{"id":22,"date":"2005-11-14T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-14T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2005\/11\/ask-for-what-you-want.html"},"modified":"2005-11-14T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-14T12:00:00","slug":"ask-for-what-you-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2005\/11\/ask-for-what-you-want.html","title":{"rendered":"Ask for What You Want"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"Of course when you are paying so much for organic groceries, you do not have much money left over to buy a new winter coat.<\/p>\n

That’s why I shop for my clothes in consignment shops. So on my way to pick up my two young Chatterings from school, I threw our car into park at a meter in front of my favorite neighborhood resale establishment. (The owner, Alison Houtte, actually has a book on fashion and consignment shopping<\/a> coming out later this month).<\/p>\n

Realizing I had given myself only five minutes to browse, I created in my mind’s eye an exact picture of the coat I desired. I always do this before entering thrift stores, and I have success with the method about sixty percent of the time. <\/p>\n

I said to myself, “I want a long, heavy wool coat with a deep lapel and some kind of environmentally-correct fur at the collar.” It would be wrong of me to say this was a prayer, but in a loose sense it was. I went in, quickly sorted through the thirty old coats on display, and was about to give up when I saw my coat–the coat!–on another rack: it was everything I wanted and it fit me exactly. It even matched my beloved Russian hat that I purchased in the same way one year ago.<\/p>\n

Since there was no tag on the garment, the saleswoman had to call Alison (who doesn’t know me, by the way). As she did this, I took a deep breath and thought to myself: “This is going too well. It’s a vintage Perry Ellis. She’ll say $200.” But lo, when she hung up the phone, she smiled and said, “Ninety-six.” <\/p>\n

I even had the cash.<\/p>\n

Why do I ask you to accompany me on this shopping excursion in a blog about spiritual inquiry? It took me about six different thrift store trips to find a soft suede coat for my eleven-year-old son (great deal at $27), so all my forays into the realm of used clothing don’t go quickly. But for many years, New Age thinkers like Louise Hay<\/a> of Hay House, Shakti Gawain<\/a>, Wayne Dyer<\/a>, Carolyn Myss<\/a> have instructed seekers to “ask for what you want,” the theory being that when you apply yourself to a quest with full intention, with specificity and visual plan, you’ll get what you desire eventually. That’s why you have to be careful with what you wish for. <\/p>\n

But if this were always the case, everyone would be able to wish or pray their way out of cancer, right? Clearly, that doesn’t happen. Could it be that I only remember the moments when my intentions were clear, and I just lucked out? Am I too quick to confuse lucky coincidences with real miracles? I can’t tell you. Maybe so. <\/p>\n

Yet in times like these, I’m in the universe’s flow. I feel united with everything–the car, the store, the coat, the saleswoman happy for me, the boys at school waiting, wondering why I’m late again. <\/p>\n

“Oh guys, guys, I found a coat,” I say, absolutely jubilant. And then I model it for them.<\/p>\n

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Of course when you are paying so much for organic groceries, you do not have much money left over to buy a new winter coat. That’s why I shop for my clothes in consignment shops. 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