I was talking with some new friends the other day about how the theme of this trip of mine has been “I don’t know what I’m doing.”  Truly, I didn’t have a clue (and mostly – still don’t).  As much as I joke, it has been a little scary to just hit the road by myself and hope for the best.  But what I’ve come to quickly realize is that I’m not really alone.  There’s a whole world full of great people out there who just seem to appear when I need help with something.  For example, last week when I was stuck on that railroad access road in near Kansas City, a man just showed up to help.  The consistency with which this has continued to happen the past week deserves a post because, well, it’s cool.

When I got to the campground last week, I introduced myself to the campground host, Susie, and picked out a spot.  I couldn’t reserve a spot at the campground I wanted to stay in (all the spots were first come, first serve), but when I got here, there were plenty of spaces available.  However…they were all back-in spots (if you’ve been following my fledgling blog, you’re aware of my use of the term “shit show” to describe what happens anytime I put my truck in reverse with the trailer attached).  I figured – good time to practice, right? It might take me an hour, and I might jackknife or need a wine break, but I’d get it… eventually.  I pulled up to the site, got out to survey it, tried to come up with a plan, gave myself a pep talk, wiped my sweaty palms on my shorts, and got back in.  Just as I put the truck in reverse, Susie drove up in her golf cart with a man who was staying in another campsite.  She introduced him as “Ken” and told me he would help guide me back into the spot.

I hadn’t said anything about needing help backing in (although I certainly did), and then help just shows up.

I’ve needed help figuring out what was wrong with my solar system (more on that in a future post), and was able to find a local guy who specializes in off-grid solar installs.  Not only did he come out to my site to help me figure out what was wrong, but he drove home and brought back an extra solar panel to charge the battery on the tongue of my trailer while I’m here (so I could have lights at night while the deep cycle batteries hooked up to my solar panels recovered from the hell I inadvertently put them through… #dontrunyourfridgeonbatteries).

A couple days ago, Chloe had a little accident.  I was inside the trailer and she was chained up outside, exploring.  She didn’t realize I had the screen door shut and tried jumping through it. She rebounded, fell hard, and hurt her leg.  I won’t go into the virtual dog mom meltdown that ensued.  I found a local vet online and called.  They were unable to see me, but gave me the number to another vet that was able to get us in that morning.  Chloe is fine – still limping, but she’s getting better.

I was talking with the camp host about what I’d done to my batteries (overdischarged).  A guy who had overheard our conversation walked up and explained that he was also on solar and kept a generator to top off his batteries on the rare occasion he overdischarged them.  He then offered to let me use his generator to top mine off.

I drove around town looking for the place to refill my propane tanks and couldn’t find it because Siri was giving me worthless directions.  I was on the side of the road trying to figure out where the business was actually located when a woman walked up to my truck and asked, “do you need your tanks filled?”  I was about two blocks away – she worked at the propane place and was just out on break.  She told me where the station was located, followed me over, and filled the tanks for me.

Two days ago, I was feeling a little lonely and thought, “I’d really like some people to hang out with tonight.”  Not more than 10 minutes later, my camp neighbor knocked on my door and invited me over to a cookout she was having.  I went over, got to meet several great people, and had a wonderful time.

Several years ago, I started reading about the law of attraction when “The Secret” was really big, but was turned off by the emphasis on superficial and monetary goals.  The idea that I could will exotic cars or fancy mansions into my existence seemed kind of hollow.  One of the suggestions in the book was to write a check to yourself for x amount of dollars and post it in a location you would see it every day.  By maintaining conscious focus and energy on that check, you would attract the money you desired into your life.

That’s kind of where Rhonda Byrne lost me.

I revisited the concept a couple years ago when I was on a self-help book binge (really, if you saw my Audible account….), but this time, I listened to “The Law of Attraction” by Esther and Jerry Hicks.  I’m not going to lie – it’s pretty woo woo (the material is the product of channeled messages to Esther Hicks from a group of “nonphysical beings”), but once you get past the idea of off-planet beings speaking telepathically to a woman chosen to share their messages to the world (which I actually found pretty cool), there is great wisdom and substance in the book.  The essence of the law of attraction is that you get what you give.  If you put out feelings of worry, fear, and anxiety, you attract into your life those very experiences that you are worried, fearful, or anxious about.  In this way, you create your reality.  If you believe the world is a dangerous place full of people out to get you – it will be.  If you believe that life is a beautiful experience, full of wonder and love, that is what your life experience will be like.  If you expect that your needs will always be met, and that the right people will just show up in your life when you need them to – you’ll have experiences similar to what I described above.  I call this type of living intentional.

I believe that each of us are magnets, attracting in what we put out, whether or not we’re conscious of it.  Because we live in a pretty negative society, we begin to attract by default if we’re not careful.  For example, if you watch the news, it’s pretty easy to become convinced that the world is terrible, that people suck, that we’re on the brink of a nuclear disaster or civil war, etc., etc., blah blah blah.  Because that’s what you’re taking in, you start walking around believing these things – and then you begin to attract other people into your life who have similar views.  Now you’ve got a group of buddies to sit around and commiserate with, talking about how awful life is, increasing the attracting power of those things – and you can’t seem to figure out why crap always seems to happen to you.  Life delivers what you expect from it.  When you live with intention, and expect wonderful people, serendipitous experiences, and fulfillment of your needs, you will attract those things.

The idea of intentional living is something I wish I had learned much sooner, as I could have probably bypassed a lot of struggle.  For most of my life, I believed that I was just one of those people who had bad luck, not realizing there was no such thing as luck.

If you’ve never tried practicing intention, I recommend it.  It’s a game changer when you realize that life is what you choose it to be.  As you begin to become very conscious of the way you look at things and how you react to people and experiences, you’ll naturally become a better, more positive person, and the experiences you attract into your life will reflect this.  Expect a wonderful life, because that is what you deserve 😉