I am a realist. There I said it and I admit it – when life goes to crap, I know it’s because this is the nature of reality. Good things happen. Bad things happen. We have no control over what happens, we can only control how we react to them. That’s a healthy perspective (in my humble viewpoint) that I present to the world so that I seem like a sane and logical person. And people will agree with me 9 times out of 10 that life happens and we get to decide how we react to it. But the truth is, most of my life I pretty much expected the worst because, as I would argue in my mind (my mind loves a good debate with itself) better to expect the worst and be surprised by the best. Right?
However, recently I’ve been challenging my own belief system that we have no control over what happens. My mind really loves this debate, and it can go on and on for hours over the nature of reality and all it's workings. Call me an optimistic pessimist. Call me crazy. Call me a woo-woo goddess-seeking-clarity-tree-hugging-hippy. I’m on a journey, folks, and lately things have gotten a little “out there” for me in my adventures to untangle the mysterious, seeking truths wherever I can find them and stepping into the unknown with fearless (but never wreck less) abandon. I have been researching and taking part in various activities that may seem too woo-woo for the general public and possibly even for me... or at least the “old” me.
This story, though, is one of hope. One of belief-restoring-goodness in humanity. It would have surprised me to hear this story had it happened to a friend, much less that it actually happened to me. So, if you want to feel good about humanity and restore some of your faith that there is good in the world, keep reading!
Last weekend I took a trip to Bogota, Colombia with a group of “Jupiterians” (aka Facebook group: Dr. Joe Dispenza - South Florida, who are all from Jupiter, Florida, USA) for a workshop with none other than (I think you can guess, intelligent reader) Dr. Joe Dispenza. I first came across Dr. Joe many years ago when I watched the documentary “What the Bleep Do We Know?” and this past summer he kept crossing my path of awareness thru various means. You know how the story goes – one person tells you about a video they watched, another person tells you about a book they’re reading, then someone else invites you to join a Facebook group. It feels like kismet and you know you have to follow thru. Hopefully you do. I did.
Fast forward 6 months and I find myself on an adventure in Colombia to attend Dr. Joe’s 3-day Progressive Workshop. If you don’t know about Dr. Joe, then I have to ask what rock you’ve been hiding underneath! Just kidding, you are exactly where you need to be right now with the exact amount of knowledge that is exactly right for you. Did I just say that? To know that only a few years ago I may have been force feeding you my indoctrinated belief systems, knowing with 100% absolute certainty that I had the “truth” of what you needed. But that is another story for another time. We’ll get there, this is just the beginning of my blog and I won’t blow my whole load in the first draft!
So, you’re asking “what in the heck is a 'Progressive Workshop'?” Where do I even begin? Dr. Joe is a thought leader who uses the language of science to demystify the mysterious nature of reality. He attracts those who are both religious and non-religious (like yours truly) into following his train of thought into the quantum realm, using various techniques, mostly meditation, to overcome ourselves. By overcoming ourselves, we are re-programming and re-hardwiring those unconscious thoughts which account for 95% of all of our thoughts… and we have 40,000-70,000 thoughts per day!
All of this is designed to re-design our destiny. To become so conscious of our thoughts and feelings that we won’t allow a single one to pass by our awareness without our knowledge. This is work! I’ve been putting in the work for the past few months to one degree or other and this trip was a little past putting my big toe in the kiddy pool, but in no way can I say it was diving into the deep end. I’m only at the beginning of this journey and am no way an expert. Yet.
Part of my work has been to overcome feelings of lack in my life and instead to feel abundance in all it's various forms of expression. Abundance of health, finances, friends, love, opportunities. You name it. In 2020, I’m focused on attracting and being grateful for abundance in all aspects of my life. Dr. Joe says that “gratitude is the ultimate state of receivership” so my work involves looking for ways to stay in a state of gratitude throughout the day. Little did I know how much gratitude I would have on the very last day of the workshop due to the kindness of a stranger who was looking out for me.
