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Reaffirm The Magic.
Submitted by: Lori
FloridaI'm an author of romance and young adult books.
About fifteen years ago I realized I wanted to be an author. It was my calling, and once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. The problem was, as so many people told me, there was no money in writing books, and the chance of getting published was extremely low. In other words, don’t get your hopes up.
Still, for ten years I wrote, trying to get my romance and young adult books published with little success. My husband was anxious about our dwindling money, which made me stressed. We weren’t living the life we wanted or imagined.
Then two things happened: I found The Secret book, and I found self-publishing. When I read The Secret I realized that my entire life I’d been negative, playing the victim like so many of my friends and family. While I was letting life happen to me, The Secret taught me that I needed to take charge, that I was in control. It was eye-opening and magical. The book also opened my mind to possibilities I would have before ignored for fear of failure.
Because I wasn’t making the money I wanted with my writing career and no N.Y. publishers interested in my work, I decided to take matters into my own hands and self-publish. I did it despite the fact that my fellow writers told me I’d never make any money if my books were self-published, and I’d lose respect from the writing community. Boy, were they wrong!
For three years I made over $100,000, topping out at $160,000 one year! I went from making $5,000 a year, to making six figures! My husband’s stress eased and our relationship grew stronger. We were able to take our son on trips to Hawaii, Alaska, and Ireland. We were also able to help family by giving them money and taking them on vacations with us. Best of all, we were able to buy a small house a block from the beach in Florida! It was a dream come true. Perfect, right?
Then things started to go downhill. The problem was that I didn’t monitor my thoughts. I became busy, stressed, and the negative feelings started to seep back in. I let those pessimistic friends and family get into my head. I’d been so excited about sharing my fortune, but some of my friends and family became jealous of my good luck. They weren’t used to the new, positive, happy me, and they didn’t like it!
With my sour mood, my book sales plummeted. Money faded away. Yes, we still had our house in Florida, but it needed work, and without the money, we couldn’t fix it up as we’d planned. My husband’s mood shifted, and he became anxious again. Even our son was starting to feel the strain. I knew we needed to get back on track for my son’s benefit, my husband’s, and mine.
As the new year rolled around, I made up a long list of things I wanted to accomplish. The most important thing on that list was to start being positive again; to take back control. I bought ‘How The Secret Changed My Life’ to listen to in the car. I started playing it every time we went somewhere, whether my husband and son wanted to or not. While listening to the CDs, I decided I’d start out small and ask the Universe for a spotted feather.
I’d seen spotted feathers that had fallen off woodpeckers while growing up in the northern U.S, but I was a block from the beach in Florida. Woodpeckers were rarely seen by the beach. I wasn’t sure how the feather would get to me, but I decided to just let it go and believe.
Two days after deciding I was going to find a spotted feather, my husband and I were walking in our neighborhood. “Look!” he said, pointing to a feather alongside the road. There it was, or so I thought. I bent down to pick up the white feather with the perfect gray spots only to realize that it was actually a white feather with tiny circles of dew drops. We both laughed. But I wasn’t disappointed. I knew that it was just a reminder from the Universe to keep believing.
Four days later, it happened.
We were downtown in our small beach community, appreciating the amazing place where we lived. We’d just eaten at a great restaurant, and I was feeling incredibly happy and grateful. As we left, my husband said he wanted to take a picture of the front of the restaurant. I told him to go ahead and that our son and I would wait for him. I was admiring our surroundings as my son chatted next to me, when I happened to glance down.
There it was. My feather. And this time it was real! I couldn’t help but be in awe as I scooped up my gift and showed it to my husband and son. There were no other feathers on the ground. It was the only one, and it had been at my feet. It wasn’t a woodpecker feather. Not even close. It was small feather, dyed bright purple with little dots. It certainly stood out! I didn’t know how it had gotten there, but I knew it was waiting there for me.
Finding my feather has only reaffirmed my desire to get back on track and enjoy my life, as I should. As we all should.
So if you’re tired of the negativity, what do you have to lose? I know it works. I’ve experienced the magic. I realize the amazing possibilities, and I can’t wait to see what the Universe brings me next.
And remember, it’s okay to fall. Just make sure you stand back up, dust yourself off, and look for your feather. It will be waiting!