Rubber Duckies and Pinecones

I've been re-taking Science of Mind classes, the 100 series this fall and Winter, and have been having good and interesting experiences.

David, our teacher, talks about manifesting "rubber duckies" as first tests. "Go for the rubber duckies first", he says, "then try for the Titanic, for the Himalayas. But really, it's all rubber duckies. One's as easy as the other to manifest. You just have to convince yourself that you can do it."

So. After he said this, I got to thinking. And I readjusted my goals, some of my expectations when it comes to client load and filling up my schedule. I backed it off to what I through I could reasonably expect and still call it a small stretch for me, a Rubber Duckie. And lo and behold, it's been much more attainable!

But my biggest Rubber Duckie came just before the San Francisco trip. My friend, Drake, whom I had met at a gay men's shamanic workshop in NY is always sending me gifts and books, that kind of thing. When we were at the workshop, we both partnered up for a partner journey to retrieve a talisman for each other. He retrieved corn for me which I've written about in an earlier post. For him, I retrieved a redwood pinecone. It was very distinctive; little squatty thing that I've never actually seen with my own eyes, but in journey it was crystal clear. Turns out that redwood pinecones are very, very important to him also. So, thought I'd try and bring him an actual one on this trip. There are a couple of Dawn Redwoods in town (gen. metasequoia), and back in the fall I noticed that one of them had pinecones on it just like I'd seen in my journey. The night before leaving for San Francisco I drove by to see if I could get one, but having waited all these months, there were none. Crushed! I could picture those pinecones in crystal clarity! I just knew that I'd find one there for my trip! But no. Irked that I'd arrive empty-handed, I just let it go and went home to pack with the vague hope that I'd be able to find some one I'd actually gotten there. I literally just let the whole idea go.

And then.

Zootsie had gone on a Muir Woods tour on Friday, a tour I was going to go on too but had missed since I got stuck in LA the night before. When we got up on Saturday morning to prepare for our rehearsal at Grace, she told me all about the trip and the wine-tasting that went with it and then said, "Oh. I thought you might like this. I picked it up yesterday" and handed me a branch of redwood with five perfect little pinecones attached. Five is my favorite number. And the pinecones were perfect! My first perfect manifestation, a Rubber Duckie without doubt, and just in time for me to bring them along the next night to drumming to give to Drake. It was the perfect confirmation to me that bigger things are possible. The way in which I visualized, how I felt, and how it all came about were mini lessons in and of themselves. I couldn't have asked for better :-)



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