Hope, Optimism and Magic
silver
In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast. Veteran
Inspired by the talk about such things on another thread:
I have a story that I've shared on other forums and perhaps even this one somewhere, I dunno, BUT! here it is anyway. ;-)
When I was a little girl, I somehow somewhere became enamored of horses, and every time I went outside after dark, I would determinedly wish on a star that some day, I would own my own horse. Being that I lived in a small town with all kinds of farms, forests and wide open spaces, there were riding stables in every direction, so that's where my parents would often take me (god bless 'em - they did something right)! Teehee.
Fast forward to about 1983 or 84. My mom had passed in March of 1983 and left a modest amount from her insurance policy through her job. Now, I wouldn't know the first thing about seeking out a horse to purchase. But, through a friend, I met some people - truly rough people - not my kind of folks (I'm total milquetoast next to them) - but anyway, they had this horse that they wanted to get rid of - and I could see the horse was skinny and underfed - but very beautiful with a generous eye - beautiful bay. So, for a few hundred I was able to purchase this animal - this - my first horsie! like wow.
I didn't have to DO anything - to have a horse fall in my lap like that was Magic to me! I had 3 years of fun horsin' about with all the horsie friends I met. It was pretty much the best 3 years of my life.
Moral to the story? Who cares! 
Well...not actually.....Little did I know that we don't have to 'do' a thing, really...It would've been nice if somebody had told me this sooner.
Comments
When things like that happen, it feels to me like it has a lot to do with intention. That once we set an intention for something, even many years before, we can align things to make that happen even if we don't realize we are doing anything. You said that you didn't do anything, but you clearly must have been living in a place where either you could house your horse, or had access to a place that could do it for you. Somewhere along the line you "did" that and it set you up in ways to have the horse. It wouldn't have done you any good to have the money without having the means to take care of the horse.
Like 15 years ago, I wrote in a guided journal about my "dream" home. Over those years, my mom divorced and remarried. I married and bought a house. Not my dream house by any means, just a house. A couple years ago I found the book on my shelf and read through it. And was amazed that the picture I drew and the description of the house was, to a T, the house my mom and my stepdad now live in. Exactly. Word for word. The house did not exist at the time I wrote about it in my journal. The family turned it from a 2 room tiny cabin to a 7 bedroom log home during the years that life was going on. My mom hates it there and doesn't want to live there. The house will never be mine, it is a family home owned by my stepdad's family so it will always stay in their family. We visit a lot and we have free use of everything there, they live on a lake with a beach and have a sauna and other things I desired. But it's not mine, and the one person who brought it into my life doesn't want it, LOL. And now, 15 years later, it's the farthest from what I would want today for my own home. Funny how things work out. Can't explain that one.
But most of the time when things seem to fall into my lap, or come about just when I need them, my intention played a part in that.
You're probably right about the intention thing -- but it had been such a long time -- your story (and mine) reminds me of the movie, Miracle on 34th Street - I think that's the name of the Xmas movie with Natalie Wood as the little girl.
Well, not exactly -- as far as choosing where to live, no...I left home and came out west to stay with my brother and sil -- I could write a book. But I wound up where I wound up through no intentions of even thinking about my horse dream. There just happens to be bits of horse property here and there, and at that time, there were a decent amount of stables along the riverbeds that were in my price range. Everything seems completely incidental as far as that goes, but nevertheless...my dream came true.
Although when I think back to when I was a little girl, I remember distinctly when I'd wish on a star, I'd often say (or maybe always) words to the effect: "I WILL own my own horse some day." Another thing that brings to mind is Why do different individuals have such specific wants and desires -- almost as if they are Needs?!
If your horse passes before you do, will you want and/or need to find another horse?
Well, I have no doubt he's passed into the great Horsie Heaven long ago. I think he was about 7 years old when I got him in 1983. I had to sell him when I got married. My only biggest wish was to get back to that life, but it never did happen. I've dreamed of it - day-dream of it - often ever since.
this is reminding me of a dialogue, in a Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om, which is obviously in Hindi language and since it is a film, you can understand that everything is just fiction there - but that dialogue seems fit here - i am translating that dialogue, which the hero in the film used to say, when he aspired for becoming what he wanted to become in his dream - the dialogue is - if you desire something with all your heart, then the whole existence comes together to help you to meet that thing.
The end of the movie (Miracle on 34th Street) is such a tear-jerker for me:
It is all quite fascinating, who knows the ways the universe works/conspires with us! By the way, I didn't mean to poo-poo your experience. Sometimes I try to think about things more than just letting them be and enjoying the feelings around them. It's amazing how some things seem to come to us or others when we most need them. My son very much lives that way, and despite rarely having a plan for how he is going to achieve something, it just happens. The money or other means just shows up right when he needs it,and off he goes. He leads a pretty magical life as a result. My sister is much the same. They seem to have an ability to let go and just trust in something happening, and it does
They don't struggle to make it happen.
One of my biggest desires was to move back home. There was on way I could have known marrying a man from a farming family of western ND would be what brought me back. But it did! We lived in ND when we met and I, at that point, had resigned myself to living there (and I quite liked where we lived) and visiting home. Then on a whim when the timing of a visit happened to work out, my husband interviewed for a job...and got it. Like you said, nothing I actively thought of, and I certainly didn't tell my then-boyfriend I expected to move back to my hometown hoping he would make it happen for me.
