On Winning

Hello friends,

This past week, I had a series of small, unexpected, publishing wins. Each of them came as a wonderful surprise. I feel grateful. I also took each win as a sign that life was moving and flowing in a direction that felt right to me.

This doesn’t mean there haven’t been challenges. So, what does it mean? It means that I’m allowing myself to be open to gifts as they arrive. Mostly? It means I am noticing what is good.

There’s an old magical experiment shared by writer Robert Anton Wilson. The exact operation doesn’t apply much these days, because so many of us no longer carry coins, but the idea remains: Expect to find quarters.

Every person I talked to who did this experiment years ago said that, lo and behold, they started finding quarters everywhere. Why? Because they were paying attention to quarters, where they hadn’t been before. It’s a simple lesson on being present in life, and opening our awareness to our surroundings.

That’s what I’m getting at when talking about this week’s wins.

I wrote more about these wins for my Patreon supporters this week. I made the post public so you can read the rest there. But here’s an excerpt:

In practical mechanics, there’s an understanding that if something is too constricted, things won’t flow. If something becomes too brittle, it breaks more easily.
The opposite can also be true, of course. Some structure and boundaries help to modulate the flow, and lend resilience to systems of all kinds.
The same is true in magical theory. The more tension or fear we operate under, the harder it is to get the results we want. Sometimes this is as simple as becoming too discouraged to try. Other times? We don’t notice gifts that come our way because we have shut ourselves off from the flow.
How do we open up again? We start small. We relax one set of muscles. We find ways to regulate our nervous systems. We find help in unwinding the knots in heart and mind.
We light a candle. We take a breath. We notice the sunlight on a flower, or the clarity of water.
Sometimes, that starting small is as simple as feeling grateful for anything at all.
This isn’t about denying hardship or pain. This is about noticing that, even in the midst of hardship or pain, there is often one small moment of grace.

What wins—small or large—are you noticing lately? And how are you celebrating those wins?

best wishes — Thorn

The Bookshop Witch ebook is free this weekend on Barnes and Noble and Amazon! If you haven’t started this bonkers cozy series yet, now’s your chance. Read it already? Please tell a friend.