The Power of NOW... in action...

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” -Albert Einstein

In January 2011, I flew off to Tulsa, OK for the 25th Anniversary of the Chili Bowl. What sounds like a spicy hot chili eating festival is actually an intense competition between hundreds of midgets attempting to slam, slide and pass their way across the finish line of a sometimes muddy indoor track of dirt.

*insert the sound of crickets?

I love the looks of disgust I get when I tell people I’m flying across the country to partake in a week long event of midget madness. However, once I’m satisfied they’ve falsely judged my entire essence as a human being, I go on to tell them that midgets are actually open wheel racecars often used by racers to gain driving experience in hopes of advancing towards more well known and better financed forms of racing. But no matter what the skill level is of the racer behind the wheel of a midget come January in Tulsa (whether it’s an experienced NASCAR driver or a teenage rookie), Chili Bowl is an exciting, heart pounding yearly event I don’t ever intend to miss.

Before heading off to the Chili Bowl, I had become mentally road blocked on what it was I wanted to say in my DreamGirl Experiment book. I had jotted down a few ideas about what I wanted to express in the “Reconnecting to the Now” section (which you are currently reading), but those few ideas were weak and not worthy of an entire chapter. I had also listened to a portion of the audio version of the #1 New York Times Bestselling book, The Power of NOW, by Eckhart Tolle to drown myself in the theories surrounding the life altering awakening of present moment connectedness, but it simply wasn’t inspiring me. I “understood” the importance of living in the present moment, but I didn’t “know” the importance of living in the present moment. However, that was about to change…

The story begins after an evening in Tulsa involving lots of laughs with friends, a few too many adult beverages and a handful of strippers. Not that any of those things are vital to the story, but they help set the mood for what is about to follow. When I giggled myself back to my hotel room that night, I reached in my pant’s pocket for the room key and discovered it was missing. Not only was my room key missing, but my driver’s license was missing as well.

Scary enough, getting another key to my room without any sort of identification was rather easy. However, replacing a lost driver’s license when you are out of state appeared to be much more difficult according to online sources, especially since it was Saturday morning and most places were closed on the weekend. And just for fun, to up the difficulty meter a tad bit more, was the fact I had no idea how airport security would possibly allow me to board my early Sunday morning flight without a single piece of photo identification.

Fear set in. I retraced every step I had taken that night. The only place I couldn’t scour was the dance club we had been in. I begged for someone to open it, but “policy is policy,” so I would have to wait until 2pm when they reopened later that day.

“Surely it must be in the club,” I thought. “It has to be in there. Why would someone take an ID? Surely someone turned it in.”

At 9am my friends took off for the final day of Chili Bowl racing. I was heart broken. I had flown all the way to Oklahoma to see this race and I was missing it. How could I be so stupid? I should have kept my ID in a more secure location instead of the front pocket of my jeans. So stupid!

When 2pm finally rolled around I raced down to the dance club. I explained my situation to the owner and she immediately looked in the registers and safe for my driver’s license. She pulled out a handful of IDs, but unfortunately none of them belonged to me. I crawled around the dirty floor searching every small crack and hole my ID could have possibly slipped into, but all I found were coasters and receipts.

I felt faint. “It’s really not here,” I thought. “How in the hell am I going to get on that plane? How in the hell am I getting home?”

I ran back up to my room and made a Facebook post asking my friends if anyone had any suggestions. “Get to the airport extra early,” several mentioned, “and cross your fingers you can convince them you are who you say you are.”

Crossed fingers simply wasn’t going to put me at ease. I needed to get on that plane. I couldn’t afford another plane ticket! I also couldn’t afford to anger my employers by missing God knows how many days of work before a new ID was mailed to me and a flight home arranged. Jobs are hard to come by in this economy, I didn’t want my bosses to think I was incompetent and unreliable. I’m going to miss my flight! I could lose my job! I’m missing a race I’ve waited all year to see! The DMV is closed today! I can’t get a Washington State ID in Oklahoma anyway! Why didn’t someone turn in my ID? Who would keep someone else’s ID? How could I be so stupid? I can’t breathe! My heart is racing! I’M FREAKING OUT!

