pay for the tickets!”  And I said, “Hmm, that’s true.”  And then I checked my phone.  And about ten minutes after she had asked for the tickets from her friend, I’d received a PayPal payment for a class that had already begun the night before, from someone I’d never heard of – exactly enough to cover the tickets and a drink and food too!  This felt like free money because the class was already going, new person or not .  I thought, “Wow – the universe really is sending me a wink!”

It gets crazier.  Unusual circumstances led to my friend not being able to go to the concert.  So now – should I go alone?  Hmmm.  I went ahead and went.  And I ended up sitting next to an old friend who I hadn’t seen ages! What are the chances of our tickets being near each other? And because Madonna didn’t come on stage until about 10:30 p.m. when the tickets said 8 p.m., it was good that my original friend wasn’t able to come – she would not have been happy waiting around for 2.5 hours!  Somehow we heard through the grapevine that Madonna would be coming on very late, so we just settled in, relaxed, and people-watched.

Then, finally, Madonna.  She still has it.  She’s still pushing the envelope.  We sometimes forget when we’re recalling the lace and the perky songs about stars and holidays that she’s always done some pretty edgy stuff and stretched her audiences past their comfort zone.  This show was no exception.   There was so much to see, so much to process – it was quite a spectacle! She's definitely still a badass.

You can call this whole set of circumstances coincidence or luck or whatever.  I know that.  But I love this story, and I love my vision board, and I love that I manifested Madonna!  And I love that I can be open to great fun and amazing possibilities every day.

How about you?  What do you dream of?  Let me know what’s on your vision board, and if you have a great “manifesting” story, please share it in the comments! And enjoy the slide show of the concert and the fabulous outfits people wore to celebrate!

[slideshow]

The power of story, and an intervention by angels...

Within the first couple hours of our road trip to Colorado earlier this month, we lost a wallet.  Not fun, right?  Here's what happened.  We stopped at a convenience store just over an hour away from home to grab some soda and juice.  My sweetheart started to give me his wallet to pay, and I said, no - it's ok - I have mine.

We kept driving.  To Alexandria, Louisiana.  Now about four and a half hours from home.  And we got to the hotel, and my sweetheart said, "Honey, what did you do with my wallet?"  Oh.  No.  My stomach dropped.  Had he handed me his wallet while he went to the bathroom?  What did I do with it?  Did I leave it on the counter? We searched high and low.  In every possible nook and cranny in the car.  We didn't find it.  It was 10 p.m.

Ok, so I asked myself, what's perfect about this?  (Very hard in a situation like this, believe me.)  I always start with, "We're ok."  Then, "There wasn't that much money in it.", Then, "Only one credit card to cancel."  We got on the phone and took care of that.

Then there was the matter of the driver's license.  And here the angels intervened.  1. We were still in Louisiana.  2.  We had internet and a laptop to easily search for Motor Vehicle offices.  3.  The office in Alexandria was literally less than a five-minute drive from our hotel! Can't you hear the angelic choirs singing??

We went there the next day, first thing.  And there wasn't much of a wait.  (Go, angels!) And they renewed my sweetheart's license so he won't have to wait in line in a couple of months in New Orleans.  And then it was done and we were on our way.

"Ok", you say.  "I get it. Angels intervened. But what about the power of story? Why is that in the title?"  Well, a couple of reasons.  We could have used a lot of energy telling a really different story about this.  About how awful it was.  About how we couldn't believe that no one had turned in the wallet (we did call the convenience store - amazing that we were able to remember which one and find its number online!) About all the money we'd lost.  About the hassle of changing online accounts to new credit card numbers.  About how stupid I was for leaving the wallet on the counter, or wherever I'd left it.  We could have seen it as a "bad omen" for our whole trip.

But we didn't.  We had a fantastic trip.  We didn't even think about it much except that my sweetie had to ask me for my credit card when we'd stop for gas.

And then we came home.  And you will never guess what was on my sweetheart's desk. Did you guess? You're right! His wallet.  Because he'd never brought it in the first place. He'd only offered to pay.  He had never actually handed me his wallet!  We'd completely fabricated that part of the story!

And here's where the angels actually intervened.  What if we had realized we didn't have the wallet at the convenience store- one hour away from home?  We would have probably driven back to get it, which would have taken more than twice as long as what we ended up doing.  And it would have been a very un-fun two hours.  In traffic.

I make up stories all the time - I create motives, fabricate background information, and selectively remember facts.  And I just finished a book, a rather dark book, but an incredible story that illustrates this so well.  It's called The Sense of An Ending, by Julian Barnes.  It's a short, engaging novel that so clearly illustrates the power of story to affect real lives.  You'll think you know what's happening right up until the end - I won't spoil it.

So, what stories are you telling yourself these days about the circumstances around you?  Do you have a good example of how you turned around what seemed like crummy circumstances into a better story?  Are you noticing the intervention of angels/the universe/luck, or whatever you want to call it, in your life?  I'd love to hear!  Email me at carla@livingwildandprecious.com or share your story in the comments below.