A few days ago my son and I returned to our home in Hanover, Ontario after spending two weeks living in Mazatlan, Mexico. This story is about finding a way to see the gifts that are already in your midst.

We live in this small town because I thought rural life was the best choice for my son’s upbringing, and he has many great friends at a wonderful community oriented school and is thriving. I have struggled with finding my niche in the community and, after four years of living here, have few friends and no sense of purpose in the community. Prior to being a parent I travelled extensively. When my parents offered to pay for airfare and let us stay on their pull out couch in Mexico I jumped at the opportunity!

While in Mexico we stayed with my parents in their apartment in the old downtown area and met many of my parents friends; Mexican people, Americans and Canadians like us. The friendships among the people we met were beautiful. Some snowbirds, some Americans living full time in Mexico and some Mexicans, supporting one another in so many ways, all helping to ensure the well being of each other through morning coffee meetings (beside the ocean!), phone calls, emails, and meetings for potato-on-the-street-dinner or at one of many local fundraising activities.

Most of my parents friends are over 60 and they were active like teenagers! These people were living the themes in The Secret without having read it!

As well as enjoying dinners in restaurants and time at the beach, my son and I found volunteer work while we were there and tried to experience as much as we could. I was especially drawn to work projects focused on the families who work at the dump. Through both the organization that spearheaded these volunteer projects and our interactions with Mexican families my son and I encountered a deep feeling of optimism and community. Despite their circumstances we met people who smiled brightly and laughed openly with us! We couldn’t communicate with words, but it was evident that we were accepting of one another, our differences didn’t create barriers, because there was something greater working between us that enabled us to be respectful and kind to one another.

The universal power of The Secret is alive and well, even among the poorest of the poor in Mazatlan! The openness of the people I met, in general, to joy, was evident. For example, on Saturday evenings the central square came alive with singing and dancing! Parents and children were out until midnight together having fun! I am so grateful for having two weeks in Mazatlan and for the sense of community I witnessed while there!

So when it came time to return to the small town where my son and I live I had difficulty. I cried the first day back in my home because I felt lonely, purposeless and displaced. I wanted to be in Mexico working with the volunteer group. I’m a teacher, presently unemployed, and I felt real passion for starting a Class for the people who worked at the dump. I want to be part of a group of people who cares for one another and I saw that among my parents friends and within the culture of the Mexicans I met in Mazatlan.

Here at home I have struggled to find like-minded people. Remembering core points relayed in The Secret is habit for me now, but since moving to this small town I have felt sad due to isolation and lack of meaningful involvement.

While trying to find the positives through my low feelings after being in Mexico, life carried on as usual with my son back to school. Yesterday I tried to start my old Jeep to pick my son up from school. It’s a 20 minute drive away. I was to pick up 3 of his friends as well and deliver them to the library where their mother works. My Jeep wouldn’t start! I texted the librarian-mom and she sprang into action, closing the library for a short time, driving to the school and taking the children to the library where she had to finish her shift! Three hours away my friend was working in Hamilton. He texted me with hints and suggestions to get the Jeep going, to no avail. At 8:00pm the librarian-mom offered to take my son home with her children and take him back to school this morning. My son was thrilled with the impromptu sleepover! My Hamilton friend was en route to fix my Jeep. He had already worked all day, drove three hours to my house, fixed my Jeep, which took the entire evening, and had to wake up at 5:30 am to return to work!

I am so grateful for the support that got my son and I through the past 24 hours!

I realize how very well cared for I am! My community is all around me in this vast rural landscape! We can’t sing and dance together in the central square or meet every morning for coffee beside the ocean, because of distance, but we hold one another in our hearts in the very same ways that I experienced in Mexico!

I have started brainstorming ways for my son and I to return to Mazatlan for a month to organize a class for the Mexicans who work at the dump. I have also started considering how I can build on the community and opportunities to find purpose right here in the Hanover area! Maybe I can connect local school children to Mexican school children! Through the kindness of two people, right here in my community, who supported me, I feel hope and am able to see possibilities!

The power of The Secret multiplies, as my friends did for me, I wish to do for others! The gift of The Secret is already all around me and you, just be open to it and it will reveal itself! I know that everything I need is already within my reach, I just have to open my eyes and heart to see it!

I hope you will feel enabled to open yourself to all the gifts that touch your life right now, and find the very things you desire too.