“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Albert Einstein.What do you want?

We all want something. I want a writing career that reaches masses. I want my beautiful historic home restoration complete. I want to learn to surf in Bali. I want an opal geode. I want a brownie with a cheesecake marbled ribbon from Alice Jules (a local coffee shop).

For me, wanting is fun, but it used to not be. I had a feeling of lack behind every desire. Everything felt far away or like it was for someone else. As I began to recognize the angst and doubt buried under my dreams, I could feel they would never be realized if did not believe they ever could.

As I began to consciously shift my feelings around my goals, things began to move. Instead of feeling like move-in day would never happen, I imagined how it would feel to move into my home. Instead of stressing about how in the hell to get a book published, I imagined holding it in my hands, thumbing the pages and hugging it to my chest. Instead of staring longingly at Old Gringo Bonnies on a catalog page, I imagined stomping around in them.

Once these things actually began to happen and roll out before me, I noticed a few things.

1. I still want stuff. Getting your Bonnies only means that now you want Lakotas (in black, if you’re wondering). There is always another oil, rock or milk glass piece to discover. Wanting does not stop. Ever. Maybe if you’re dead, but I don’t know. If you are waiting for things to come to you to get happy, by the time they are here, you are on to the next thing. No, you’re not greedy. You are normal. Embrace the wanting. It is what propels us to move. Get cozy with it. Thank it. It means you are alive.

2. I appreciate the time it can take for things to happen now. Our minds change. If Karl and I had finished our home as quickly as we wanted at that time, we would need to change it again now. If Jennifer and I had written and published Oscar’s Journey as quickly as we felt we “should” have, it would look very different moving forward. That is fine, but I am thrilled for what is coming with having had the time. Some things happen quickly, some don’t. Just trust everything is happening for the best. Be grateful now. Patience is truly a virtue and things can be better than your wildest dreams. So let them.

3. Happiness doesn’t come from the stuff -the manifestation- it comes from you. There is a time that hearing this would piss me off and totally annoy me. [Sequencing deep, teenage-style eye roll]. I mean everyone says this, so we all think we know it already. But you have to feel its truth. You have to feel that at the end of this want, is another want. (Refer to #1.)

4. Finally, anything you want, you do actually already have it. It is always with you and it can never leave you. Use your imagination…

Let yourself stomp around on your historic wooden kitchen floors in your cowboy boots to music while your kids read your book. Go there, in your glorious mind, as often as you can. It is the best tool you have. Feel the fun in your heart. Make it real to you. Delude yourself as much as possible.

Who gives a shit about what people think or what reality says? You don’t have to tell a soul what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours! Just go there. Write about it, day dream, make it fun! Best yet, do tell another soul about it! Find a weird friend that you can share with and shares with you too! I only surround myself with weirdos now. They are supernatural.

Happiness starts within you now. Not then or when. Now. Believing is the only way to ever see.

So. What do you want?