What you seek, you will find.

“The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” — Eden Phillpotts

Do you pay attention to the little things throughout the day? Most of the time it seems we're always in such a hurry or so wrapped up in our own heads that we miss a lot along the way. I've been very purposefully trying to slow down, notice everything around me, and do as much as I can with intention, especially the small, everyday things. Today, those efforts were handsomely rewarded, but it could have easily gone unnoticed and unappreciated.

I stopped at the post office to mail a package and had approximately 5 minutes to do something that would likely take 7 minutes and then I'd be late to my next stop. I had faith I'd fly in and out using the self serve machine. Well, I got through all of the prompts to the point of payment, put my card in and nothing. Tried again, nothing. Tried a different card, nothing. Super annoyed, I canceled the transaction and went in to the regular check out area. When I got to the clerk, he put my package on the scale and said it would be $10 cheaper if we put it in a normal (not flat rate) box. It took maybe 2 extra minutes to repackage, I had a nice little chat with the clerk about what boxes to use for what weights to save the most money in the future and was on my way. I also noticed on my way out, the self serve machine worked just fine for another customer.

On the surface this seems like a nice heartwarming story about saving $10 and how I got lucky, but I think there's a lot more to it. One, because I don't believe in luck or that things are random (that's a whole other 19 blog posts). But also, because if we don't take the time to notice these small things and give extreme thanks and gratitude for them, then why do we think we deserve bigger and better things? If I can't take the time to appreciate a $10 savings because really, $10 isn't THAT much, then why do I deserve another "lucky" opportunity to save $100 or $1000?

I truly believe the energy you put into the world is exactly what the world puts back into you. And there are very small moments every day where the universe, God, the Divine, whatever or whoever is gifting you a chance to move your energy in the right direction, we just don't pay attention to them. We focus on complaining about what wet wrong and how we don't have enough and how the world is against us. We chalk moments like what I just described up to luck and move on without every truly appreciating the beauty of what was given to us.

Being able to spot these moments and showing gratitude for them takes serious practice and conscious decision making. It's a CHOICE to look for the beauty in everything. Whatever you seek, you will find. But YOU have to make the decision to seek it. I often get accused of being overly optimistic or that maybe I don't understand the levity of a serious situation. I assure you I likely understand it more than most. I've been through far more shit in life than people know, but I've made a decision to accept, embrace and find the beauty in the shit. That is the energy I want to put into the universe and I'm realizing it's been trying to put that energy back into me, I just haven't been paying attention.