" A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum..."

OK, it wasn't a forum, but yesterday it was yet another "proof in the pudding" of one of my life's operatives:

There are no coincidences.

There is another saying, too:

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

There is no doubt our overall attitudes and our thoughts/intentions play a major part in how our day to day lives happen. Positive attitudes can even help heal immune systems. If someone feels they are always a "victim" in situations, that very belief structure will keep them in that role ad nauseum. The Universe has one answer to any thing we believe in: Yes. If you say say you never have enough money, you will never have enough money...it's as simple as that.

If any of us want to truly change something in our own self or life, we have to begin by changing our root belief system, deep down within. If you don't, all else is a band-aid with temporary adhesive. As they say...

If you don't go within, you go without...

------------------------------------------

Nine days ago I made a careful purchase to bolster my flute-making safety and efficiency. After last year's dangerous encounters with my inexpensive table saw, and talking with some of the nation's leading flute makers, a serious bandsaw was the way to go. Keep in mind I have no garage or shop from which I work; my tools are kept in a large combination worktable/storage unit I built on the back deck. I have to pull tools out to use them, weather permitting, which is far from ideal, but I make it work. This saw can't "live" outside...it's about 300 pounds and 6' tall...so in planning all of this out, the best place for it was the living room, which is a room that has been basically a storage/staging area for when I go vend at festivals, anyway. Not a long-term solution, but to forego the saw and wait a year or two was out of the question. I knew I could make it work, and I have...or at least I thought I had.

Never really thought about the math involved. 1.5 horsepower motor. 14.7 amps drawn. Once I had it assembled (took a large part of a day!), it was time for the critical "flutter" test for the 3/4" blade I was going to use. Cut on the switch...if you don't know, band saws are actually pretty quiet tools...the whir of the motor began slowly revving up to operational speed...and about halfway in the revving you could hear it rev back down...it tripped the breaker.

That fun part is the breaker box is outside on the back of the house...wheee...so I reset the breaker and turned off anything on the room circuit...same thing. Ran a honker of a 10-gauge extension cord to another room's outlet...same thing. Reminded me of another saying:

Definition of "insanity": when you do things the same way every time but expect a different result.

Nothing worked. It was like having a Ferrari in the driveway with no gas in the tank. And since I just typed Ferrari off the top of my head, I immediately thought of "not with my job in 50 years!" and then thought of this cute and totally unrelated joke:

Joe: "I wish I had enough money to buy an elephant."
Bill: "Why do you want an elephant?"
Joe: "I don't, I just want the money..."

So over the past few days I've mulled over what I needed to do to solve the problem, amidst the 20 other irons I have in the fire at any given moment. I didn't know any electricians, off-hand...I could ask neighbors...I knew that this person has to be certified...but I also knew I bet I could get the best price not from a large electrical contracting firm but from someone posting an ad for their services to make some extra bucks on the side, where they're not splitting fees with a company, etc. But where?

Myriad options, that I know...another key to the introductory beliefs I talked about is learning to truly understand your own intuitive nudges and hunches...takes time and intended effort, but it works...and a couple of days after my first strong nudge, it hit me again with clarity, so I followed it... I went to Craigslist.com. For me it has been a very effective selling tool for items, and it is used by faaaaar more people than you might imagine.

But you don't just sell or buy items...people list services they provide or need, people that want to barter for things, and much more. Of course, you have to proceed with caution, as with anything on-line...but I went to into the specialized labor category and, voila, found "Electrical contractor for hire!" Sent the email response, which initially is anonymous for everyone's protection. "Joe" responded within 4 hours Sunday afternoon. I like that...fast, professional answer. Said he'd be happy to come look and figure out how I can solve that and a couple of other electrical issues. Gave me his phone number to call to set a time yesterday, Monday, to come take a peek.

Once I got done with my main weather shift yesterday morning, I called him from work. My email had only "Bob" on it. The caller ID most likely came in with "News14" on it.

Joe: "Hello, this is Joe."
Me: "Hi, this is Bob, calling to set up an appointment this morning..."
Joe: "Are you the weather guy?"
Me: "Well, yeah, for News 14 Carolina in the..."
Joe: "No, I mean from Asheville and WLOS years ago...you went on the Weather Channel for a while, right?"
Me: "Uh, yeah, that's me...gosh, that's been almost 6 years now..."
Joe: "I just moved from there 2 years ago and used to watch you all the time...saw you at Bele Chere Festival one year I think...we've actually met..."

...and from there on went the conversation. Knew me just from my voice, in that short moment of one introductory sentence. Especially with the Asheville connection, that kind of thing happens from time to time even to this very day. It is indeed a small world. Super-nice fellow...will be here to day to fix me up good to go with the saw and beef up another breaker that needs a bigger breaker.

No coincidences.

As you go about your days, be watchful and open to what all you feel in your gut and see going on around you. Be attentive. Do I expect to have this happen all the time? Only in the sense that the magic in Life happens when you don't set "expectations" of people doing or saying certain things. Go with the flow. Drop your expectations of others. Be attentive and Aware. And sit back and enjoy the wonderful Journey...