One thing to know about these Dr. Joe events is that you spend a lot of time in deep meditation. Dr. Joe guides you thru other-dimensional realms with his hypnotic voice and ambient music. He ended day 3 with a guided meditation called “Blessing of the Energy Centers”. I was in such a state of bliss, having met my “higher self” (again, another story for another time) and was quite loopy and floating thru time and space, not quite back to the 3-dimentional realm of the present moment. My roommate and other “Jupiterians” who I would be heading out to dinner with later that evening were all volunteers for this event and as such had a final meeting after the event ended. I was waiting for them to finish and relaxing on a couch on the third floor of the convention center in a lounge area. I was scrolling thru my phone, looking at Facebook and reading emails when my phone rang. The number was coming from Colombia and I know that I don’t know anyone in Colombia!
“Hello?” I timidly answered.
“Hello, is this Robin Thompson?” the female voice came back.
“Yes”.
“Were you at the Dr. Joe event in Bogota this weekend?”
“Yes”, I almost whispered. Now I was getting even more curious and concerned. Who was this person who knew me in Colombia and also knew my whereabouts!
“Ok” she said, “don’t be afraid.”
At this point I’m thinking, quite rightfully and I think you’ll agree “what the ever-loving effing bleep is going on?” Don’t be afraid? Of course I’m SUPER afraid now. I’m on the edge of an all-out panic attack! Don’t be afraid? Lady, you don’t know who you’re talking to. I’ve lived my life full of fear, afraid at all the infinite possibilities of things that can go wrong in any given situation. Which is why I’m here. In Bogota. Stepping into the unknown with Dr. Joe.
“Don’t be afraid”, she continued, “but we have your purse.” I look around me and the realization slowly dawns on me that I’ve become so lost in my blissed-out post meditation haze that I have no idea when I last saw my purse! My lady-purse with my credit cards, money and most importantly, my passport is no longer strapped across my body as it had been all weekend like a third appendage where I comfortably rest my left hand! How could I have been so careless? How could I have let this happen? A wave of panic, regret and guilt wash across me as the would-be severity of this situation deepens! So, I did the logical thing - I gasped and nearly fainted.
“Are you nearby?” she asked. Nearby, I’m still in the freaking convention center!
“Yes, I’m upstairs!”
She then tells me to come to security on the first floor. As I’m descending on the escalator, I can see a group of people gathered by the front doors. I can see the security personnel and a couple of woman, one of whom is this wonderful human being named Maria Cristina, who was translating into English for them. My body was shaking nearly uncontrollably at this point and I felt as if I were about to cry or vomit or scream. Maybe all three at the same time. How could I have let this happen? How could I have been so careless? I kept asking myself over and over. Surely my money, credit card and passport would be gone. This is my ultimate nightmare – to be stuck in a foreign country with no money and possibly no way to get home (at least until I had a chance to spend a day at the US Embassy trying to prove my identity and who knows what that would entail?). I became hyper-focused so as to not trip as I stepped off the escalator. “No, you WILL NOT trip! Not one more tragedy to add to this already tragedy-laden day!” I told myself, resigned to a fate of victimhood.
It felt like eternity to cross the floor of the convention center to reach the place where they were standing waiting eagerly for me. Finally, when I reached them, Maria Cristina kept assuring me “It’s ok, we found your purse”. I didn’t even know it was lost until 3 minutes ago!! Judgement, criticism and self-loathing rolled in one on top of the other. “How could I be so stupid? So careless?”
Slowly the story began to take shape of how my handbag ended up in the hands of 3 security guards who closely examined my face against my driver’s license and my passport photo. Neither photo looks much like me as I had light blonde hair on my driver’s license and my passport, to my credit, looks older and chubbier than I am now. But my smile remains the same on both :) I smile widely as they shift their eyes back and forth between photos and real life human and recognition begins to dawn on their faces. They then release the bag and contents over to me, making sure I check to ensure everything is intact. I’ve never had so much gratitude in my life as in that moment. I wanted to jump, scream or possibly fall on the floor in a prayer of thanks with such deep gratitude as I've never felt before, and as we know, gratitude is the “the ultimate state of receivership”.
