I have worked as a medical secretary all my life. Over recent years, though, my pay packet has gone to support our cattle breeding business, which began with high hopes a few years back. I expected to be retired by now, but an extended drought in Australia has delayed our hopes for huge income, and blown our debts out to an outrageous amount. So I’m still working.

Every morning for twenty years I have collected the mail for the office, and every time there is a large or largish parcel in the letterbox, I declare: “Choccies for Judy!” – but for 20 years it has never been chocolates, nor has it even been my mail.

A few weeks ago I was in despair about our burgeoning debts and the fact that I would never be able to retire. I was in a black pit of worry and negativity. I finally downloaded The Secret audio book and listened to it on the train on my way to work. Within a day or so I was sold, looking back at all the times the Universe and my thoughts had been at work without my realising it, both good and bad. We had expected to make a fortune out of our cattle business, and had done so for the first year or so. But we had somehow lost faith and listened to all the doom-sayers about the drought, and things had stopped dead. And now I recognised what damage I was doing with my black pit of worry, and knew unless I made drastic changes in my thinking I would be working until I dropped.

I started small. I declared – and began believing – that I WOULD receive choccies in the letterbox within a month. I set to and made all sorts of changes in my life and thinking. I knew I would soon own my own house – I began to think of it as Scrooge McDuck’s money bin, and found when I went to draw an imaginary dollar sign on the front door that the decorative arch window set in the door was the perfect shape for the top of the dollar sign. It was like the dollar sign was already there but I hadn’t noticed it before. I went to download a picture of the Money Bin from the internet and found not only a picture but the actual floor plan of the building drawn by the original author! Everywhere I went I felt a cloud over my head – showering gold coins down on me. I would apologise to people who stood next to me and brush errant coins from their shoulders as if they had accidentally fallen on them too. Then I realised that the shower wasn’t falling down from above, but was coming from within myself, shooting in a fountain from the top of my head and then falling down around me, so that I had to shuffle through coins and notes like autumn leaves.

I changed my thinking, my husband’s thinking, I became happy and couldn’t help singing “Joyful Joyful” all day long. That made my husband happy too, and as he felt better so did I! We both said “thank you, thank you” for everything in our lives.

We went out to a Rotary function, where they held a small raffle with several prizes. I looked down the list of prizes and decided I wanted the fourth prize, a teddy with a box of chocolates. First prize went to the person on our table sitting opposite me. Second prize went to her husband. Third prize went to the next table – but to someone seated elbow to elbow with our first prize winner. I won the teddy and chocolates and I felt like the Universe had sent me a very strong message! They were my chocolates. And my granddaughter’s “other” grandmother, who was with us, told me that when she had asked Elouise what she wanted for her birthday, she had said she really wanted a nice soft teddy to take to bed with her… The Universe had answered Elouise too! Then I won the table decoration spot and gave the roses to the other grandmother.

Other things began happening. I had been trying for weeks to get tickets to one of the shows in town, but each time I tried I could not get decent seats, nor could I decide between two shows. Having won the chocolates, I declared: Now I am going to get good seats for the most expensive show for my wedding anniversary. I logged on, found some information about a theatre package that I had been trying to locate previously but it hadn’t been listed. I bought two tickets in prime seats and a very good deal with dinner and other perks and was very happy. Then a window popped up on my screen that said because I had purchased the premium package, I was now entitled to buy tickets to the other show I had been interested in for a quarter the price. So I contacted some friends, bought four tickets for the other show as well on a different night – and those tickets turned out to be in the front row! We had a ball both nights.

On the day of my anniversary I went into work in the morning and there was a large package in my letterbox. It was addressed to me.

It was chocolates for my wedding anniversary.

Nah-nah, nah-nah, nah-nah, nah-nah (er, that’s supposed to be the Twilight Zone theme!)

PS: This has all happened in the past two weeks. In that time we have received more export orders than for the whole of last year. I heard my husband say, “I can’t afford to buy that bull” and I jumped on him straight away and said, “Of course we can, we CAN afford it!” We bought the bull and a whole continent has opened up with orders for his progeny.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you.