“The vibrations of mental forces are the finest and most powerful in existence”–Charles Haanel

“It’s a healthy thing to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”–Bertrand Russell

Not only do readers send inspiring stories about the experiments in my book, E-Squared, but they also send links and TED talks and lots of related anecdotes. This one came to me last week, and after securing permission to share, I’m doing just that.

Thank you, Michele, for sending this along.

“I was a single mom of two little boys and each night we did our prayers, but it was more me telling them that what they focus on will eventually come about. When my oldest son was around 6 years old we were doing our prayers when he announced that he wanted a turtle, and that is what he was going to ask for.

I couldn’t back down from what I always told them and I didn’t want to put any doubt in his mind at all. But what was I going to say when he didn’t get this turtle after I had always told them this “asking for and believing thing” works! Oh well, I kissed him and told him to hold that thought, but as I turned my back I immediately started to worry about what was I going to say and how was I going to explain to him when this didn’t happen!

“At around 10:30 pm there was a knock at my door, and believe me it scared me silly! I cautiously went to the door and peered through the window. I threw me off when I saw my girlfriend’s-cousin’s-husband standing there. Now he didn’t have a very good reputation and we never talked to each other, but curiosity won over and I opened the door slowly.

“Very sheepishly and with reserve he stammered and finally just blurted out, “So sorry if I startled you, but as you know I work as the maintenence guy for the county golf course, and occationally I find turtles on the fields. I just found this turtle and put it in my truck to take to my two boys. When I was driving home something just told me that maybe your boys would want this as I always bring these home for my boys.

“So, uh, heres a turtle if you think your boys would want it. Uh … good night….” and he quickly turned and walked away. I was dumbfounded! and said thank you and accepted this turtle, and that was it! I was not on his route home, he had to go out of his way. We never spoke of it, and really we just went on never speaking directly to each other again unless we were in a group.

“The next morning I told my son and he just went along like “of course I got a turtle, that’s what I asked for” attitude, but to me it was mindblowing and proof that we should always have the faith of a child.”