When my brother returned from a trip to China this year, he described his visit with a colleague to the Luohan Temple in downtown Chongqing. Nestled among skyscrapers, the 1,000 year old temple is both a place of worship and a tourist attraction, with several shops on site.
After exploring the temple, John visited all the shops in search of a bracelet as a memento for his experience at the Buddhist site. He didn’t know exactly what he was looking for, but knew he wasn’t having luck finding it. Before leaving, John decided to check one more place again, and there in that last shop, he recognized what he wanted—a brown beaded bracelet that he purchased and promptly put on his wrist.
Just as John joined his colleague on a bench outside, an elderly Chinese woman approached him. She smiled and said something while pointing to John’s bracelet and then to an identical bracelet on her own wrist. John’s colleague Brad, a Buddhist fluent in Mandarin, translated her statement as, “You have chosen wisely!” Brad then explained this was a case of yuanfen—a fateful coincidence that brings people or objects together. Had my brother not searched long and hard for his bracelet, he probably would not have experienced the interaction with this kind woman.
Back when I was working a corporate job eleven years ago, I developed chronic fatigue. I spent a lot of time visiting every kind of doctor, but found no answers nor much help. One day during an acupuncture treatment as a needle touched my forehead, I saw a flash of a lion’s face. On the advice of my acupuncturist, I then bought as many books on spirit animals as I could.
One night in one of the books, I read about a shaman and thought to myself, “I wonder what a shaman could do for my health issues?” I didn’t know much about spiritual healing, but I was up for anything. The next day at work I received an email from a friend I hadn’t been in touch with for two years. The email simply said, “Do you want to take this class with me?” Below was a link to a shamanic healing class at the New York Open Center.
That class introduced me to opening my intuition (or as I like to call it, my “woo-woo journey”), and at the Open Center I also found an intuitive reader who lead me to my Reiki teacher. Enter answers, support, and healing wisdom.
Often when we search for something, we feel we aren’t getting anywhere. But so often that experience brings us to the right place and the right time for the extraordinary to happen. And how powerful is that? Just ask the lion spirit animal—according to one of my books, he represents honoring the way the world magically puts things together. ✨
It’s all about the magic. 🙌