Part III: These Shoes Weren’t Meant for Walking

I know I promised in Part II that I would walk you through that next synchronistic door to my waiting career. But I remembered a story from this New York experience that I have shared with my students in the past and I feel that the prosperity lesson it teaches is too important not to include here. So let's stay in New York a bit longer before returning to the West Coast...

During my stay in Manhattan, I planned to have dinner with a former acquaintance that I hadn’t seen in years - not since I had lived in that city eight years earlier.

Now, I have to share a personal detail here about myself in order to relate this story and its lesson…

It’s not easy for me to find fashionable (high heeled) dressy shoes that fit me comfortably, but I had a pair of dress heels custom-altered by a shoemaker to fit me and took them on my trip. They were precious to me and I took them to New York to wear with suits for dressy occasions. When packing for my trip, I really didn't know if there would be any dressy occasions, but even back then I believed in "stepping out in faith" (pun intended), so I packed an outfit and the shoes just in case.

Well, I was meeting this former friend in a restaurant that evening and carried the shoes in a tote bag so that I could change into them when I got to the restaurant. I wore my evening outfit because I was invited to meet someone else at a very high-class art auction later on that night, so I would be wearing the dress shoes at that time, also. Please recall that this was New York in January and the streets were covered with snow, sleet and ice, so I was wearing good solid rubber soled rain boots while traveling to my destinations (and also while taking invigorating walks around the city).

I arrived at the restaurant by taxi and as soon as the taxi took off, I realized I had left the tote bag with the shoes on the back seat. You have to understand how important those shoes were to me at the time. I can’t go into a store and buy dressy shoes at any given moment like most people. Those shoes were the only pair I had brought that could be worn to the dressy functions. Well, of course, fear set in and the first thing I did was go running like a crazy person down the icy street after the taxi, yelling for anyone to “Stop that taxi!”– just like in the movies. What a picture that must have been! Well, it was New York City – like, who cares? And of course the taxi sped away. The chances of ever seeing that taxi again were – well, I don’t need to tell you that.

I returned and found my friend in the restaurant and after hugs and greetings and getting seated, I excused myself to go to the restroom where I was hoping I could be alone to meditate for a few moments. The first thing I did was to say to myself, to my conscious mind, something I had heard over the years: “There is no loss in Divine Mind”. I was still quite shaken about the shoes being gone, but I kept repeating “There is no loss in Divine Mind” until I relaxed and released the fear of the loss. This is called a “denial thought” and many of the New Thought teachings use these denial thoughts in order to counteract the negative situation before using the positive affirmations. We use a denial thought to initially claim that the appearance just isn’t so. You are reasoning with your own conscious mind – claiming that the appearance is not so and denying that it is the truth about you. This technique allows you to remove (dissolve) the initial fear so that you can then start using your positive affirmations to influence the subconscious to accept and create what you want. It also allows you to quiet your mind so that you may listen for inner guidance.

Once I settled down and became quiet, I began saying positive affirmations about the shoes, something like “Those shoes are mine…they belong to me…they were specially made for me as a gift from the Universe, and they are here in my possession right now. They are mine.” I then released the matter and went back to dine with my friend.

About an hour into our dinner, as we were talking, suddenly a young black man showed up at our table (he must have looked around until he found us in the busy restaurant) and reached out to me with the tote, saying, “You left these in my taxi.” He apologized that it took so long to get them to me, but he had made a trip to Brooklyn before he discovered them in the cab. This young man came all the way back to Manhattan to bring me those shoes.

Although I have studied the laws for so many years and believe that miracles are very natural, not supernatural, the impact of that moment had an incredibly profound effect on me and I actually had to fight back tears (as I am doing again as I tell this story). The tears were for a combination of things:

(1) For yet another realization of the law and the confirmation of how it works when we work IT.

(2) For the fact that this young driver, although playing his appropriate role in my manifestation, was tuned in enough to his own guidance and kind enough to be a part of this manifestation. Why did I happen to have that particular taxi driver? Everyone knows the reputation of New York taxi drivers. They don’t do what he did. How the Universe made sure I was protected!

(3) I was so happy to see those shoes, which were irreplaceable at that moment in time, in the heart of winter in New York City. I realized so clearly at that moment that what belongs to us is truly ours and when we accept it as ours, it cannot be separated from us. There is truly no loss in Divine Mind.

The lesson again in this story…

By initially stating, “There is no loss in Divine Mind”, yes, I was using the word “loss” which may seem like a negative, but I was using it to counteract the outer appearance and my fearful flustered feelings. I was putting up an argument with my own mind to deny my loss thoughts. Understand? I was having a conversation with myself to reason with myself about my beliefs. Then when I became relaxed and released fear by reasoning this way, I used my positive affirmations to accept what I wanted my reality to be.

Oh, by the way, I almost forgot…The young taxi driver got a VERY generous reward from me for his actions. When he handed me the tote bag, he started to walk away and I had to call him back. He didn’t even have the thought of a reward in mind!! He brought me back the shoes because he was a good person but he was also playing the role that the Universe had for him in this instance – the role that was determined by the producer of the play – me.

God moves in mysterious ways,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

~ William Cowper, English poet

To be continued…

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