practice pronoia

My sweetie and I recently decided to begin couples counseling, and our first appointment was earlier this week.

I had been late for a different appointment the day before, so this time I was determined to leave with plenty of time to spare. Which I did. But in my hurry to get out of the office, I neglected to bring the address of the office where our appointment was. And my cellphone. I had looked up the place on Mapquest earlier in the day, so I knew what bus stop to get off at. I went into a store at the intersection and borrowed their phone to call my sweetie on his cell, hoping he could tell me the address. He picked up and said, “hey, I’m so glad you called, because I couldn’t find my phone. I have been wanting to call you to ask where this place is!” He didn’t have the address either, and had been driving around looking for the sign.

Luckily, it turns out he was driving down the street right outside! So I got in the car with him. Even if we couldn’t find our appointment, at least we found each other! Then we agreed that he would drop me off and park the car, while I walked around and looked for the place. I found the place half a block away and we were on time for our appointment!

It really felt like we had some hefty cosmic assistance to make that happen. Thanks, universe!

Do they have any purpose other than to delight me personally? It’s hard to imagine.

Also butterflies—do they exist to be chased willy-nilly across fields of wildflowers (and thus to delight me personally)? Seems that way.

Cool mist in the mornings, snails, birds chasing my car like dolphins around a ship… the universe and its cohorts are doing a great job of pleasing and delighting me this summer.

Making my morning drive less stressful. Yay!

Even though I am really battening down the hatches financially this month, the universe keeps helping me out with cheap dates! Today someone gave me a $25 gift certificate to a hip local eatery that she didn’t think she could use before it expires at the end of the year. Yay!

In October, I decided to take an entire day off work sometime in November to pack for my move. Getting the day off work proved incredibly challenging, and involved dozens of emails to coworkers and dozens of proposed dates penciled in on the calender, only to be nixed later by un-reschedulable meetings, important deadlines, other staff being out, etc. Finally it was agreed that I would take November 18th off (despite the fact that the only other person in my department was on vacation in Spain). I worked ahead to get things done so my department could be left unstaffed that day.

When the day finally came, I didn’t spend a moment packing. My partner’s father died the night before, and I spent the day with him making arrangements and spending time with family. He was so grateful for my help and support, and there is no way I could have taken that much time off right then without planning ahead for it. I really felt like the universe was helping me help someone else. Thanks, Universe!

... the first time I did laundry in my new place. Not my own $5, lost and found again—a brand-new-to-me $5!

Also I won a pair of semi-expensive tickets to a really cool show I wanted to go to. I was the tenth caller in a radio station giveaway.

I assumed they were on strike or working on some political activist project, so I was already sympathetic to them before I saw what their signs said. But I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear angry chanting. God knows people have enough to be angry about.

Instead their signs said things like “Increase the Peace,” “Honk for Peace” and “Fathers for Safe Streets.” They were totally taking over the streets en masse, and in such a positive way. They were energetically interacting with each car that passed, cheering and jumping up and down and waving and giving the thumbs-up. It opened my heart. I loved them, loved seeing them there. It totally made my day.

Maybe something like that doesn’t directly reduce the guns and gangs and drugs on the streets, but it certainly makes a huge impact on my perceptions. I have seen people getting beat up on that corner, and wondered whether it was safe to get out of my car and witness or intervene.

I was driving home through rush hour traffic tonight when I noticed three people standing next to a car on the shoulder.

Standing on the shoulder during rush hour didn’t seem to be stressing them out—they were chatting in a pretty relaxed way. A woman was smiling and saying something to another woman and a man. I assumed they were family until I crept forward enough to see two more damaged cars sitting empty further along. Then I realized that they had been in a collision and were waiting for the police to come.

But their body language was comfortable and open, the opposite of what you usually see under those circumstances. They weren’t each sitting alone in his/her own car, fuming about how much this is going to cost and avoiding speaking to one another at all costs (like the lawyers and insurance guys tell you to do).

That made my day! I don’t know how it relates to pronoia, but it reminds me of Rob Breszny’s e-newsletters filled with positive news, so I thought I’d post it.

Granted, I haven’t read the book that started it all…

But I am thinking that, for me, the goal to “practice pronoia” would have to include becoming part of the conspiracy, conspiring with the universe and each other to shower others with blessings. It doesn’t make sense that I would just be on the receiving end of the blessings. I’ve got blessings to give, too!

(This seemed enough like “practice random acts of kindness” that I took that one off my list.)

Friday a coworker told me she appreciated all my help and support over the years, and she bought me lunch. Yay!