Trusting the Power of Intention

Since last six months I have started recognizing the power of intention. I have experienced that whenever I sent out a sincere heartfelt wish, it gets arranged by the universe in some time. Here is what I experienced in three different situations.

***
That day it was September 17th and I was missing my mother a lot on her 11th death anniversary. In that moment I felt like writing something about my mother; what she was to me.

I heard myself making a wish that the dedication be up on my blog by September 21st (7 pm PST); so that my family (in India) could read it on the morning of my mother’s date of birth i.e., September 22nd.

I knew that one day out of those 5 days ahead, I was going to be on the road. So I had 4 days to write all I wished to; that too only 6 hours of each of those 4 days (when my kids would be away to their schools) totaling to 24 hours.

It was a wonderful-yet-strange experience completing that heartfelt dedication in 24 hours. I found myself writing with tears rolling out of eyes. Sometimes the visibility was so poor that, I could not even see the keyboard. But I typed and typed.

On the morning of September 21st, it was a Friday. My 9 year old daughter had a holiday and 4 year old son was in his preschool. While I was contemplating on how to keep her busy after breakfast; I felt that a magic wand put her to sleep. It was unbelievable, my daughter continued to sleep (out of her choice) till lunch hour while I wrote.

Just after lunch, one of my daughter’s friend’s mother called up to ask, if she could pick my daughter for her daughter’s birthday party. I was hesitant to trust the stranger-mom especially because none of my children had ever gone to a birthday party without either of the parents. However, I felt secured (regarding my daughter’s environmental allergies) by the way that physician-mom talked to me in person. I sent my daughter away to have fun at the birthday party.

My husband offered to pick up my daughter on his way back from the birthday party.

Around the same time another parent of my son’s classmate (in preschool) called me up to sync up a play date at her house for the evening. I knew my 4 year old shy son was a close friend of her son. But still I was hesitant to drop him off at another stranger-mom’s home.

I planned to sit in their backyard and edit while the kids played inside the home. But when I reached there, I found the house was clean, safe and siblings were having fun within limits. I felt a comfortable yes flowing out from within. My son waved me bye from the playing area and told me that like a big boy he would visit the restroom periodically while playing.

I went to the neighborhood park and started editing the dedication in the sinking sunlight. After an hour, I called up their home. The mother informed me that the kids wanted to play for another hour. My son repeated the same request and asked for my permission to eat the food she had cooked. I heard my "yes" coming out.

Once home, I started working hard and fast. Just then the door bell rang downstairs. I ignored it thinking they were my daughter’s friends. Next time the bell and my cell phone rang simultaneously. I took the phone call from my neighbor, who was ringing my door bell. Without getting into any formalities, I took the key from her hands to be given to somebody the next day, closed the door and rushed back to work.

I was in tears of joy, while putting up the dedication on my blog and emailing the link to my family members in India.

When I was driving to pick up my son, I sensed with gratitude that favorable circumstances had been especially arranged to fulfill my intention.

***

During my return journey from India, it occurred to me that my holiday was actually going to get over. I knew that after the next 11 hours (flying from Frankfurt to Los Angeles), the moment I would reach US, it would be the same old routine and responsibilities for me. In that moment it struck me that even though I know that I am not able to sit or sleep comfortably on the cushioned seats of the aircraft (because of my back injury); but instead of complaining I should choose to do something that is fun before my holiday terminates.

I knew my children and husband will eat, watch a movie and sleep; something I cannot do. So may be I should go around and have fun, enjoy all the infants on the flight, talk to the crew members and just hang around and write; without even thinking about my disability to sit or sleep. I heard myself saying, “I am going to have fun during this longest flight of my return journey.”

Once I was inside the plane, I found myself smiling when most of the other passengers were complaining about the anticipated long-killer flight.

After the first meal was served, I started following my plan. When most of the passengers in my cabin (lower level executive class) started getting ready to sleep, I stepped out of my seat and started conversing with the friendly crew. They talked about their lives on the ground when they are not flying high in the air. Those conversations were really fun and informative.

