Synchronicity in Action

Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz about the book “The Secret,” which espouses if you “Ask and believe, you will receive.” Some people regard it as a bunch of hooey. Still, I can’t tell you how often I’ve experienced the gift of this wonderful phenomenon actually working. Call it coincidence; call it the fruit of planning your work and working your plan. Call it whatever you want, but when that happens, it absolutely takes my breath away.

And it recently happened to me in a big way…

I’m very big on setting New Year’s resolutions. It’s a first-week-in-January ritual I return to year after year. Don’t ask what happens to those resolutions come mid-year. Deadlines get in the way; real life takes a stronghold and my good intentions drift off into the ether not to be thought of until the new year… You get the picture. Well, this year, I resolutely vowed to break this self-defeating cycle. I would pick and choose my goals carefully, going for quality over the usual laundry list of whims. Near the top of my list was “Learn to speak French.” I’ve wanted this for so long. I had French in high school and college, and I dust off the useful tourist phrases when I travel to France – always feeling illiterate until the day or so before I leave, when my ear finally tunes into the French frequency. How wonderful it would be to be able to communicate upon arrival. I mean, as a writer, stripping away my means to communicate is almost wors than withholding food and water.

I read somewhere if you devote as little as thirty minutes per day to the study of something you want to accomplish, over time, it’s enough to make you an expert. I don’t know about the “expert” claim, but the application made sense. I could study French for the thirty minutes I was on the elliptical machine doing the daily workout that also occupied that whittled down list of goals.

So I made the commitment. Then a funny sequence of events happened. A few days later, my husband and I started talking about when we could next go to France. It probably wasn’t possible this year. Perhaps next? Wistfully, we agreed, “Yes, next year.” It would be something to look forward to. And by then I’d be nearly fluent in French. Right?

The very next day – I kid you not – the very next day, I got a call from a woman who had hosted a book club that read my Next Novel, "Out With the Old, In With The New." Little did I know, she was on the board of trustees for the Atlantic Center for the Arts . Because she had enjoyed my books, she invited me to be part of a package the art center was auctioning off on April 1 (No April Fool's joke!) at their 24th Annual Horsin’ Around Auction, a gala to raise money for the Art Center.

Here’s the description of the package as it appeared in the auction catalogue :

Lot 28 What Happens in France, Doesn’t Stay in France…
Not in this case anyway, because, while spending a week with five of your friends in the beautiful, early nineteenth century grand Norman Manor House , Le Manoir des Labbes, <http://www.manoirdeslabbes.com/home> in the French countryside between Paris and Rouen, you will be accompanied by Orlando-based award winning author Nancy Robards Thompson, who will be writing YOU into her Next novel. Take a train into Paris for the day, tour the coast to the glamorous resort town of Deauville with its luxury hotels and casinos, visit Honfleur’s charming harbor village and re-trace Monet’s travels through the streets of timbered houses or, of course, spend the day in Giverny, Monet’s picturesque village – a real pilgrimage for art lovers! Seven days and six nights in the Norman Manor Home with six bedrooms (three of them suites), 3½ baths, large living room and dining room, full kitchen and lovely grounds.

So I put it out there and Voila. I’m going to France! But wait it gets even better… About a week later, a friend introduced me to her sister-in-law, because she’s as big a Francophile as I am. During the course of conversation, I mentioned how determined I was to get a better grasp of the language. Come to find out, the woman is a former high school French teacher who has developed a method of teaching French that she was eager to try out.

Do you seeing the beauty here?

But wait it gets even better… About a week later, a friend introduced me to her sister-in-law, because she’s as big a Francophile as I am. During the course of conversation, I mentioned how determined I was to get a better grasp of the language because I was going to France! Come to find out, the woman is a former high school French teacher who has developed a method of teaching the language that she was eager to try out. She needed a student. I needed a teacher.

So whether you want to travel or write a novel or do something else to enrich your life, no matter how far out there it may seem, the first step to achieving is believe that you can, that you deserve it. Once you’re clear about what you want, it’s amazing how things line up and the Universe finds a way to deliver your heart’s desire.

À la prochaine,

Nancy