I had a very cool experience yesterday, involving one of my BFF’s, and the Universe. I decided I should write about it.

I did a meditation in the morning, which I do most mornings. Sometimes with just music, sometimes I find a guided meditation on Youtube. The last couple of days I have been listening to a couple of older Deepak Chopra/Oprah 21 day meditations about how grace follows gratitude. Meaning, when we are grateful for all we have, genuinely, we will attract grace into our lives. (This is the link to one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrHdssP234Y&t=1s ) This is one of my favorite Deepak meditations, always bringing me to the place where I feel gratitude for everything I have. But that’s not the story, it just kind of sets the undercurrent.

As the morning went on, I finished cleaning the kitchen floor (you might remember that I had started to but decided to clean the vacuum filters and then realized I couldn’t put them back in the vacuum til they dried…)

I’d made coffee in the morning, which I get at Trader Joe’s. I thought I had a new can of coffee, but what I had was a can about one-third full. I realized I was going to need a trip to TJ’s. I also needed to make a trip to the medical marijuana dispensary to get some topical cream for a friend who swears by it for helping her joint pain. And, I wanted to go to Home Depot, to get herbs to plant in my grow boxes, and also to look the succulents, to make a hanging basket of them, as well as some other household stuff I needed.

I called Dan to see if he wanted to go with me since all of those places are fairly close to where he lives. And if we’re going to go, it’s better to take my tiny Nissan Versa than his big pick-up truck, just for ease of parking. He said yes, he’d like to go, so I headed out around 11 to go pick him up.

As I backed out of my driveway, I realized I had not picked up my mail from the day before. It comes late, usually after 4 PM, so I often don’t get it until the next morning. I stopped at the end of my driveway and picked it up. Inside was a card from my friend from the Adirondack Mts who stayed with me for a week in January when our Iowa friends came to visit. It was the loveliest thank you note, she writes beautifully. But inside the card was also a gift card to Home Depot for $100!

Honestly, she didn’t need to do that! I loved having her here, we had such a good time. It was the first time she’d visited me, but certainly not the last! I have known her for 55 years, and of all my friends from that period who were here for that mini-reunion, I think she and I have the most in common in the way we think, and even live our lives.

Now, if I believed in coincidences, I’d say that was one. But since I don’t, I will say that gratitude brought grace, in the form of this lovely note, and the gift card. Here I was going to Home Depot to spend a bunch of money which always makes me shake, lol. But the shaking was totally alleviated by her kind act.

So I went and bought 6 herbs, an aloe plant, and an assortment of 8 succulents, as well as the peat moss basket to put them in that I can then hang from the banyan tree in my back yard. I’m so excited!!! I also got some fertilizer and the couple household things I needed. The picture is the plants I bought on my deck table so I could send her a picture of what her gift card brought me.

I later told my son about the experience, and his comment was, “That was the Universe working for you Mom.” I love that he knows…..

Dan, of course, said, yes, it’s her way of showing HER gratitude.  As if it were not an amazing manifestation of how the universe brings us what we attract. Well yes, of course, it was her gratitude! But no matter whose gratitude caused it (and personally, I think it was both hers and mine) it was grace that it came to me. How could one deny that? I feel sorry for people who are unable to grasp the amazing way in which the universe works, creating a circle where what you send out comes back to you. My friend’s gratitude, combined with my own gratitude, and grace which follows. I feel like she also will experience grace as well.  Maybe she already has! She usually reads my blog, so maybe she’ll comment about it some time.

This morning, as the sun came up and brought with it a dramatic pink and grey glowing sunrise. I feel so blessed. I’m planning to plant all the plants today, and I’m so excited about it! Even though it’s chilly today I will totally enjoy doing it, and will plant them all with care.

Thank you Karen. Love you!

And, as always, love and light to all.