No Heavy Lifting

 

 ‘Let the Universe do the Heavy Lifting.’ Pam Grout

 I got to attend a talk by the New York Times best selling author author Pam Grout a few night’s ago. It was about synchronicity and learning how to manifest miracles in your life. The room sizeable auditorium was filling up  quickly and it appeared that it would be a packed house.

The small group I was with, arrived early and took up the better part of one full row of seats.  We each draped our sweaters over the backs of the chairs we chose, but I was on the end- so there were two seats that remained empty next to me.  Before the talk began I made a quick exit to the restroom and as I was walking in, a lovely woman from my past was walking out.

Her name is Cat- I have known her since I was 18 years old. During my first year of college I was an office assistant for a local psychiatrist and Cat was my boss. We lost track of one another for many years after that, me moving toward my future aspirations and her moving into the field of journalism.

About 7-8 years ago I heard from Cat again. She was the publisher of a magazine and she asked if she could interview me for a story. We met at a busy coffee shop and she proceeded with the interview… the topic was synchronicity.

As we talked, I was illustrating my theory on synchronicity to her by using an example of ‘homing pigeons’ and how once the universe sets a plan into place, just like homing pigeons, even without a map, destiny always finds its way to us.

Our conversation took place in a far back corner of the coffee shop, well out of earshot of anyone else. Just before we got up to leave, the front counter clerk, who had been roaming around asking questions to other patrons approached our table with a set of car keys, and asked if they belonged to one of us. ‘Yes in fact they did’, I answered. His self satisfied response to having found the owner of the keys floored us both, ‘ I’m like a homing pigeon, once I go looking, I always find my mark.’ Cat had made this little event with the ‘homing pigeons’ the primary topic of her article , because she had been so floored at how the whole thing had unfolded. ( My re-telling does not really do it justice, it was a real spiritual zinger for us both!)

So, as Cat and I ran into each other in the doorway to the bathroom, after a quick hug hello, the first thing she said to the woman she was with was, ‘Oh my God- if running into HER is not perfect for a class on synchronicity!!’

As she walked away and her voice trailed off, I heard the phrase ‘homing pigeon’ escape her lips and I knew she was telling our tale to her friend.  I continued on into the restroom while she and her companion disappeared into the crowd.

As I made my way back to the chair I had left my sweater on, I laughed when I saw who had taken the seat next to me. Even though her back was to me, I could tell from the spiky blond hair it was Cat. As she saw me turn into the row of chairs, she pointed to my sweater sitting next to her chair and loudly said, “Do not EVEN tell me this is your seat?’ I just laughed as I plopped down next to her. Out of hundreds of seats at this venue, the map of destiny had placed her and I shoulder to shoulder. It is the small miracles like this, that give more meaning to my life than I could ever express.

One of the great quotes Pam Grout gave during class was this, ‘let the universe do the heavy lifting….’  Which to me, means, don’t work so hard on ‘manifesting’. We don’t have to move mountains to have miracles, we just need to keep moving through the world each day with our sense of wonder intact and let the Universe lead.

Like the homing pigeons we had discussed that day so many years ago, Cat and I had found our way back to one another using nothing more than the soft map of destiny… no heavy lifting required.