Since then, I’ve been trundling around on a knee scooter, dutifully keeping my weight off that foot. I’ve developed aches and soreness in various compensating body parts. I’ve had to learn how to take things slowly and have patience with myself and the situation. It takes a toll emotionally and physically. 

Friends have been wonderfully supportive, filling in for me, taking on my responsibilities, planting flowers, bringing in meals, sending me loving, healing energy.

My husband, Peter, has been marvelous picking up the slack around the house and mealtimes, and there has been a lot of slack to pick up. Of course, he and I have different ideas about what constitutes an orderly home. I’ve had to let go of my neat fixation and focus on what is most important. So, meals get prepared, dishes washed, kitchen counters wiped down, trash taken out, dirty clothes laundered, lawn mowed, plants watered and the dog fed and walked. On the whole it’s quite a lot, considering Peter is doing almost all of it.

Beyond that, we’ve let the rest of home care slide, most especially the picking up of the detritus of daily living. Consequently, scattered about most of our main floor living space are various collections, cardboard boxes from Amazon deliveries (hey, I’m sitting all day, what else do I have to do?) piles of mail awaiting attention, last week’s projects scattered on the dining room table, tiny legions of plastic cars and toy parts amass army-like on the living room floor from the recent visit with our grandchildren, scraps of playdough with crumbs of who knows what on the floor that our voracious lab has yet to discover.

Said lab is also in the midst of her twice a year molt. Goldie sheds at least a pound of fur each summer and fall. Usually, I brush her outdoors during shedding season, but the stairs to the yard are daunting when you’re negotiating them on crutches. We’re now growing fluffy, dog fur kitties under the kitchen counters, around chair legs, and something that looks more like a polar bear out on the porch.

Our pretty family room sitting area has become my de facto office, as I’ve gradually surrounded my favorite chair with pillows, crutches, knee scooter, laptop, tablet, chargers, drinks, tissues, file boxes, various writing implements, lunch dishes and meditation paraphernalia etc.

I’m considering putting a sign on the front door. “Watch your step, real life happening here!”

Yesterday, Peter collected our two grandsons, ages 6 and almost 9, and brought them to our house for an overnight visit. They settled in happily, pulling out toys and asking for snacks. Shortly after their arrival their other grandmother dropped off our granddaughter age 11 and came in for a chat. Normally I would have been mortified to have her see the state the house was in. But when she left, I realized that it hadn’t even occurred to me to worry about it.

The grandkids were delightful, helping out, cooperating, sailing around on the knee scooter, enjoying life in the way that children do. Today, the kids have gone to their Dad’s home, our house looks, well, you know, and my neighbor just stopped in for a short visit bringing chocolate chip cookies. I thanked her, laughed with her about life on a knee scooter and totally forgot to feel embarrassed about the fluffy polar bear brazenly sitting in the corner of the porch.
What’s the takeaway here?

Real life is happening here in my home. Picture perfect neatness, though I love it, is for magazines. No one lives or loves in those rooms. No one sits down to read a book together or share a meal. Perhaps a broken foot, a little mess, some clutter, a furball or two are tolerable, when the reward is time invested in appreciating those around you, allowing them to pitch in, do it their way, even if their way is not your way. It is a way, and it is real life, a good life.

You are constantly wanting, whether you are conscious of it or not. So, what do you want? And how do you go about communicating that clearly to the Universe?
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I had an experience yesterday that started me thinking about all this. Happily, my message to the Universe must have been pretty clear, I received support exactly when I needed it and even before.

Here’s what happened.

Wanting to add native shrubs to my shady, dry, back yard garden, I did some research into what might work and printed out a list.  I went to Suburban Lawn and Garden (my fav!) to look at possibilities.

