Two Little Stories About Grace and Determination

Story 1: Getting a cat

I’ve wanted to get a pet of some kind for a while now, at least a few months. I toyed around with the idea in my head for a long time but kept making excuses, “What if I can’t afford it?”, “What if it’s too much trouble?”, “What if I don’t like it?”. Finally a few weeks ago, I decided to stop letting these questions paralyze me. They’re important questions, of course, but I wasn’t really answering them; I was just letting them float around in my brain and sting me with doubt every time the thought of getting a pet came up.

So after putting some actual thought into the questions, I made my decision and went to the pet store where I met two adorable kittens, Smokey and Cloudy. They were almost identical except that Smokey had black hair on his nose and Cloudy had white, hence their adorable names. There was an application process so I couldn’t take them home right away if I had wanted to. They were also siblings so it was both or neither, which was more than I had originally bargained for.

I spent the next few days mulling it over and ultimately decided I wanted them. I went back with completed application in-hand, to find that Smokey had needed surgery; nothing serious but enough to delay adoption. A week later - the adoption event only occurs on Sundays - I checked in with them and was told the surgery went well but Smokey was still recovering. On the suggestion of a friend to just look around, I tried another pet store, and arrived minutes past the end of their adoption event. Despite already being closed up, a lady there walked up and asked me quite directly,

“Do YOU need a cat?”

I spent the next few minutes getting to know Lil’ Bit, a very playful and loving one year old kitty. What I didn’t tell you is that way back when I was answering the question of, “What if I don’t like having a pet?”, the two biggest fears I had were:

1. It wouldn’t be playful
2. It wouldn’t be loving

Seems I hit the jackpot with Lil’ Bit. Looking back, it’s kind of remarkable to consider the unlikely events that led to me to finally getting a cat that’s a pretty good match for me:

1. Smokey’s surgery
2. My late arrival to the cat adoption event
3. A person working there directly confronting me out of a few people looking at cats
4. That cat having the two biggest qualities I was looking for

I’m now in the final stages of the application process and hoping that Lil’ Bit will be coming home with me in just a little bit.

Story 2: Getting pants

I need heavy duty navy work pants.

I go on Amazon to start my search, but find, to my dismay, that my tall and slim dimensions are not serviced by most vendors.

After 20 minutes of frustration and close calls - “This one has the right length! If only my waist were about 10 inches wider…” - I walk away from my computer in defeat.

But then I turn around.

I think with absolute determination,

“I will click through every damn pant listing on Amazon until I find heavy duty navy work pants that fit me”.

I march back to my computer, re-type my search, and click the first listing.

1. Are they heavy duty work pants? Yes
2. Is navy available? Yes
3. Is navy available in my size? Yes

Bingo!

Twenty minutes of searching left me pantless but twenty seconds of determination got me exactly what I needed.

The moral of these stories

I’m not saying I believe in “The Secret” or “The Law of Attraction”, but I don’t think the underlying model of those ideas is completely inaccurate. When you really focus on something, for long periods of time, to the point where it gets into your subconscious and you even find yourself daydreaming about it, there is a power to that which manifests itself in at least 2 ways:

1. In very subtle and indirect ways, it will nudge the probabilities of events in the world around you to be slightly more in favor of you getting the thing you’re focused on. Maybe a friend will be slightly more aware that you’re after something because you mentioned it a few times, and will make a small suggestion like, “Why don’t you check out another pet store in the mean time?”
2. It will stimulate activity in your brain, to the point where your hesitations and fears and hang ups about the thing you’re after are thrown aside. It’s like your brain finally gets the message: “THIS IS WHAT WE’RE DOING, BRAIN!”, and then it becomes truly focused on bringing you the thing you want, like a pair of pants.

I don’t know how much that power played a role here but I just wanted to reflect on these two recent instances where determination and luck (or grace as you might call it) seemed to produce improbably good results.