CAN THE LAW OF ATTRACTION HELP ME CATCH FISH?

Blog author unsuccessfully utilizing the law of attraction...to catch fish.
Kahalani Beach, Kauai
(Photo courtesy of Silas K. Aqui)

Okay, I want to set the record straight.

I cater to the school of thought that POSITIVE THINKING is a very real and powerful universal force.

It follows, then, that my next natural step of progression is to buy--ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!--this notion that there is a LAW OF ATTRACTION.

When the good Lord created the universe, He didn't say, "Aw, shucks!  It's kinda dark in here.  I need some light!"  That would be a wimpy God, One who focused on the problem.  The omnipotent Creator focused, instead, on the solution.  His powerful Word proclaimed the reality of a phenomenon while it was yet just an idea.  


"LET THERE BE LIGHT!"  He declared.


And there was light.






(Flashback to last December)  I was down to my last week on Kauai, and I desperately wanted to catch some fish.  My brother, Charlie, told me that the wet weather, along with the facts he gleaned from the Hawaiian tidal chart, indicated that fishing would be poor.


I was stubborn, though, and wanted to show my brother that I could catch fish in the dirty water caused by the flow of muddy fresh water from the Wailua River washing into the ocean water.  Surely, the freshwater shrimp was attracting all sorts of small and medium game fish to the area.  Surely, I would be able to catch a papio (juvenile trevally or jack fish),  And then my little brother would be in awe of me, just like he used to be when we were forty-plus years younger.  I mean, I had all kinds of narcissistic fantasies going on.


So, I cast my line forty yards or so into the surf.  My brother had warned me to not cast too far out because the area had a lot of rocks.  But it had been years since I had cast a line out, and I wanted to show off, oblivious in my delusion that I had long lost my fisherman's moves and muscle memory.


Sure enough, on my first cast, my line got stuck on the submerged rocks, and although Charlie did his best to jiggle the lead loose, we lost it.


In five casts, I ended up snagging and losing three leads, just like I had done the week before at Poipu Beach.  I felt foolish, embarrassed, and insecure that my brother would lose his patience with me.


To Charlie's credit, he remained calm and lighthearted the whole time, putting me at ease and reducing my anxiety.  A nice change about my brother, I was observing, was his maturity and ability to use humor to defuse stressful situations.  


With the Law of Attraction, the universe does not pay any attention to NO, NOT, NEVER, and other negative derivatives.  In a sense, it was very much at work that December island morning, though in a way I hadn't intended.


Whenever I thought, "I will not get another lead stuck in the rocks!"...I got just what I asked for.  (Remember, the universe deletes the word, not.)


So what about the fish?


Initially, I consciously asserted that I would catch fish.  Lots of fish!  


But as the morning progressed, more dominant thoughts came to mind.  Darn, another whitewash!  My brother will think I'm poho (useless)!  Shoot, it's gonna rain!  I just gotta catch a fish! (Note how this last statement has a spirit of desperation, and this is contrary to the more positive intention-driven Law of Attraction.)


What I concluded about this episode and something I consider a perfect tier of loose ends is that the Law of Attraction had, after all, really manifested itself at my beck and call.


Wasn't it the most important thing, after all, that my brother and I--after decades of separation--had finally been able to have this powerful moment of connection?  A memory built on a morning at the beach...here on this beautiful,  wet but nevertheless verdant island of origin.  Wasn't it all about the renewing of the Super(natural)-Glued bond with each other and to the land, the water, the universe, and our God?


There came a pensive moment when Charlie cried out to me, "Joe, look over there..on the horizon!"


Oh, my goodness!  Magnificently, albeit briefly, way off in the distance, about 4 miles out, we spotted a whale as it breached and sent a powerful and towering spout into the morning air!


Yes, without a doubt, the Law of Attraction was definitely alive and real this gray and rainy Kauai morning...even if the fish were still sleeping.

"AND THE #1 FOOLISH THING TO DO ON KAUAI IS..."

Hula Hooping Haole Girl at Wailua Falls, Kauai
(Photo courtesy of Silas K. Aqui)

Okay, so this could easily be used by Dave Letterman's panel of writers as fodder for the Ten Most Foolish Things to do on Kauai.  