The nursery is enormous, with a large outside area for shrubs and trees, and many, long, open greenhouses. I walked all the way through to the back of the outside area, checking all the shrubs. I found a variety of viburnum that was on my list. The tag on the shrub said that it needed a pollinator of a similar type to produce berries. It was not clear from the tag exactly what I needed to look for, and I thought I’d better find a staff person to ask. I looked up to find one just as a young woman with a red staff shirt drove up beside me in a golf cart. She stopped and asked if I needed help. I was delighted.

After some enlightening discussion about what I needed, she offered to carry the viburnum I’d found. Alternatively, she offered to give me a ride up front to get my own golf cart to drive. Not so sure about driving a golf cart I declined that generous offer. I was glad for her to carry the heavy shrub though. She then directed me to the greenhouse where other viburnums were kept.

In the greenhouse I found exactly what I was looking for, and hefted four, heavy shrubs onto the walkway. I wondered how I would get them all the way to the front payment area. A couple of customers,  husband and wife, joined me in the greenhouse as I was moving shrubs around. Outside the doorway I spied a golf cart. I thought the pair might be using it, but figured if they weren’t, I would. Of course, then I’d have to drive the golf cart. But really, how hard could it be? Right? They responded to my query saying it was theirs. Being kind souls, they promptly offered me and my shrubs a ride. My problem was solved. The woman, who I learned was a golfer as well as a gardener, drove me to where I could load my shrubs onto a shopping carriage. She was cheerful and kind about it and I was most grateful. May she be blessed with wonderful karma for that good deed!

From there I easily purchased the shrubs as well as a set of hand clippers, and brought them out to the car. As I was negotiating the unloading and stuffing of branchy shrubs into my car, a man offered to take my carriage. Then he handed me the clippers I’d left in the carriage saying, “Don’t forget these!” I had forgotten all about them as I was so focused on loading the plants. I would have driven off without them.

Such a delightful experience of support as soon as I knew I needed it, and even when I didn’t know I needed it!

Now imagine the nursery in this story is the Universe. The staff people are Spirit, there to run the nursery and support you. They drive around in their golf cart Merkabah’s, attending to their duties, making themselves available, just waiting for you to ask for help.

So, you have arrived in this Universe nursery and you are shopping for what it is that you desire. You have done your homework and you know basically what you want. You feel clarity about your deservingness and the appropriateness of what you want. You know the nursery and the staff are there to help you get it. You take anticipatory action.

What is anticipatory action?

Anticipatory action is action based on the certainty that you will achieve what you desire.

Back to the Universal nursery. You absolutely trust you will get what you want, but you’re not sure how or where to find it. You ask for support from Spirit and it is there almost before you ask the question. You have a direction which leads you to your next action step. Synchronicities occur, leading you on toward your objective. You reach a stumbling block and again ask for support. Help shows up in ways you might not have imagined. You continue on towards your goal taking the next obvious action steps. This time, guidance shows up without you even asking or knowing you need it, but it is exactly what you need. You keep taking action one step at a time,  following the opportunities presented by Spirit. You know you will achieve what you want.

This is anticipatory action, moving forward with what you want even before it appears in your life. You provide the ‘what.’ Spirit guides you to it. 

This is how the Universe works for you. The Universe, like the nursery, is staffed by willing Spirit in service. The garden the Universe supports is your life.

So, what is it that you want?  

Perspective is what makes the difference.

Maybe that’s a good metaphor for how I could feel about life’s unfolding dramas. Depending upon how I perceive events I can either freeze in the cold and wet of my life’s most recent storm of problems, or I can step back into the eye of the storm, dry and protected, where trust lives. Trust can change how I perceive the storms that swirl through my life.

If I know, not just believe, but know, deep in my heart, that “everything is always working out for me,” as Abraham-Hicks says, it changes everything. Whatever is occurring in my life is not happening to me, but is happening for me.

And trust goes even deeper. Trust is knowing that Spirit has my back. Trust is owning that whatever is happening in my life, guidance and support are there for the asking. When I trust, Spirit holds a strong roof over my head and warms me with the fires of love. I am held within the arms of angels, as I stand protected in the eye of the hurricane.

