Believe it, Feel It, Receive it

Let’s face it, we’ve all heard it—stay positive, keep the faith, things will turn around. Chances are you’ve rolled your eyes at these ‘Little Mary Sunshine’ people and maybe even, while in the throes of not getting what you deeply desired, considered punching them in the throat. Good for you if you didn’t.

I’m pretty sure I was born a glass half-empty kind of person, but over time, and in a desperate effort to stop having a shit life, I began working on becoming one of those other people, you know the happy people.

When I began to learn about the Power of Positive Thinking and the Law of Attraction, about getting real with what I most wanted, and following the simple (I say simple but we all know they only sound simple) principles of Ask, Believe and Receive, a wondrous thing happened—things began to turn around.

Examples—okay I’ve got a few. Once I was able to imagine my life as a full-time writer, it happened. When the time arrived for my husband and me to leave the city and move to the country, in my mind’s eye I saw what we wanted, and viola, the perfect property became available. And when the ache for a better relationship with my only daughter threatened to consume me, things slowly but steadily became easier between us.

Queue the eye roll. Nope. Not going to do it, cause now you’ve got my attention. Maybe this shit works.

Wait. So, let’s give this one more try. After all, there is one thing I really, really want and see no way in hell that it can happen. For the past nine years, I have had a fan crush on a young artist you may have heard of—only ADELE, the most amazing, badass singer on the planet. As anyone following her 25 Tour will tell you, if you didn’t get tickets within the first ten minutes of them going on sale, or you aren’t rich enough to pay the obscene prices scalpers are asking (think 4 figures for floor seats), you ain’t going. Oh, that can’t be right. I’m going. I know it. I feel it.

To put my dream of going to the concert into context, let’s back this truck up a bit. What is my insane devotion to Adele all about?

Billions of fans around the world are in love with Adele, but I’m not a star struck teenager. I’m a middle-aged woman with children the same age as my superstar crush. Why, beyond the fact that Adele can sing her ass off, do I feel so moved by her music and by her personally? Simple. In my humble opinion, Adele is one of the bravest women around today. She’s an inspiration to anyone who has been gifted with an extraordinary talent and possibly felt frightened by that gift. Adele’s fears and self-proclaimed anxieties are well documented, yet she soldiers through to share her heart-wrenching music and her personality and her wit.

And she’s real. Take her for what she is and what she offers, but don’t think for one second that she’ll let you change any part of her that she doesn’t want to change. She’s not having it. How is that even possible in this world of half-naked performers gyrating on stage props and shaking what their mamas gave them to sell their music? How is it that this non-conformist, gimmick-free performer who wears ball gowns and zero cleavage on stage, can have album sales that eclipse anything seen in decades? Because she’s brave enough to say no and strong enough to know who and what she is.

Then there’s the other reason I love Adele. My kid loves Adele.

My thirty-year-old girl is as beautiful as Adele and has talents in equal measure, but she also has a learning disability and a childhood trauma to live with—each have played a part in wearing down her self-esteem and her self-worth. We all know what can happen to a beautiful girl who doesn’t value herself. Life got mean and our relationship was the first casualty. That was then. Now she’s a single mom, raising a seven-year-old daughter. She struggles financially, but has filled her home with love and she’s made valiant efforts toward repairing our mother/daughter bond. I couldn’t be any prouder of her than I imagine Adele’s mother is of her. Hard work and hard conversations over time have aided the healing process. That, and our shared admiration for Adele.

Back to my quest for concert tickets.

With the summer of ’16 drawing to a close, the four dates for Adele’s Toronto concerts were quickly approaching.  What to do? What to do? Right those Power of Positive Thinking and The Law of Attraction things. I got this. I sat down. I closed my eyes and went about trying to make concert tickets appear. Soon afterward—can’t say how long exactly but not more than a few days later—I was driving and heard a TO radio station was giving away tickets. The way had presented itself. Flipping between fits of glee and fits of crying, I spent the remainder of that day phoning into the station. Honestly, do you know anyone who has successfully won tickets from a radio station? Despite the chronic busy signal sounding in my ear, I refused to believe I would not get through. I believed.

For a day and a half, I waited for the predetermined Adele song to play and feverishly dialled and redialed in hopes of being the 25^th caller. Not for one minute did I doubt this was the action required to make my desire come to be. I saw it. I felt it.

And here, my good friends, is the rub.

You can ask and you can even believe, but if you aren’t able to feel what it would be like to have your desire met, you are far, far less likely to achieve your dream.

Between phone calls, I let my imagination run wild. I felt what it would be like to pick up my daughter (who else would I bring?) and for us to drive into the city. What it would feel like to sit in our seats and wait for the concert to begin, to see the lights dim and to hear the music begin, to join the audience in cheering and then to see Adele rise up from the stage floor and belt out her monster hit, Hello. I felt it—the joy, the excitement, the wonder, and my kid beside me.

Guess all that feeling and believing combined with a day of rollercoaster emotions were all in preparation for hearing a ringtone. I was caller 25. My kid and I were going to see Adele!!!!

What had I just done? I asked. I believed. I felt. I received. The universe had realigned itself to fulfill a strong desire. I had done that. If I could make that happen, what else could I make happen? ANYTHING.

The concert is in one week. We have tickets for the second show. Woo-hoo. I’m so excited knowing I’ll be in the same room as someone who is doing what they were meant to do and to be there with my amazing, wonderful, beautiful, brave girl. Thanks universe!!!!