Anticipation
It's making me wait
If you get the reference, you are my people. Obigatory disclaimer: my analogy falls apart once they invent those plastic squeeze bottles, so just pretend they didn’t, and we’re golden.
Anticipation has been on my mind today. I’ve been singing the Carly Simon song this morning and recalling the old TV commercial for Heinz Ketchup with the song playing in the background. An actor holds the tipped-up bottle of sweet, red, tangy yumminess over their French fries and waits, and waits, and waits, while Carly sings, “Anticipay-yay-shun, it’s makin’ me wait. It’s keepin’ me way-yay-yay-yay-yay-ting.”
It was a great ad.
Anticipation is a word that has a lot of meaning all wrapped up in its letters. Its vibe is one of waiting, eagerness, expectation, and a little bit of impatience.
But the whole time the actor is waiting, that slow moving ketchup is in motion, crawling along the neck of that old familiar glass bottle at a snail’s pace before finally releasing a dollop onto the waiting fries.
Anticipation is my current state
I’m eager, expectant, and impatient. It’s February, so this is normal for me. In February, I’m ready for spring. I’m tired of winter, and it turns out that even this season when we’ve barely had any winter at all, I’m tired of it and ready for spring at the same time. It was like spring outside a week ago, but then nature decided to give us a blast of winter during its waning weeks. It was 7º F overnight, and there’s a few inches of snow on the ground this morning.
But here’s the thing. There’s a lot going on before the ketchup finally emerges from the end of the bottle. A lot going on that you can’t see from outside the glass. But it is moving. Air is moving into the bottle, taking up space as the sauce moves lower and leaves a gap. Somebody is probably slapping their palm against the bottom to encourage it to move faster. There’s a lot happening.
Just like the ketchup in the bottle, spring is already in motion. Because most of the work is done before the first crocus appears or robin returns.
And this applies to more than just seasons, because: As above, so below. As within, so without. If we observe a pattern in nature, the same pattern applies on every scale, macro and micro, bigger and smaller. As above, so below.
What are we waiting for?
I’m waiting for spring. I’m waiting for my new thriller to release in a few weeks. I’m waiting for the hordes of new readers I hope are going to join my long-time loyal fans. I’m waiting for my first 100 paid subscribers to the Bliss Blog. I’m waiting for my first big movie deal. I’m waiting for the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale. I’m waiting on hubby to do a couple of big projects around the house.
It seems like we are always waiting for something, anticipating something. So it’s good to remind ourselves from time to time that 99% of manifestation happens behind the scenes. The final 1% of creation is the manifestation part. The popping into life. Just like with a pregnancy, there are months of development happening unseen and the birth — the manifestation — takes place in only hours.
Right now, in February, deep in the earth, the soil is already alive with activity. Pods are swelling and seeds are bursting and dormant roots are waking. Soon they’ll unfurl and spread out, and little bugs will hatch to begin their lives. And on an even smaller scale, there are microbes and bacteria in the soil, all coming to life.
It’s the same with all our desires
There is far more taking place unseen, than seen. In every topic, in every field, in every part of life. I can’t think of a single example where this isn’t the case. So it’s helpful to think about this as it applies to the things we most want. Instead of asking what’s taking so long, or growing frustrated, or impatient, (all things that can make it take even longer,) we can think of what’s happening in the unseen. I imagine a Rube Goldberg machine in the non-physical realm. It’s a device with many stages, each one of which sets the next into motion, in a chain reaction.
Let’s look at one to see what I mean.
Wasn’t that amazing? Did you watch the whole thing? I thought it was over when the wheel started reciting the names of the kids who built it, but it wasn’t. There’s more!
How this applies…
Okay, just go with me for a second. On a Rube Goldberg machine, you only have one trigger, one action that sets it all in motion. That action for us, as far as creating the lives we want, is the birth of the desire. Usually, a difficulty or challenge is the spark that creates the desire inside us. When we’re sick, we long to be well. The moment we feel badly, the desire to feel better is launched—even before we’re aware of it. That desire kicks the machinery of the Universe into motion.
Now it’s all fine tuning. Every time we align with having our desire, the various parts of the machinery line up to keep the chain reaction going. Every time we attune away from having our desire, we move an elemet slightly off kilter, and the chain reaction stops.
Fortunately, all we have to do is make a small adjustment, and things resume moving right where they left off.
And of course, you know that to align with having the desire, we must cultivate experiences and feelings that match how we’ll feel when we have the desire. We do our best to feel that way now as frequently and consistently as we can.
We sometimes get un-aligned, or out of tune with what we desire by focusing upon its absence, and feeling the pain of not having it, and by asking what’s taking so long, and where is it already? Those kinds of things move the parts of the machinery off kilter, and when things don’t line up, the reaction gets stuck.
Taking this machinery notion a little further…
I think we’re building this device with our actions. I think every new idea or project or job we undertake, every contact we make, every effort we put forth, every resource we discover, every new thing we learn, is like adding another part to our invisible Rube Goldberg machine. I think each part we add provides a new possibility, a new potential route. If one element of the machine is blocked or we lose our alignement with it, one of the other parts we’ve created lines up. Remember they’re all in motion all the time, and entirely guided by us. By our thoughts, our attitude, our beliefs, our mood, our expectations, and by our focus. The parts of the machine are moved by joy and by anger, by hope and by fear, by love and by hate.
Notice, too, that the rolling ball that starts one part of the journey is not the same big red ball that manifests at the end. At several points it’s not a ball at all, but a tipping ladder or a zip-lining doll. The form of the final manifestation is never complete until it arrives. Our additional experiences and preferences are changing its form throughout the entire journey.
And there’s more than one “ball”
There are countless desires making this journey, and our vibration is lining up unique routes for each of them. Every one of those things we’ve been waiting for is at some point on our Rube Goldberg machines. And when we align correctly, they cannot help but arrive.
Our work, then, is alignment. Alignment with what? With the feelings we expect will come when we get our desires. Alignment is finding ways to feel those feelings now, and to hold steady to a positive vibration. To be happy more often than sad. To be hopeful more often than doubtful. To play more than we work and to find ways to make our work like play. (Hint: love what you do.)
Our top goal is to feel good. And the better we feel, the better it gets.
Have a blissful Sunday.
This ad-free site is fully reader supported, and we are grateful for every one of you. In return paid subscribers get free eBook copies of The Bliss Book; Magic and the Law of Attraction: A User’s Guide; A Year of Bliss Omnibus; full access to the Book of Shadows where the spells and rituals live, plus several special posts and series of posts, and the first couple of lessons in my ongoing project “Wicca: Evolved,” and an extra post, in addition to the free one, every Sunday.
Free subscribers get the Bliss Blog’s vast archive of posts and a new post every Sunday.
On Sale March 12th, 2024
Pre-order Available in Paperback & eBook