Never fight the magic. Don't hope for it either.
There comes a certain point on the path were magic happens. Things just fall into place. Just a stage.
I had a prelude of this whenever I made the effort to go to meetings, spiritual gathering etc. It was like the universe conspired to get me there. Transport links were instantaneous, that sort of thing.
Practice and calm eventually allows you to 'produce magic'. Some of us try to steal the universes magic (magicians for example). That can entail a high karmic toll.
Magical dharma such as Tantra balances a magical bubble with commitment and practice, thereby protecting and inspiring the practitioner.
... now back to the wonderland ...
Wow. You put something into words I've wondered about, but never to the degree where I consciously examined it.
When I was 16 I signed up for Drama in high school, and the class was going to do "Oklahoma!", that old Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. I wanted the part of Ado Annie because she was hilarious.
I was painfully shy, had no good reputation, was unpopular, a nerd; in other words a nobody in my small high school. We were poor, my dad was a public embarrassment, etc. But damn I wanted that part. I checked out the LP of "Oklahoma!" from a library and memoried all Ado Annie's songs, etc. I even prayed to get the part. When it came time for the auditions, I was terrified but got up there and sang "I Cain't Say No". The audience (the combined Drama, Stage Band and Jazz Choir classes) roared with delight and I almost ran out of the room in terror. I got the part, needless to say. So I went from (what felt like, to my teenage brain) this absolute NOBODY dork to suddenly being noticed and damn, even LIKED.
It felt like magic but in the spirit of your post, when I examine the 'intent' that went into my efforts, I think @Karasti nailed it.
I did kind of the same thing when I decided to go to nursing school when I had a 3 year old and pregnant with my son, freshly divorced as a 21 year old. I didn't just go to the local voc-tech nursing program, oh no, I went to university on scholarships.
When there is something I really want, I've discovered that I can make it happen. It is a powerful thing, and something to be a little nervous about perhaps.
I don't WANT things that much, the older I get. But intention is a tool that can be picked up, and is worth examining because there are times it is necessary. Maybe those times are all the time? Very, very interesting OP, Silver
Thanks for bringing it up.
@silver
It sounds like a case of .......
Mind over matter ( Mind is Magic and Magic is Mind ) Where the subconscious mind has been quite busy instigating situations in which for you (the being) to actively participate in to achieve your goals (unbeknown to your conscious mind) ...Been there and done that and like many before me have got the T-shirt to prove it
" The most essential method which includes all other methods is to behold the Mind-The Mind is the root from which all things grow-If you can understand the Mind-Everything else is included !"
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was on to something....( One would think he should know a thing or two- after sitting and staring at the wall of a cave for nine years)
But as usual I could well be wrong
Those are some interesting thoughts, @Hamsaka and @Shoshin - but for me, thinking in terms of this dream from when I was a small child, with NO hope or realistic idea that I could implement my dream horse, I believe that it HAD to be real magic in a sense ... There was so much turmoil over those years before it happened, it really was My Impossible Dream. Love the t-shirt.
I have found that every time I imagined myself in a situation, enjoying a particular visualised result, it has never come true, and I have been left crestfallen and disappointed.
so now, I make it a point of avoiding visualising anything; it's like having the luck to get this apartment we want to rent; I daren't visualise us living there, enjoying our own space, with our own furniture, the garden, the kitchen... or it won't come true.
But then, I just have.
So I fear - and expect - the worst....
Watch this space.....
For the past couple of years I've been experiencing a peculiar kind of 'magic'. Despite being strapped financially, the money to take care of emergencies and sudden bills has magically appeared. It's never enough to get ahead, but always just enough to pay the bills. Last week I got an unexpected bill for $190, and nearly that exact amount appeared within literally 10 minutes. I think I'll go have a crisis of non-faith...
The one thing I have found to be true is, the more you give, the more you get back. When I was a kid, my grandma used to tell me that. She used to make me go to church and give a dollar to the plate of my own money (I was like, oh, 8 or so at the time of this memory). So one day I was scowling about giving up my money and she told me eventually I'd get it back. Typical grandma cliche advice, lol. On the way home, I found a $5 bill. Dammit, then I had to listen to her tell me how she was right the entire time, LOL.
But it's been a consistent pattern. When I feel myself not wanting to give something up, wanting to cling to it (money, or whatever) when I let it go, it always comes back and almost always more than I gave up.
It's interesting how that stuff all works. I don't know if I'd say it's magic (my son is a budding magician and magic is all about illusion and manipulating people, so maybe my definition is too strict). But there seem to be connections that happen somehow in a very broad sense. Or perhaps it's all really just coincidence.
'Magic!'
Only Magic I know:
Greetings thug4lyfe, my son and I used to play that card game when he was young.
(3-3-87 to 2-14-10 R.I.P.)
wow, I am sure ya son is a cool guy and is now in the Western Pure Land of Utmost Bliss practicing to be a level 8 Bodhisattva nomsayin?!
Yea my kid played it too. Sh*t! My boy is a thug! Or a nerd...