What this means is that we don’t have to be blown around by the storms in our lives.

Unfortunately fear often sucks us into the drama with a tornado of emotion. Fear tells us we have to fix the problem, or make it go away somehow. Fear causes us to struggle against it and be so fully focused upon the problem that we inadvertently keep creating more of it.

It might look like this. You’re having a lousy day at work. You started out that morning tired, having slept poorly. Your emotional weather forecast - grey skies with a chance of drizzle. Now, you’re feeling insecure and you’re doubting the decisions you’re making at work. Emotional rain is drizzling down your neck, cold and wet. Your co-workers are enjoying themselves, laughing and chatting, and you’re feeling left out. The cold, drizzle becomes a constant rain of negativity on your unprotected head. You’re feeling too tired and grumpy to make the effort to join in with your co-workers, and you tell yourself there’s too much work to do anyway. The rain becomes a downpour. Almost without your volition your mind is increasingly filled with negative thoughts, about what you are doing, about what others are doing. Finally, like a cartoon character with her own personal thunderstorm pouring and crashing about her head, you leave work for the day. You get into the car and your stomach is in a knot. Your mind is looping over and over the day and what you and everybody else did wrong. Your perfect storm has descended.

But what if you didn’t have to go there?

What if you could be more of an observer of what is happening, like a weather-watcher of your own life? What if you knew you were safe and protected within the arms of Spirit? Could you experience a grey and drizzly emotional day from a protected space inside rather than standing out in the wet and cold? What would that look like?

It might look like this. You start out the morning tired, having slept poorly. As you get out of bed, your emotional weather forecast is grey skies with a chance of drizzle.  Making yourself a warming cup of tea, you ask Spirit for a little extra support and energy today.

At work, feelings of insecurity well up, you don’t know why. So you ask your Higher Self, “I wonder what’s going on?”* You return your attention to work and let go of worrying about those ‘not good enough’ feelings, mentally turning them over to your Higher Self. With your attention focused on work, an image memory seeps into your awareness of yourself as a young child believing she wasn’t good enough. You respond to the image by imagining your adult self holding your inner child, loving her, with the angel of your Higher Self standing behind you enfolding you both in her wings. In a few moments, everyone feels better. 😊

Later in the day, your co-workers are enjoying themselves, laughing and chatting. You’re working nearby. You feel a cold drizzle of negativity seep into your mind, as you feel left out of their community. Again, you stop and ask, “I wonder what’s going on?”* In doing so, you step out of the rain and back into the warmth of Spirit’s protection. Giving it over to Spirit, you return to your job and once again remember yourself as a young child. This time she’s feeling abandoned and alone. You visualize yourself holding her lovingly and telling her you will always take care of her. Again, you see both of you enfolded within the wings of your Higher Self. You feel comforted, loved, and able to refocus upon the work you were doing, grateful for the support from Spirit.

The end of the day arrives and you’re tired, but you feel balanced and calm. You’re glad to be going home to a warm dinner and look forward to a relaxing evening. You offer a prayer of gratitude for the support and guidance received as you turn your car and your thoughts toward home.

I'd rather have a day like that. Wouldn't you?

I'll admit that was me in those examples. Though I didn't get to the guidance part until I finally remembered to ask. And really, it was just a little storm in the overall scheme of things given all that is going on in the world. Still, the metaphor holds true. The more that we can let go of the struggle, step into the role of observer, and back into the arms of Spirit by asking for support and guidance, the more gracefully we can weather all the storms. Support from Spirit can be the roof over our heads and the fire that warms us. It can be our safe place from which to observe the storms swirling around without getting caught up in the drama. Who knows, with practice we might even come to enjoy the stormy days as well as the sunny!

* This wording is a specific technique for accessing guidance from your Higher Self taught by Maureen J. St. Germain in her wonderful book, Waking Up in 5D: A Practical Guide to Mulitdimensional Transformation.  ​