soup

today i signed separation papers, a severance letter, and an independent contractor contract. i packed up all my things in my car, hugged a few people bye, and drove away from my corporate job. officially self-employed.

some time last year i heard a story of a man who progressed through his career and rather than asking for pay raises, he asked to work fewer hours for the same pay. i don't know the details but i imagine he'd reached a comfortable salary and decided he'd rather have freedom over dollar signs. when i heard that snippet, i loved it. i wasn't at a place where i made enough money to say, 'oh sure, keep your raise and let me work less.' but i could relate to where the man was coming from. it's been in the back of my head since then.

and now, i've manifested that situation for myself. without even really being very deliberate about it. i set myself up to manifest a better job. more freedom. more money. more this and more that. and when it all came out in the wash, i'll be working half as many hours and making the same amount of money. add to that i'm getting lots of other things on my list and i feel like the cat who got the canary.

so, i sit now and wonder about the things that i'm cooking on back burners. i want to be very deliberate about those pots i'm simmering there. while i'm focusing my manifesting energy on the hot, hot grill there are things cooking that i've set in place and let go.

this is where i give my fantastic nature credit again though. while there are plenty of negative things that cross my path and plenty of things i could worry and fear; i give them no energy. i dismiss and release immediately as though they are either impossible or fantastic themselves.

and instead, i let my mind wander leisurely through pastures of fantasy.. across sand dunes of discovery.. and millions of lives i have yet to live. and when fantastic ideas such as working less and making the same or more money are offered up, i latch on to that like a dog with a bone. burying it in the yard and hoping it will grow a bone-tree.

i had a favorite book when i was a child called Stone Soup. it was about three soldiers who come through a town and ask the townspeople for something to eat.. and they are given nothing. so they say, 'oh well, we'll have to make stone soup..' and they ask for a pot, some stones, and water. and they start boiling it up. as it cooks they keep asking for additional ingredients and by the end they have a huge pot of hearty soup. (the selfish villagers are also apparently idiots because they say something like, 'oh and all that from stones!')

today one of my back burners served up a big pot of stone soup.. more than i'd ever hoped for. and for that, i am grateful.

d: stone soup from the other back burner.
b: i had a healthy, delicious stone in that pot.
g: my fantastic nature keeps the dirty, stinky stones out of my soup.