It had been an exceptionally wet wintry season on the Garden Isle this year, so on an ironically rare sunny day, my brother, Charlie, and our brother-in-law, Wayne, decided to go for a ride to view the beautiful Wailua  Falls.

My brother was in the process of taking several photos when--all of a sudden and much to his amazement--a young Caucasian woman appeared at the top of the falls and began gyrating with her hula hoop.

Quickly, Charlie whipped out his video camera and filmed the young woman (and, eventually, her two male companions) as they moved about the precipice.

In the past, several people have fallen to their deaths from the same spot where the hula hoopster was doing her thing.  

Kauai has had its share of flash floods, too.  It would not have been a far fetch of the imagination to visualize such an occurrence taking place, especially in light of the recent heavy rainfall.


We're thankful the young woman and her friends did not experience any mishaps.


For Charlie's part, it gave him impetus to post his video on YouTube.


And, thus, I get to share it with you, faithful blog follower.

                                          

FOR THOSE OF US WHO DON'T HAVE PETS

Photo courtesy of 

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=587  

I'm back!  

Actually, my laptop is back!  She had an owie and had to go to the Best Buy service repair center in California to get fixed.

About two and a half weeks ago, I was at one of the Bellevue Starbucks shops working on one of my posts when I noticed that the left hinge of my laptop lid--you know, the part that contains the monitor--was sticking out at an odd angle.  I could actually see some wires sticking out.  This isn't good, I thought.  Mustering up my best attempt at manifesting The Secret--the process of thinking/believing/affirming that something good has already been set into motion--I visualized that I was going to gently close my laptop lid and that any vital laptop organ was going to return to its specific resting place.

No way, Jose!  (Note to self:  Read The Secret again!)


So there I was in this plush coffee shop in the affluent East side, dressed in my jeans, gray Blazing Bagels hooded sweatshirt, and tennis shoes, trying to look cool in the midst of the nouveau yuppies of Bellevue while attempting to close a laptop that just wouldn't cooperate.

Finally, I carefully placed the laptop--still open at a slight angle--into a compartment in my backpack.   What to do?

It was 9 AM, and I had finished my graveyard shift at the bagel factory three hours ago.  I was very tired and hungry and needed to get back to the house in the Rainier Valley, about an hour and half's commute away.

But my faithful eMachine companion needed my help.  This situation was akin to driving a wife acutely involved in the throes of labor to the hospital...STAT!

So I sauntered on over to the Bellevue Transit Center to catch the next Sound Transit 550 bus back to Seattle.

About an hour later, I disembarked from the link light rail at the Othello Station.  I called my roommate, Andre, and he kindly picked me up and drove me to the Best Buy store at Seattle's Northgate Shopping Center.

The Geek Squad is Best Buy's avant garde front line of savvy technicians.  They actually dress and act like their collective name suggests.  Eyeglasses, short hair reminiscent of the'50's, dark trousers, short-sleeved white shirts and black ties...they truly fit the bill!  The guy who helped me had excellent customer skills--multitasking while maintaining a very calm and personable demeanor.  These guys have to deal with the angst emanating from patrons who--like me--are already manifesting the first signs of withdrawal from the paradox of computer world.  You know--inanimate objects that have a very real life of their own!

I was really sad when he told me that the notebook would have to be sent to California and that it could take up to two weeks before it'd be back at the Northgate store.  Wow!  What'll I do for two weeks?  I mean, it surprised even me to see how much I was jonesing for my beloved portable companion.  I'd have to fill my backpack with books to not have the absent weight throw me off as I walked through the Seattle and vicinity haunts.

I could see it now...


"Hello, everyone.  My name is Joe, and I'm a computerholic!"


And they all animatedly shout back,  "HI, JOE!"


But I survived somehow.  Went to several libraries during this period of time to maintain my two blogs as well as my work on eBay.  I want to thank you faithful followers of my posts for hanging in there.

And as for my eMachine.  She's well rested, all healed up, and happy to have the bandages removed.

I promise to take better care of her.

GETTING BACK UP

Surfer at Beach in Hanalei
(Photo courtesy of Ryan)

...for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again...

(Proverbs 24:16, NIV)