I loved treasure hunts as a kid. Finding clues, solving riddles and gleefully moving closer to the PRIZE. Nothing was better than the thrill of the hunt and the joy of discovery.
As a mom I orchestrated treasure hunts. I sent my daughter, Kelly on countless hunts around the house, the backyard and even the entire neighborhood. The hunts must have made an impression on her because over the years she’s sent me on a few. Her clues always require intense, multi-level problem solving (advanced treasure hunting or payback time I’m not sure which).
A few months ago three friends and I read the New York Times bestseller, E-SQUARED by Pam Grout. The book offers nine do it yourself energy experiments that promise to prove your thoughts create your reality. We are committed YUMMY AGERS so we undertook all 9 experiments. It was like TREASURE HUNTING. In fact what I took away from the book is that treasure (aka miracle/prize) is always waiting for us. Our discovering it depends on the thoughts we think AND the lens through which we view the world.
“Miracles are like pimples, because once you start looking for them you find more than you ever dreamed you’d see.” Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler) in A Series of Unfortunate Events
Experiment #2 – (The Volkswagen Jetta Principle) was the first one to really grab my attention—here’s a summary. The premise is that what shows up in our lives is a direct reflection of our inner thoughts and emotions. Grout relates a story of a young woman struggling with armloads of heavy bags at a bus stop. She rants and raves about the bus that’s late, very late until she works herself into a total state of agitation. What the young woman is missing is that the bus is right in front of her with its doors open as it has been twice before but because she is so intensely committed to anger and outrage she had been unable to see it.
I get it. Once we focus on something we see only that. So, why not make it something great?
But, hey, let’s not eagerly accept this principle as truth just yet. Let’s conduct Grout’s experiment.
Here’s what she suggests. For 24 hours set an intention to see something specific. I chose green cars. I picked green because it’s not a common car colour and I wasn’t too likely to see a lot of them. Right? The exercise began and immediately (within seconds) a green car turns in front of me. During the following 24 hour period I saw literally hundreds of green cars, so many in fact I couldn’t help but laugh as I spotted them. What I quickly noticed was that there are many shades of green cars, yellow green, gray green, blue green, light green, dark green, metallic green, matte green, pastel green, forest green, citrus green, fluorescent green (to name a few). Insight # 1 – what I focus on I see. Insight #2 – there are many variances and nuances by staying open and present I will see them all.
To further test this principle Grout suggests experimenters conduct a second 24 hour observation. This time we were asked to repeat the exercise but to think about and focus on something a little more obscure like yellow butterflies or purple feathers. I chose worms AND I vowed to stay far away from all gardens to further challenge this principle. HA! What ensued made me laugh out loud on numerous occasions. Worms showed up everywhere! Although most of them weren’t actually ‘worms’ they were certainly worm-like (those nuances I mentioned above). Here’s a few examples — I was using my squirt bottle to drizzle glaze on my just baked ginger scones…I’ll be darned if that long stringy icing didn’t look just like worms!
I squeezed my toothpaste, moisturizer, hand cream and cuticle cream and low and behold all worms!
There was more — I rolled newspaper for a papier mache project (stiff worms),
I washed organic greens (real worm fell out), a photo in the newspaper showed a coiled snake (big worm),
a decorating magazine featured a carpet design of colourful wiggly shapes, a food show demonstrated sausage making….you get my drift.
It was Invasion of the WORMS.
Ok…I was sold.
I deduced that in a world where we are often conditioned to expect scarcity and limitations, I could focus on and expect miracles, treasures, prizes and delights of all kinds. My days of treasure hunting weren’t over they were in fact just beginning. (smile)
“It’s right beneath your fingers baby. That’s all you have to understand, everything is right beneath your fingers.” Ray Charles, American singer and poet
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