So you want to travel? Here’s how

“The power of gathering inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive.” –Alice Waters

My vision for this blog is to celebrate what’s possible. To remind myself (and anyone who cares to read along) of all that’s going right in the world.

I think it’s important to keep talking about miracles, to keep the story about our connection—to each other and to the bigger thing that orchestrates it all—on the front burner.

I do this to be in service to the new world that’s trying to be born.

To that end, I’d like to share a few “travel stories.” As most of you know, I’m a travel writer. So I’m especially excited to share these three manifestations from readers. Enjoy!!

1. “My girlfriend’s birthday was coming up and I knew that she wanted it to be a special one with just the two of us.

“Not having enough funds at the time for a weekend getaway, I left it up to the universe. I wrote down what I wanted: a trip for two within a three hour radius of home, an overnight stay in a nice hotel or B&B with nice places to walk nearby and lots of things to do. I put it away for the month and the day before her birthday,I sent a couple text messages out to friends that may have known about an inexpensive country place and the first one to write back had an entire weekend package that include a wonderful hotel, tourist tickets to nearby attractions, dinner for two and an open bar tab at a local pub. I pitched in and bought all the fixings for a picnic basket and we visited a local winery too. It was amazing serendipity!”

2. “Your book couldn’t have come at a better time. (Not that there’s a wrong time for embracing manifesting what you want in your life!) I used to play games with manifestation and believed that anything was possible. It was like having a Genie in a bottle that I could summon at my whim at any time I wanted. Fast forward through a very emotionally and financially devastating divorce and I suffered from manifesting amnesia,,,that is until I was told about E2.

“Your book has reawakened what is possible. I read and did the experiments in the first several chapters and with each one I brushed off the dust on the magic that for some unknown reason I had shelved for over eight years.

“It wasn’t until I hit the chapter on calling something into your life and giving it a 48 hour time frame in which to materialize that I was reunited with the gift. While I wrote down in my log what I wanted to have transpire, I thought “Go big or go home!” I wished to manifest a free airline ticket to someplace exotic that I had not been before.

“It seemed very ballsy to put such a brief deadline on something so outrageous! I did so and threw caution to the wind on a Monday at noon .I envisioned going to my mailbox and taking out a ticket with my name printed on it. I imagined how ecstatic I would feel when I was packing for my trip abroad. I visualized possible ways that I might be alerted to my free ticket. I thought about contests that I had entered online over the past year and perhaps I would be emailed that I was the lucky winner!

“Well, Wednesday at noon rolled around and the 48 hours was up. However, I had not yet been informed about my free airline ticket. I did not lose hope. Instead, I was convinced that the ticket was on it’s way and that perhaps I had a new mailman that was detaining my ticket. Or, that the email informing me was sitting in my spam folder. I was not wavering from the fact that my airline ticket was coming.

“The following day, I met a coworker for Happy Hour. We spent the first few minutes catching up and then out of the blue she said, “I have something to ask you, and don’t say no until you hear me out.” I sat back and heard her continue, “I am going on a trip and want you to come with me. I will pay for the airfare and the hotel, all you have to do is pay for your meals. I want us to go to Barcelona Spain!”

“I sat there beaming and totally floored. Not only was it such a generous offer, but my wish for a free airline ticket to someplace exotic had just been delivered in the most unexpected way! I, of course, told her about E2 and the experiment. I told her, jokingly, “So, you were a day late, but I’ll take it!” She replied with, “Actually, I started thinking about you being the person I would ask two days ago!” She ordered both of your books (E2 and E3) on the spot.”

3. “My name is Michelle, I’m 22 years old and come from Germany. I owe you and your books a lot and I want to tell you about my story and why I want to thank you. I started reading “E-Squared” a year ago and like many other people I discovered how powerful our thoughts can be and enjoyed testing these experiments. I’ve learned that the experiment number 5, where the field of energy gives me a reliable answer to a certain question, works for me in an especially impressive way.

“I’ve accomplished my university degree two months ago and felt the desire to go abroad before I would start working in a publishing house in October. But you must know that I was a frightened girl ore more specifically in everyday situations I was a very confident and balanced person, but the idea of traveling alone or live outside my comfort zone frightened me in a terrible way. The absurd thing: I WANTED to travel, to meet new people, to gain experience, to see other countries. But the fear was always bigger.

“After my high school I’ve planned to travel Europe for three months…I cancelled my trip 3 days before my departure because of fear. A few years later I got the chance to live in Ireland for a study abroad. I‘ve won out applicants for this place at university….and cancelled it a few weeks before my departure so another student could get this place.

“But this time, I knew I have to do it. And then I saw a documentation about the Way of St. James and I was very excited. In the following weeks I’ve read a lot about this pilgrimage across France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela, which would take 2 months. I knew that I wanted to do this walk and also knew that I have to do it alone). But of course, there was this little stupid spoilsport named fear, who said to me: “Are you serious, Michelle? You just can’t walk 900 kilometers through two countries by your own. You can’t even speak Spanish. By the way, it’s a little bit dangerous, don’t you think so? And it’s also physically demanding. You just can’t do that, you little silly girl!”

“But this time, I decided to not listen to this voice. I knew that meanwhile a lot of young women walk this Way of St. James on their own and that it is not dangerous. But of course I was still frightened, so I did the experiment number 5 and asked the field whether I should do this journey. The results were amazing!!!

“1. The next morning, I checked my mails and got an (automatic) message from my Amazon Prime that one single movie was put online today and that “they” want to recommend me this movie. And what was it? The movie “The Way”, in which the outstanding Martin Sheen walks the Way of St. James across Spain.

2. At the same day, I took a bus to visit a friend in the city where I studied. Next to me an elderly woman suddenly took a book out of her handbag. I was shocked and happy at the same time. It was the novel “I’m Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago” by Hape Kerkeling. He is a very famous comedian in Germany, who wrote this novel about his pilgrimage a few years ago. I got into conversation with her and she told me that she regrets she didn’t walk the way when she was younger.

3. The next day, my friend wanted to check out a new restaurant. It was a beautiful sunny day and the waiter leaded us to the only table which was still free. And there it was! The table stood directly in front of a tree, on which a scallop was depicted. The scallop is THE symbol for the Way of St. James and the pilgrims. It also marks the way which you have to follow to Santiago, it’s the signpost. At home, I did research and discovered: the Way of St. James also runs across the city I studied for the last three years. I had no idea!

4. In the evening, my aunt called me and asked me whether I wanted to go to the cinema with her. I asked “ Sure, which movie”, but I already guessed it. “I’m Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago. Did you know they made a film of Hape’s novel?” I was so grateful and knew I got my answer.

But I wanted to go one better because it was so inspiring and also fun do get my answer from the universe. So I said to the field: “Ok, my dear. What about a small challenge? If you want me to walk the Way of St. James this summer, will you please ensure that my parents (who didn’t know anything about my plans at that time) will give me a small, light, brown and bound in leather book for a Christmas present. I will use it as my travel journal.”….and a few weeks later on Christmas Eve my parents give me EXACTLY what I asked the universe before. When I unpacked my present, I started crying and tell my parents the whole story. They were shocked and explained that they saw this book at a Christmas market and felt that I should have it. It was so wonderful!!!

So now the arrangements were made and I will start my journey next month.”

Stay tuned, dear readers, because Michelle just emailed me again. She’s back from her amazing journey and yes, miracles abounded.

To be continued.

Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the about to be released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy