Asking for what you want

As I’ve said before, I do believe in prayer. It’s not necessarily a simple process however – or at least it’s not for me.

    First, you have to know what you want, and for me - brought up never to want anything for myself - that’s not easy. Secondly, you have to ask for it, and that’s not easy either, for the same reasons as above. And, thirdly, when you ask for it you have to really mean it; you have to be prepared to put up with all the disadvantages of having whatever it is you want (of which another part of you will always find plenty).

    Finally you have to be specific and the more specific the better. It’s like magic wishes. They do come true, but you have to make sure you phrase them in the right way.

    For example, it’s no good saying, ‘I’m fed up with being stuck at home.’ You have to say, ‘I would like a car of my own.’ Nor ‘I would like a job,’ but ‘I would like part-time work as near home as possible in something like a bookshop.’ Both of these being prayers I’ve made in the past and both of them granted almost immediately in completely unexpected ways.

    I’ve never knowingly prayed for anything harmful. I’ve never dared because I know from experience that all harm you cause rebounds on you at least threefold (as the old magic precepts have it), as if the universe were beating you about the head saying ‘no, no, no’ until you learn your lesson. But I dare say those prayers come true too.

    All of which is a lead-up to the point of this post.

    A couple of days ago I had a bit of a meltdown. I felt as if I’d been plugging away for ever at this fiction lark and I was fed up. Nobody read my blogs, I thought. None of my books was published. I’d had to stop The (latest) Novel because I was messing it up, even though I needed to write because not-writing made me ill, but I had no ideas for what else I could do.

    Please, I said, just give me a sign that it’s worth carrying on with the blogs – a comment, a new follower. And give me an idea of where to go next in the rest of my writing.

    Not very specific, I grant you, either of those wishes, but they did the trick.

    So, thank you to the Killerton Dragon for her comments on Her Outdoors and thank you to my new Banker’s niece follower (you know who you are).

    And thank you to the universe for showing me how to take two of my books one step forward so that I can then put them aside and get on with something new, and how to take one of my books one step out into the big bad world. More of all that anon.

    There’s no limit really to what one could ask for, if only one had the courage.