The story of my runaway handbag begins like this: After the workshop ended and I was waiting for my Jupiterians to finish their volunteer meeting, I sat down to eat a snack which was provided by the venue. I fell into a state of ecstasy over the sweet delight that I can only describe as the best zucchini/carrot bread-muffin thingy I’d ever put into my mouth. I looked at the couple, who I’d later find out were from Mexico, across the table from me and said in a long sigh “Right?” They agreed whole heartedly with my assessment of the muffin-from-the-gods. I chatted with them for a few minutes over the fiesta going on in my mouth and then about how great the event had been until I finished my muffin and they had to leave for the airport. It was at that point that I sauntered over to a couch 20 feet away leaving my purse hanging helplessly on the back of the chair I had been enjoying my tasty delight on. It was somewhere in between the ending of my muffin love fest and scrolling aimlessly thru Facebook that Maria Cristina’s mother spotted my purse and immediately scooped it up and took it straight to security.
They went thru the contents, found my business card with my cell number on it (thank you Universe that I decided to bring my business cards with me!) and had Maria Cristina call me to translate. The entire contents of my purse were intact. Not one peso was missing! For any of you who have been the victims of a robbery, you will know this is incredibly rare. But of course, my purse was not actually stolen. It was saved by this dear woman!
Flashes of past wrongs ran thru my mind like a TV streaming the worst Travel Channel moments of my life. Like the time my phone was stolen in Egypt by a group of children, apprenticing with a man by preying on clueless westerners. They rushed up to us, begging for candy while their sweet smiles and giggles distracted us from their little fingers lifting our possessions expertly with a quickness and nimbleness you wouldn’t expect from 6-year olds. My cross-body purse was no challenge for these kindergarten bandits! Or the time my wallet was lifted by an expert pick-pocketer on a subway in Paris at the end of a long day walking the Premiere Vision textile trade show leaving me with no cash and no credit cards for the rest of my trip. Thankfully my passport was safely in another section of my bag and my girlfriend was able to help with expenses until we got home. You’d think I would have learned to get a fanny pack by now! Ok Universe, lesson learned – I will invest in a good fanny pack and put my fashion designer pride aside and never travel abroad again without the safety of a fanny pack!
Other lesson learned, Universe: There is good in the world. People will look out for you, even when you’re not looking out for yourself because you’re too blissed out from Dr. Joe’s mesmerizing voice reverberating thru a sound system directly into your soul. People want to do the right thing and people take care of each other.
It’s true that there are people in the world that aren’t great and will look for opportunities to take advantage of others. There is certainly a lot of “proof” going around that people can seemingly get away with anything if they have enough money and power and that accountability is no longer a relevant concept in our modern political climate. Sometimes it feels like we’re living in the “Wild West” again where politicians can get away with crimes because their friends will back them up and everyone is protecting everyone else.
But then I have to ask, how is any of THAT affecting my day to day life. When it comes right down to the choices I make, places I go, people I see, how is any of that garbage affecting me? On the other hand, I look at what these kind women did for me in that moment and know that THAT actually made a HUGE difference in my life. A kindness I cannot repay, nor was it asked of me. They did it because it was the right thing to do. Because they, too, had been victims. Maria Cristina’s mother, who was the one who spotted my purse, had had her wallet stolen earlier that weekend and didn't want to see another woman victimized.
The lesson is to choose good and believe in good. That’s all you can do. And isn’t it more fun than choosing to believe you are a victim and that nothing good ever happens for you? You’re breathing, your heart is pumping, your cells are re-building every day and you don’t even have to ask for it. Gratitude costs nothing yet delivers everything.
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