My Run-In With The Law (of Attraction)

Man those roots were deep! The bushes had probably been there since the house  was built, and it seemed they weren't interested in leaving. Besides being deep, they were a tangled mess, winding around each other like snakes in a pit. But the bushes were looking tired now, and were out of date as landscaping elements. Thus my wife and I decided to remove them. It would open up the front of the house and we could put in a little terraced flower garden for a nice contemporary touch.

So one pleasant spring weekend morning, I embarked, shovel in hand, on what I hoped would be an easy job of excavating some old, weak, decomposing plants. Need I say it didn't turn out that way? Of course not! Murphy's law, right? After easily cutting the branches down to ground level, the attack on the roots moved forward. Before long, the shovel was joined by a pick. A short time later, the pick was joined by a sledge hammer - and basically anything I could find that might break up the steely cables. It was now apparent that this could go on all weekend - and maybe longer.

  

As my mind scanned the available tools in the garage, I realized that one thing which would really be helpful was also the one thing I didn't have - a pry bar. Yeah, a pry bar would be just the thing to get some leverage on those suckers. Leverage - the engineers favorite tool. Ah, leverage - just the weapon to drive out the snakes. I briefly considered making a run to the hardware store, but feared that once having stopped, I might not want to continue.

And I was filthy dirty too. And it wasn't like I wasn't making any headway. So I toiled on, battling the fiends as best I could with what I had, and all the while thinking about how great it would be to have a pry bar. I formed a mental picture of one and imagined myself effortlessly dispatching roots with the magic stick. I ruminated on how much easier it would be to slip the pointed end of the bar under a root cable while pushing on the opposite end to either pull it out completely, or at least snap it in two. 

The afternoon wore on as the task proceeded incrementally, inch by inch, tangled root by tangled root. I tried to put the image of a pry bar out of my mind, but it persisted, returning with each resistant encounter. The thought that the job could be done so much easier and faster was as hard to remove as the roots. My kingdom for a pry bar!

Needing a break after dispensing many buckets of sweat, I walked around to the side of the house, and went inside to grab a diet coke. Now here is where the story takes a strange and most perplexing turn. After taking a couple sips of coke, I went straight back to the front of the house. The length of time consumed by the process could not have been more than two or three minutes - in other words, just a little more than the amount of time needed to blink an eye. 

As I walked across the yard, something in my peripheral vision attracted attention. It was some sort of object lying in the middle of the sidewalk, right at the end of the front walk. I stood transfixed. What it appeared to be defied logic. Moving closer confirmed that my eyes were not deceiving me. The object lying on the sidewalk in front of my house was indeed, a pry bar! Yes!

I quickly looked up and down the street. No one! Not a soul. But even if someone had been there, what could possibly account for them leaving a pry bar right in front of my house? And no one else, not even my wife, knew about the object of my desire that afternoon.

So here I was, standing over an object like the one I had obsessed over all day. It was a pry bar to be sure. But while it was like the imagined object, it wasn't an exact match. The bar I had in mind was at least four feet long, while the bar I now cradled in my hands measured a mere 12 inches - a perfectly good tool, to be sure - but for my purposes, utterly useless. 

Some might consider what happened to be a legitimate, though imperfect, example of the Law of Attraction in action. And I'll admit to being at a loss for an alternative explanation. Sure, things fall from airplanes now and then, but they usually don't land neatly and squarely. And to my knowledge there haven't been any reports of bar-shaped meteors striking the earth. 

My own relationship with the Law of Attraction concept remains a work in progress. As I learn more about the energetic nature of the universe, there's a greater openness to the possibility, despite some reservations. My own experience has been ambiguous. Yes, there has been the occasional synchronistic connection to a person or event. Yet, contrarily, I spend the better part of the day worrying about one thing or another, but find very little ever comes to pass.

So what do I take away from this encounter with the numenous? Let's recap: 1) The object on which I'd focused my thoughts and intention was manifested. 2) There was no evidence of human intervention. 3) The bar wasn't suited to the task.  

From this I'm inclined to conclude that if energy does in fact respond to thoughts, desires and mental pictures, one would be well advised to practice caution, and be very specific about what is asked for. It may be that the universe really is ready and willing to deliver whatever we order. But we'd better make sure we fill in all the blanks. If wishing for a Honda, be sure to state the year and model. Heaven forbid a lawn mower shows up instead.