May you experience the blooming of new possibilities! As you may remember from my September posts(you can find them here), I love me a good synchronicity! So, I decided to dive into this spiritual phenomena again today.
Before proceeding to this week’s post, I have an announcement. I’ll be doing a free virtual book reading on April 2, 2024 and you are invited. See details in the Upcoming Events section below.
I’m so excited to announce my very first book reading! I’ve been invited to be a speaker for Baltimore County Public Library’s speaker series: Be Inspired.
The event takes place on April 2nd at 1:00pm ET! It’s virtual and free, so anyone can attend. However, there are a limited number of seats, so you may want to register soon. Thank you Baltimore County Public Library for this opportunity!
Register to attend using this link https://www.bcpl.info/events-and-programs/list/227100/register Hope to see you there! 💜 (Purple heart emoji)
During my senior year of high school, I enrolled in a course called One-to-One, which matched high school seniors with elementary school students who would benefit from mentoring. The course required the 12th graders to attend classes about child development throughout the school year. During the spring semester, in addition to attending child development classes, each high school senior planned and executed an outing for her elementary school student once per week.
Throughout the fall semester, I couldn’t wait to develop a meaningful mentoring relationship with my student. During our last child development class of the fall semester, the teacher handed everyone a piece of paper with the name of our matches. When I read my paper, I was confused. Instead of saying the name of a child, it had the name and address of an after school program. I had been assigned to work at an after-school program on Friday afternoons, instead of being matched with a child.
Although this option was created to accommodate the disability I live with, I was quite disappointed that I wouldn’t get to mentor a child. However, I realized that I needed to change my perspective if I was going to enjoy this opportunity. So, that night, I thought of the great things about being assigned to an after-school program. After I thought of a few things, I began to realize that this might actually be awesome! Sure, it wasn’t what I planned on, but I realized that working at the after-school program could still be beautiful.
On the first Friday of the spring semester, I arrived at the after-school program ready to have fun. The kids played outside for 30 minutes and then came inside to pick up their snacks. After receiving their snacks, they sat in a circle where a staff member formally introduced me. During circle time, I noticed staff members repeatedly telling one girl to sit down. After helping with arts and crafts, listening to stories about pet rabbits and answering questions about my crutches, it was time for me to head home. My first day was a blast and I was eager to return!
When I arrived at the program the following week, the kids hadn’t arrived yet, so I asked the director about the girl who needed reminders to sit down. I wanted to know if I needed to follow any special protocols with her.
“That’s Leslie. She has a chromosomal difference that affects her learning abilities and behavior. You just need to keep repeating directions to her,” the director said.
It was quite cold that day, so I stayed inside while the kids played outside. 10 minutes into outside time, one of the staff members came inside to tell me that Leslie wanted to play the board game, Candyland, with me. As we played, we talked about school, our favorite tv shows and, of course, how much we liked Candyland.
From that Friday on, Leslie and I played indoors while the other kids played outside. I cherished our time together. We did everything from putting together puzzles, to kicking a ball to each other, to playing our version of catch.
Playing catch with me requires a substantial amount of patience from the person I’m playing with and although she was just nine years old, Leslie had an abundance of patience. You see, while my mind is eager to catch the ball, my hands often have other plans. When Leslie and I played catch, Leslie would throw the ball to me. I would put up my hands to catch the ball, only to see it go right by me. I’d laugh and say one of the following:“oops,” “uh oh,” or (Leslie’s favorite) “that ball done did it again. It went right through my hands!”
Leslie would laugh, as she said, “I’ll get it for you.” She’d run to pick up the ball, put it in my lap and then run back to her place to catch the ball. In all the times we played catch, I think I caught the ball a grand total of 3 times, but it didn’t matter to us. We had fun not catching the ball!
Each day I worked at the after-school program, Leslie had a long list of activities she wanted to do with me. But, one Friday in March, when I asked her what she wanted to do, she shrugged her shoulders and looked at the floor. This was unusual behavior for her, so I began listing all of her favorite games. She shrugged her shoulders to every suggestion I offered.
All of a sudden, she looked straight at me and asked, “Do you have friends at school?”
Instantly, I knew where this was going.
“Yes, I have friends at school. Do you have friends at school?” I replied.
“No. I try to make friends but all the kids say I’m too weird. And they won’t play with me. I try not to be weird. But, sometimes I can’t help it.”
Leslie was the only disabled student in her classroom. We talked about making friends when you’re “different” from the other students.
Leslie said, “I wish I was like everyone else.”
I said, “I don’t. I’m so glad you’re just the way you are.”
“You are?”
I told her all of the reasons she is a wonderful person and that she doesn’t need to be someone else… just be the best Leslie she can be.
Once I finished, Leslie said, “I’m cool, Allison!”
“Yes, you are!”
When I was assigned to the after-school program, I thought I was being blocked from what I wanted. However, the Divine was orchestrating a synchronicity for me. Leslie was supposed to be my mentee but she hadn’t signed up for One-to-One. So, the only way for me to have the opportunity to mentor Leslie was for a synchronicity to “block” my original path and direct me to a different path. In redirecting me, the Divine gave me what I most desired: a meaningful mentoring relationship with a child.
Synchronicities that look like intractable roadblocks are guiding us to the fulfillment of our dreams. Although these synchronicities appear to be preventing our happiness, they are actually leading us to happiness. If we live as joyfully as possible and remain open to the possibility that we don’t always know how to fulfill our desires, we allow God’s presence to be revealed through us, which brings synchronicities into our lives.
Have a beautiful two weeks! I’ll see you soon!
Love, blessings and purple,
Allison
Try incorporating this exercise into your week. If you need modifications to the practice, scroll down to the section titled Access Notes.
Affirmation
Everyday this week (or as many times as you can), hop in front of a mirror or an app that reflects your image back to you. Say the following affirmation three times in the morning(or three times at night) while looking into your eyes:
“I am Intelligence! I choose to be who I was created to be!”
The following modifications are intended to create equal access to the spiritual practice above. These modifications are somewhat general to be as useful as possible to as many people as possible. Please feel free to further tweak the exercise as needed so that you can participate as fully as possible while honoring your body’s needs.
1. If you are blind or have low vision, memorize the affirmation or have the affirmation accessible to you. Close your eyes. Place both of your hands over your heart as you say the affirmations aloud.
2. If you are d/Deaf or hard of hearing and communicate via sign language, feel free to sign the affirmation as you look into your eyes.
3. If you are Deafblind and communicate via sign language, memorize the affirmation or have the sentences handy as you do the exercise. Close your eyes and place your hands over your heart. Take three slow, deep breaths. Sign the affirmation three times. Place both hands over your heart and take three more deep breaths.
4. If you are Deafblind and communicate via speaking orally, memorize the affirmation or have the sentences handy to read. Close your eyes. Place both hands over your heart. Say each sentence.
5. If you are non-verbal, nonspeaking or minimally verbal, here are two ways to modify this exercise. If you’re unsure of which method to try, try both and determine which one feels better to you.
a. Instead of verbally saying the sentences, say the affirmation in your mind while you looking into your eyes.
b. Either have your communication device or another person speak the affirmation while you look at your reflection. If you have another person speak the affirmations, ask the person to say your name instead of saying the pronoun ‘I’.
6. If you can speak but saying the affirmation three times is not possible, say the affirmation as many times as is healthy for you.
