by Cynthia Sue Larson

When I was a little girl, my sister and I were very fortunate to have parents who often gave us exactly what we requested for our birthdays. You might think we'd be thrilled by this arrangement, but we sometimes felt disappointed when we opened our presents to see the very same toys we'd asked for. Either too much time had elapsed between our initial enthusiasm and the grand moment of unveiling, or the actual toy was not what we'd thought it would be. I still laugh when I remember how my sister once frowned and crossed her arms at her own birthday party after opening a package of doll clothing she'd been begging for just a few months earlier.

I can't get too smug about having outgrown my childhood gift myopia, since I had a very recent experience of getting exactly what I wanted, not recognizing it, and throwing it away. On a recent summer morning, I noticed I only had one computer disk left for my iMac, and that it would be nice to get some more. I had no plans to go shopping, because I needed to drive a long way to meet a friend out of town that day, so I didn't think any more about the matter.

That very afternoon, as I was returning from my long trip, I got an IBM computer disk as part of a fast-food children's meal. I left the disk in the bag after noticing its games were formatted for IBM computers - and when I tossed the garbage in the bag and then discarded it, I didn't remove the disk. I was several miles down the freeway before it occurred to me that I'd just thrown away a perfectly good diskette which I could have reformatted and used - exactly what I needed and had wished for that very same morning.

As disappointing as this experience was for me, I felt grateful to have been given such a clear reminder to practice the art of recognizing and appreciating the gifts I've asked for. How many times have you been handed exactly what you needed, and then rejected the gift? Maybe it didn't look the way you thought it would, or perhaps it surprised you by not arriving when you were ready to receive it.

Gifts can arrive any time, anywhere, and they often don't look anything like we thought they would. My favorite way to recognize the gifts I've asked for is to stay open to receiving them at every moment in my day, and to ask myself, "What kind of gift is this?" In truth, every moment of our lives is a precious gift full of potential shifts in reality, and the way we choose to observe what is going on makes the biggest difference in what comes next. There are miraculous changes happening all around us every minute of every day, and we are being constantly deluged with gifts!

Now that I'm a mother of two beautiful young girls, I have a newfound appreciation for the importance of gracefully accepting presents. My daughters are prolific artists, sometimes producing more crayon and pen drawings than I know what to do with. Even though my first instinct upon receiving yet another picture might be to say, "No thanks, I've got enough pictures already", I don't do that. I smile and say, "Thank you!", and find something unique and delightful about each picture before giving my daughter a hug. Each of my daughters' pictures is miraculous to me, and I've saved many stacks of them to enjoy for the rest of my life.

One of my favorite ways to remember this deluge of miracles is a beautiful quote by Albert Einstein:

"There are two ways to look at the world.
One is as if nothing is a miracle.
The other is as if everything is."

I'm now keeping this in mind every time I receive something that at first glance appears to be junk, including "junk mail". What's so great about junk mail, you ask? Sometimes it contains surprising new information - and it can always be recycled. Now I'm keeping the idea in mind that maybe, just maybe... there isn't anything wrong with each seemingly unwelcome gift. I'm contemplating the possibility that the only thing requiring adjustment... is my own attitude.

© Cynthia Sue Larson, September, 2000

Cynthia Sue Larson holds a bachelor's degree in physics from UC Berkeley (1982), earned in conjunction with her pursuit of a more complete understanding of reality. Shortly after receiving her physics degree and working with scientists at the Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley, she earned an MBA degree from San Francisco State University with the intention that she would be able to help scientists better manage their projects. Following completion of her MBA degree in 1984, she worked as a project manager at Citibank for seven years at the California Data Center. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Reality Shifts: When Consciousness Changes the Physical World.

Cynthia currently writes articles for Magical Blend and Parabola magazines about reality shifts - discussing everything from the physics of prayer to the connection between language and our culture's view of reality. She has taught workshops and classes to dozens of people, and communicated with thousands more on the internet through discussion forums and chats. She has been interviewed by Elliot Stein for his Stein Online talk show, and Charles Grotsky on the Technology Trends television show. Her passion is helping people realize how we all create reality, and that we can consciously improve our lives and the world around us to make our favorite dreams come true. Check out Cynthia's website at www.realityshifters.com, where you can subscribe to her fascinating RealityShifters News monthly ezine.