If You Build It…

by Skimming

Do you remember that line from Field of Dreams?  The movie with Kevin Costner from the late 1980s about a farmer who built a baseball field and brought back these ghostly old baseball players and ultimately his father.  It’s a bit of a hokey movie with some good moments, but that line is so relevant to my life these days:

If you build it, he will come.

In Kevin Costner’s character’s case, the “it” was a baseball field in his cornfields.  And “he” was at first thought to be his childhood hero Shoeless Joe Jackson but actually turned out to be his father, with whom he had had a tense relationship.  The story is all about resolving the relationship with his father through the magic of baseball.

In my case, the “it” is all this research, networking, connecting, intending, planning, yoga-ing, and willing.  And the “he” is my desired life.  And as I continue to do all that research, networking, connecting, intending, planning, yoga-ing, and willing, things are slowly but surely happening.

It’s amazing how when you put intentions out there in the universe, the universe provides in unpredictable ways.  I wrote about intentions and the universe giving before, and these themes just keep coming back in my life.  Working with intentions and putting my trust in the universe is constantly comes up in my yoga practice, too.  So I just can’t avoid these concepts, not only because they are in my mind theoretically but also because things keep happening that confirm the power of intentions.

Today I had lunch with a former colleague, talking about some of the work he’s doing and also about some of what I’m hoping to get involved with.  I shared with him that I had contacted a woman who was doing work that I really admired and wanted to get involved with.  I read an article about her, found her email, and just did a cold contact to her to see if I could meet and talk with her and get involved in her work.  So it turns out that my friend had had breakfast with her this very morning and actually was working with her on one of the projects that he had just finished talking to me about!!!  What?!?!?  What are the chances of that?

This kind of thing has been happening to me so frequently that I wasn’t even THAT surprised.

Another example is that I’ve been going to some yoga classes this week; and at each class, the teacher has shared a teaching or an intention that directly relates to where I am in my life.  I mean, spot on.  As if she is talking directly to me and me alone.  I think that’s the power of yoga teachings, that they relate to everyone in their own way, and great teachers can channel the universe to give each student what she or he needs at that moment in time.

One more example (there are more, trust me, but I have limited space)– I downloaded a book to read that I had on my list of books to read (referred by friends over this past year, especially)– Urban Homesteading by Rachel Kaplan and K. Ruby Blume.  It’s an amazing read so far, totally resonating with every particle and vibration of my being.  I started reading it yesterday and then today I got an email from a listserve I’m on that Rachel Kaplan is doing a workshop on urban homesteading and making a life that is more sustainable and connected to the earth and people.  I can’t make the workshop, but it’s just funny that I started reading this book and then got a ping from the universe that these women are alive and well and continuing with their mission.

I feel like there are light bulbs going off in my head everyday, several times a day.  Epiphanies.  Realizations.  Reminders that I’m onto something here.  Nothing really tangible like a guaranteed job or an apartment that is vacant and really cheap (those would be great signs!) but more like these gentle acknowledgements from the universe that I’m on the right track.

So I continue to build, even though I’m not exactly sure what I’m building.  Just trusting that it’s coming from my core and trusting that it WILL be something meaningful, worthwhile, and life-sustaining.