Positive Expectations: An illustrated guide

Positive expectations. This is an energy principle my spiritual mentor, Ruth Norman (aka Uriel), tried really hard to instill in me.

I'm not talking about affirmations or visualizations or pie-in-the-sky. I mean simply holding an attitude in your mind that things will work out, that all will be well. (And I don't have to tell you what the opposite to that is.)

I've been told that children of alcoholics have trouble with this concept. So I've worked on it, and now I generally walk around in a positive state of mind, greeting and grateful for all the good things that happen to me.

But the other day, I had a visual demonstration of this vital principle. (It happened to take place in my "Knowledge and Self-Cultivation Area," for those of you who are into Feng Shui and Bagua maps.)

I noticed that in this dry, warm winter we're having in San Diego, a lot of the migrating birds were taking advantage of the bird bath outside our kitchen window. Batches of house finches, sparrows, purple finches, goldfinches, and even a few Western bluebirds were taking group baths, splashing out all the water before the crows could come along to soak their food in it. (Crow food is generally yucky, but it gets truly disgusting after soaking for a few days. Their babies like it, though.)

So the next day when I was supposed to be washing dishes, I went to get the camera, just in case.

And even though the window washing wasn't scheduled til the following week, I thought I'd better practice focusing the zoom lens through the kitchen window, just in case they came back. I do love birds! So I tried a shot to check my focus:

Yep, looks good. I was about to experiment with a different zoom when ...

This guy flew right into the frame and looked down at his reflection! And then ...

Mrs. Goldfinch flew in too!

But being a little shyer than her hubby, she positioned herself right in line with the water spot on my window so she could gaze at her reflection behind a modest veil, so to speak. Then the bathing began ...

Ahhh, feels good! You should try it!

Well, maybe I will ...

Nice, eh? Well, I'm outta here!

And off they went. Leaving me with a very important lesson:

If you want something good to fly into your life,
be sure to keep your bird bath full,
and your camera focused with
a positive expectation.

Happy New Year!

And if you didn't see the hummer in the first picture of this blog,
maybe you'd better do as my current favorite song says and,

Throw out the anchor

cuz you need to slow down!