I started to cry. I started to shake. After the initial symptoms of shock had fully set in, I started researching online for any piece of information that might help me. I tried calling the Tulsa airport, but being Saturday… no one answered. So I called my airline. After being tossed around in the automated system for what seemed like forever, I was eventually connected to a human being. The woman from the airlines tried very hard to be helpful, but ultimately it wasn’t up to the airlines to decide if I could get on the plane or not, it was up to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

By 2:30pm Tulsa time, the TSA offices were closed. I tried several times to navigate myself through the TSA phone system in hopes of talking to a human, but I failed every single time. However, I NEEDED to talk to someone from TSA. They were the only ones that could officially tell me what steps I needed to take to make this situation right.

Desperation forced me to play dumb as I called up the TSA number one more time and navigated to the only place in the system where I knew I’d actually be able to talk to a live person… The National Response Center, a place where reports of suspicious airport activity are collected. The man on the receiving end of the response center line was not thrilled that I had called, but through a shaking voice and a face full of tears I pleaded, “Just tell me what I need to do!”

The National Response Center guy couldn’t give me the information I needed, but he did tell me that in this situation I would have to obtain guidance from my airline. So… I stumbled around in my airline’s automated system once more until I was eventually connected to someone of the flesh. By this time I’m so frustrated I just blurt out, “I don’t have a picture ID. Tulsa Airport isn’t answering. TSA is closed. However, the TSA National Response Center said my only choice was to find guidance through you. What do I need to do?”

Again, the airline tried its best to help me solve my problem. The airline representative on the phone suggested I have some information (birth certificate, passport, etc) faxed to me merely as documents which may help support my case. But… ultimately… TSA would decide if I could board the plane or not, and without proper government issued identification, they could very well tell me no.

I was numb. Considering I lived by myself, I knew my cat would not be able to fax me any sort of supporting documentation in time. I felt sick. I felt doomed. I felt worthless. I felt defeated.

Somehow, somewhere in the fog of the moment… I remembered I was conducting a DreamGirl Experiment. I was testing the Law of Attraction (Ask. Believe. Receive.). And the first area of my experiment centered around reconnecting to the NOW. What better time to put this theory to the test than, NOW?

Up until that moment, I had focused on the past. I focused on being stupid. I focused on being irresponsible. I focused on all the reasons why someone didn’t return my ID to the business it was misplaced in. I focused on the horror stories I had read online about people being turned away from the airport without proper identification. I focused on those familiar feelings of inadequacy I had come to know in the past. But in reality, none of those thoughts had any real power RIGHT NOW. Those thoughts were the past. The past is meaningless RIGHT NOW. The past no longer exists and is nothing more than an illusion RIGHT NOW. The only moment that does exist is this moment… NOW.

Up until that moment, I had also focused on the future. I focused on not being able to get on the plane. I focused on the possibility of losing my job. I focused on the fact I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the big race at Chili Bowl. I focused on the embarrassment and rejection I would feel after being turned away by TSA. I focused on the fear of being stranded for an undetermined amount of time before I was finally able to fly home. But in reality, none of those thoughts had any real power RIGHT NOW. The future does not exist and is nothing more than an illusion RIGHT NOW. “Future” is never real RIGHT NOW. The only moment that is ever real is this moment… NOW.

“What is happening RIGHT NOW?” I asked myself. “What is real, not what you think will be real?”

In THAT MOMENT, the following was real. I was sitting on the bed in my hotel room. I was showered and wearing soft, comfortable clothes. It was quiet. It was peaceful. I was breathing. My heart was beating. There was a feeling of sadness because I was missing the Chili Bowl race that was running at that moment. I felt tired. I felt hungry. Yet… I couldn’t help but go back to the realization that in THAT MOMENT regardless of everything that “seemed” to be happening, the feeling of peace was present. I realized in reality, not much was happening in THAT MOMENT at all.

I took a deep breath and reflected on the Law of Attraction. What did I want? What did I need? Ask. Believe. Receive.

“I am smart and resourceful,” I whispered. “Everything happens perfectly. Everything happens for a reason. I always handle things the best way I am capable of in the moment it is presented to me.”

I closed my laptop and took another deep breath.

“It doesn’t matter if I go to the airport now or if I go to the airport ten hours from now. Their answer to me will be the same either way. If I go to the airport now I miss one of the biggest races of the year and get the same answer I’ll get if I go to the airport ten hours from now. I think I need to do what I flew all this way out here to do. I need to go enjoy myself at Chili Bowl, which is happening RIGHT NOW.”

I looked at myself in the mirror. It seemed odd to not be frantic in this situation. But when I cut away “thoughts” of the past and the future, going and enjoying myself at the Chili Bowl was truly the most logical thing to be doing in this moment.

“A smart and resourceful person would make sure someone in the lobby of the hotel had all the information needed to contact me should someone return my ID,” I thought. Immediately I pulled out a piece of paper to write down my name, description of my ID and phone number.

“Everything will work out perfectly,” I reassured myself. “The Universe will always amaze me with its perfection.”

Again, it felt bizarre to not be frantic in this moment. But in this moment… I was healthy, I was safe, I was at peace. In this particular moment, a problem did not exist. There were thoughts lingering in the back of my head that a problem may exist soon, but in “reality” or in “this moment” a problem was non-existent. In this moment, all problems were merely an illusion.

I walked up to the desk in the lobby and handed my information about my ID to the lady behind the counter. When I turned to leave I saw my new friend Kevin sitting on a couch.

“What are you still doing here,” I asked? “You’re missing all the excitement at Chili Bowl!”

Kevin explained that his brother had been feeling sick that morning and decided not to attend the festivities of the week’s finale. As a result, Kevin needed to hail a cab in order to catch the last remaining hours of the race.

“Do you mind if I share a cab with you,” I asked? “It’s been a really dreadful day so far. My spirit needs to attend this race.”

As we waited for Kevin’s cab to appear, I shared my story of strippers, retracing every step I took that evening, crawling on the floor of the bar searching for my ID, crying on the phone with TSA and the sudden realization that the only thing I had any control of in this situation was to simply be present from moment to moment.

When the cab approached Kevin casually looked at me and said, “I found your room keys on the floor of the bar last night. I picked them up because your room number was on the envelop and I didn’t want some creep to get a hold of them.”

My jaw dropped and I uttered, “What?”

“I would have forgotten I even picked up your keys had you not told me about your lost ID adventure. Room keys are so easily replaced. There was really no need to get them back to you.”

“Kevin,” I uttered again. “There was only one room key in that envelop. The other one is my ID!”

If you believe the Universe is unfolding perfectly… it is.

Kevin never intended to get those “room keys” back to me because they are so easily replaced. He had no idea my ID was inside.

Had I walked down to the lobby ten minutes sooner or ten minutes later, Kevin would not have been there to have had that conversation with. Or had Kevin’s brother not been sick that morning, Kevin would not have been waiting in the lobby at that time.

Had I decided to focus on thoughts of the future and go to the airport in hopes of finding a solution for my “not yet existent problem” instead of enjoying myself at the Chili Bowl, I would have never been united with my driver’s license.

In reality, there was never a problem. The problem only existed in my head. The problem was only an illusion, “albeit a very persistent one (Einstein).” In regards to almost every present moment of your life (moments in the NOW, free of thoughts of past and/or future), there is peace. There is peace woven through nearly every moment of your life if you will just let your life be, free of thought. And in those times when you are faced with situations requiring immediate action, you will always make the best choice you are capable of at that given moment… which ironically, should also bring you a sense of peace.

A fun side note to this story:
My friend Kevin is a hardcore atheist who doesn’t believe in anything remotely related to higher/universal powers and/or things like destiny, but keep reading.

It would be impossible for me to explain to you (the reader or anyone else who wasn’t with me) through written words or any other form of human expression the true power experienced in the shift between the reality I felt in thought and the actual reality I felt in full present moment consciousness. Surely I have not completely captured the essence of what happened on that January afternoon in Tulsa in the above story. But let me tell you (in hopes a tiny piece of blind faith will be extended to at least consider what I’m trying to express) there was an extraordinary shift that took place in epic proportions. One didn’t have to be with me at the center of the experience to feel the waves of energy that shift in consciousness produced.

My friend Kevin later told me, “(I) believe in coincidence more than fate, but had that belief challenged last week (in Tulsa).”