“Everything is lit with hope and sparkles with a gentle friendliness.”—A Course in Miracles

“I tie no weights to my ankles.” –C. JoyBell C

When my friend Robbin was a little girl, she had two burning questions: 1. How were the giraffes getting to Kansas? 2. And why don’t we want them peeping in our windows?

Every night, Robbin’s mom insisted she close her bedroom windows to avoid….well, Robbin always thought she said giraffes. Needless to say, she eventually figured out it was “drafts” her mom hoped to keep out, but for quite a while, she was extremely puzzled why her mother wouldn’t want those really cool, really tall animals stopping by for a visit. After all, they paid good money to see them at the zoo.

I thought of this story last night when someone on Facebook mentioned they had set the intention to manifest a giraffe. While I assumed it was a joke (although that is one of my new intentions for this week), I later saw that indeed a giraffe showed up in, not 48 hours, but in four days. Pretty powerful manifestation either way.

But the reason I share this story is because Robbin’s innocent misinterpretation is a good metaphor for the perceptual mistakes we make every day when we get up expecting difficulties and unhappiness. For that matter, getting up every morning and expecting “this day” to be a repeat of yesterday (and we all do) is a huge misinterpretation and a giant fence that keeps the world’s unlimited abundance from flowing in the windows.

We do ourselves a huge disservice when we don’t open up and allow for magic and joy. Because we cling so tightly to “what we know,” the world’s largesse is locked out along with the drafts and the giraffes.

As for me, I let yesterday go and open the windows, the doors and maybe even the roof so blessings and new possibilities can come rushing in.

Pam Grout is the author of 16 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.