For many years, I have talked about the power of “The Universe”. It is one of my core beliefs. I do believe, as Gabby Bernstein would say, the Universe has my back. I have taught my children the same thing.
One son thinks I am crazy.
“Seriously, Mom, I don’t know why you are always saying that,” his voice becomes drawn and teenager-esq. He makes the words form strange shapes and somehow those shapes feel insulting and shameful. “I don’t believe in that, okay?” I always nod, and pinch my mouth in such a way as to say, “Sure, believe what you want…it’s at your detriment.”
My younger son, on the other hand, is convinced. He sees the Universe in everything, even when I don’t necessarily see it. A ball will roll across the street, and he will attribute it to the Universe, or he will see a full moon when he is taking out the trash and he will call it good fortune from the Universe. Sometimes he makes the Universe sound more like a Karma Santa Claus who rewards him for his good deeds and thoughts. There’s nothing inherently wrong about this, but I just want to make sure I have not overshot things a bit, but then things happen, like yesterday…
Jonah accompanied me to pick up Cole from track practice and drive him (Cole) half an hour to his therapy appointment. We sat in the car waiting for practice to get over. Minutes passed and I slowly realized we were going to be very late for Cole’s appointment. My anger became more intense as the clock strayed closer and closer to 5 pm.
“This is crazy,” I yelled. “We are going to be so late.” I texted Cole’s therapist and she said it was fine. Her six o’clock canceled. She could run over Cole’s appointment, but this would mean Brian would have to stay later at practice because he was the one who was going to pick Cole up. The time-stacking scheduling was falling apart before my eyes as more minutes passed away. “This is so irresponsible” I yelled to no one in particular.
“Mom, what time is it?” Jonah asked.
“Jonah, you can see what time it is,” I answered, but I realized what he was doing.
“Mom, what day is it?” I chuckled slightly. He was asking me questions. Through his own therapy, he learned that when you ask people questions, you move them out of the reptilian part of the brain and move them to the frontal lobe where rational thought can happen. He repeats this with me when I am angry to help me with “spiraling”. So we go through the questions, and I feel a bit calmer, but I am also still very agitated. Finally, Cole arrives and we drive through traffic to get him there. After we drop him off, we stick around because I told Brian to just go home so he doesn’t have to stay an extra forty-five minutes post his track practice.
Since we have some time to kill, we go and visit a shopping center to look around. We go to a pet shop, Starbucks, and then a cute little chocolate shop I had never been to before. The tiny store is between a gyro place and the pet store, and I am lured in by the smell as well as the look of the chocolate-filled glass cases. Inside is even better. Handmade truffles all beautifully arranged and created sit in boxes and on trays. Jonah and I pick out a box for gifts as well as a box for ourselves, and I giggle as we individually select flavors for our small box of only six. It’s so much fun and we have such a great time, the woman behind the counter gives us two truffles for free.
As we are driving back to get Cole from his appointment, Jonah asks, “Hey, Mom, if Cole wasn’t so late from practice would we have gone shopping and checked out that little chocolate store?”
“No, buddy,” I answered. “We only did that because we had to wait to pick Cole up because I didn’t want Brian to have to stay so late at work. Oh!” I responded.
“Yep,” he replied. “It’s the Universe. See you were all mad and look at all the good that happened. We got free truffles from that really nice lady. We would never have even met her.”
I smiled and wondered why the Universe would reward me for being so impatient. “I definitely don’t think I passed any impatience test today,” I said.
“Maybe the Universe wasn’t rewarding anyone,” he said. “Maybe it just wanted us to be happy.”
“Yeah,” I answered because I really liked that answer. “That sounds really good because I definitely feel very happy.”
“And the Universe got me my first large caramel macchiato,” he said.
Love and Light, All!
The Wandering Empath 