Letting the Tennis Balls Find You

I was on a walk with my dog the other day in the woods, thinking about all the changes happening in my life and the shifts in my business and work life. A long time ago, before I really fully understood manifesting, I had read a book where the person talked about asking the universe to show you signs for anything you feel like you're questioning or needing some confirmation about. For some reason that popped into my mind that day in the woods, and at the beginning of the walk I thought to myself, well, if my dog finds a tennis ball - which she seems to do a lot - that will be confirmation that I'm heading in the right direction. Maybe just today I need a little bit of that outside confirmation frpm the universe.

So we went on the walk, and it was a beautiful day. We were in the woods, she was in the stream, we saw other dogs and a really cute kid, my the dog licked the kid's face. It was great. I had kind of forgotten about the tennis ball thing, though. For a moment I remembered it and thought, wow, imagine if we found like five tennis balls. Anyway, we went on the walk, and I was about 95% done, getting towards the end, and I remembered — oh right, the tennis balls. Huh. I didn't find any.

Then I walked a little further and heard a rustling next to my foot. It was a huge garter snake. Nothing that would have hurt me, but a big fat one. I guess they come out in the Spring. Luckily my dog was a little further away and didn't see it as I don't know what she would have done. I kind of jumped because it startled me.

And then I started thinking: well, shoot, I didn't find a tennis ball. Instead I saw a big fat, kind of yucky snake - although I shouldn't say yucky, I just don't like snakes. I thought, well, does that mean anything negative? Is that a message from the universe?

And then literally five steps later, right in front of me on the trail, was a dirty old tennis ball. Right there, right towards the end of the walk. I saw it before my dog saw it, then she saw it, got excited, grabbed it in her mouth, and off we went. Although she actually ended up leaving it behind on the trail, which I thought was kind of interesting. It made me think of abundance - maybe she knew that she has so many tennis balls that she doesn't need another one. Which I thought was kind of cool.

I couldn't help but smile as I thought, well, you thought you were just getting a snake, but you actually got a tennis ball. And there it was, right at the end, when you weren't thinking it was going to happen. You had a moment of doubt and the universe reminded you: you've got this, keep going. And maybe tomorrow some other dog will find that tennis ball on the trail.

Just to add one more thing - when I told my teenage daughter about this, she laughed and kind of rolled her eyes, like, "Oh Mom, you're so new-agey." And then she said a very funny thing. Our dog's name is Millie, and she said, "You know, Millie doesn't find the tennis balls - the tennis balls find her." I love that way of looking at it. I will leave you with that.