Allowing Miracles

If you saw my last blog post, then you know I was recently in South Africa for work. I headed over there for two weeks to visit our South Africa office, and assist with a particular project that was falling behind schedule. However, the couple who runs the office was out of town for their anniversary and had no access to phones or email. Therefore, they had no idea I was coming, and more importantly, I had no idea if anyone would be there to pick me up at the airport or if I would even have a hotel room when I arrived!

Needless to say, as I prepared for my trip, several people around me were very anxious and asking a lot of questions:

• Where would I stay?
• What city in particular was I going to?
• How would I get around?
• What about security issues?
• Would I have a security guard?
• Would I get to visit any of the national parks?

I didn’t know the answers to these questions, and quite frankly I didn’t care. I was super excited, packed my bags, and got ready for a grand adventure! I literally boarded the plane not knowing which specific city I was going to in South Africa, or if anyone would be at the airport on the other end to pick me up.

When I arrived, after a long 15-hour flight, I was thrilled to find that not only were there people at the airport to pick me up, but they were absolutely delightful and what ensued was two wonderful weeks that I will never forget. They were great people to work with on a daily basis, and they truly treated me as part of their family. I know I will be life-long friends with them.

In addition to feeling so loved by them, they showed me all around their city, treated me to outdoor barbeques to sample all the local food, and even took me on an all-day safari on their dime, where we had the pleasure of seeing an elephant up close as he walked down the road directly in front of our jeep for a good thirty minutes (that's him above!). Not to mention, they drove me around every day, made sure I had everything I needed, and even taught me a few key phrases in Afrikaans.

I tell this story because before I left, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I’d never been to South Africa before, but more importantly, I wasn’t really provided a lot of information about my trip. No one from my office had ever been, so in all fairness no one had much information to give me. It was just expected that I would get over there and figure it all out!

However, and this is important, I TRUSTED that all would work out for me. And it did! There is not a single thing I would change about my trip. I had a fabulous time, met some great people, and have memories to last a lifetime. I was open to experiencing miracles, and I did! Unfortunately, this is a quality I notice is missing in a lot of people who are not currently living lives they love or are very excited about.

So many people spend the majority of their days worried or scared, about money, their boss, their job, their parents, their kids, their next vacation, and on and on and on. And yes, there are of course several things in our world and our lives that could go wrong on a daily basis. There are, however, also several things that could go RIGHT in our world and our lives on a daily basis, if we would just open ourselves up to them. Opportunities and miracles are everywhere, if we just allow them!

I had no idea what to expect when I agreed to go to South Africa. In fact, the reason the trip was offered to me in the first place was because the person who was originally supposed to go backed out at the last minute. Rather than being scared about my trip and overly worried about the details, though, I trusted in the Universe and myself to make things work out for the best. I always expect things to work out for me in the best possible way, and they usually do! I expect to always be provided with enough money at the right time, and I am!

Some might call this luck, but it’s really not luck at all. Our thoughts create our realities, and the more you focus on positive thoughts and expectations, the more positive experiences you will create in your life. This is not to say that sometimes you don’t have to exercise caution or common sense. However, in my world I would rather have a positive expectation that things will work out and deal with any issues that arise, versus always being on the lookout for things that could wrong. What about you?

If you read my last post, you’ll see that on my way home from South Africa I had planned to stop over in Paris for three days and take a bit of a vacation. Due to the volcano in Iceland, this turned into eight days! That’s an entire story in itself so I won’t go into the details here, but needless to say I had another chance to trust in the Universe and expect that everything would work out for me. And it did, just like magic! ;)