Then, I stepped out of the executive class to take a walk down the economy class. I started with my favorite i.e., playing with the infants sitting in the bassinets. While I was doing that, I saw the food cart coming towards me. I decided to interrupt my joyful interaction and move out of the way.

I found myself climbing stairs to take a walk on the upper level of the executive class. When I reached there, I was surprised to find that there were only four passengers. That gave me an idea that I could lie down on the area in front of the emergency exit door (like poor people sleeping on the side walk in India). That way my body would get the much needed rest and I would still be out of the way of passengers walking by.

I came down and shared this idea with my friendly crew members in the lower level. The lower level crew head immediately contacted the upper level crew head.

The crew head upstairs turned out to be not so kind and asked me to lie down in between the two seats. The seats were broad enough for me to squeeze in, but had three humps (protecting the cables under them) thereby making it not such a rosy bed. I knew that my body was crying for some rest. Therefore, I decided to lie down on my only choice of bed. I spread layers of blankets on the floor, took one on top of me, used my yoga blocks to support my feet and covered the eyes with my fleece jacket.

After 10 minutes of trying to sleep, I suddenly heard something fall. I thought it must be someone’s luggage dropping down from the cabin (above) during turbulence. When I removed my jacket from the eyes, it was all dark around me. I realized that something had fallen right on top of my face and “that something” was the front seat. All crew members came running when I called for help.

They lifted the fallen seat and helped me come out. I was told that the upper level crew head had allowed some sick passenger from economy class to come and sit there. However, when that passenger tried to open the seat, something snapped out and instead of 135°, the seat opened to 180°. Luckily it stopped just a few centimeters above my nose and the padding of my jacket saved my nose from getting injured.

I declared to the panicky crew, I refuse to sleep in between any seats. It was then that not-so-friendly head of the crew upstairs yielded and allowed me to lie down in front of the emergency exit area which was twice in width, smooth (no humps) and had no passengers sitting on the either of its four sides.

When I was preparing my make-shift bed in that area for a relaxing nap, I knew my intention had been heard and arranged for.

***

During my recent trip to India, I was trying to locate an old classmate from school. I was sincerely trying to reach him to make an apology for a long-forgotten-but-freshly-realized mistake committed by me; for which he had to suffer (during our high school years together).

But the only information I had was his first name and the year he joined the specific branch of the armed forces.

I asked a senior ex-service man (a neighbor of my aunt) for help. He told me point blank that without the "badge number" of a serviceman, I was looking for a needle in a haystack. He told me it was an almost impossible task.

I realized I needed to ask someone else for help. Next, I asked a dear old friend from IIT days for the same help; knowing that she has and had all men in her family (father, brother and husband) dedicated to the same branch of these services. Despite her sincere intentions to help me, she admitted that it was going to be extremely difficult to locate my old classmate with “such little information”.

After ten days when we were leaving from Delhi, she came to say good bye. That day she told me her plans to continue looking for my old classmate’s contact and of passing the information ASAP.

A fortnight later, she sent an email message (to my husband) with the cell phone number of my old classmate.

As soon as I read the forwarded message from my husband, I immediately called up the old classmate and apologized. He was shocked to hear my voice and even more shocked to know that I could reach him with that “little information”. He kept on asking me repeatedly, “How could you locate me with that “little information” amongst hundreds of service men in that 21 year old batch?”

I told him, “It got arranged”.

***

I now believe that intentions get arranged in its “spring season”.

With this newly found trust in the power of intention; today I pray that my aspiration to contribute towards educating young kids via exploration gets arranged. Now, I know that it will be arranged; without my worrying about "how" it will be arranged.

For all these experiences, I thank God for guiding me through this “maze” called life; just as I guide my 4 year old son (who is learning his alphabets) with his full-of-big-words-state-capital 48 piece puzzles.

When the above mentioned experiences happened, I found myself in the same state of joy as does my son on successfully completing his puzzles.