My Dad was a patient man.  I remember helping him plant two trees in our backyard when I was in my teens.  He explained to me that the two trees were to be a certain distance apart.  The reason for that specific distance was that when they would someday grow big enough, he was going to hang a hammock between them.  Being surprised by my Dad was a frequent occurrence, but I was impressed with my Dad’s faith and optimism then.  There was no doubt in his mind that hammock would one day be there, in fact we often talked about how he would rest there in the shade of those trees, after cutting the grass, a cold drink in his hand.

When I woke up this morning, I pulled an Angel card to get an idea of my theme for the day.  The message was basically “don’t be pessimistic.”  I kind of went hmmmm to myself because I wasn’t anticipating feeling that way today.  Okay, so on I go with my day.

Since it was one of our first warm spring days, I decided to remove one of the stumps in our newly purchased lot next door.  I set a goal that that stump would be out by the end of the day.  It was quite rotted, and it did move a little, but the main root was still firm in the ground.  Even when I dug out the dirt around the stump and sawed through as far as I could with my little battery operated reciprocating saw, I could not get it to snap off.

Some days I might have growled at this point, but I decided to just continue and cut some wedges into the trunk so I could reach the center.  But the saw battery chose that moment to die.  Some days I might have become disheartened, and I did think of how this job had become harder than I had hoped.  Then the thought occurred to me to try to talk to the stump and ask it to work with me.  I asked for permission to snap off that stump and said that I would return the stump to the land and bury it there to replenish the soil.  I asked the stump and the land and my spirit team to help me, because I was getting quite tired and would like to get onto the next phase of the project so I could start planting.  I tried to break the stump again, but it wouldn’t budge, so I walked away to put the battery on charge and just left the possibilities open.

After running some errands, I grabbed the battery and went out to do battle, in an attempt to accomplish my goal for the day.  When the saw blade touched the stump, I noticed the stump moved differently.  So I pushed on the stump again, and I heard a crack.  I was surprised that I wasn’t surprised. What a relief to finally separate the top of that stump, and I immediately had the feeling that it went so much easier than it would have, had I gotten pissed at it.

I immediately gave thanks for the help in making the job easier.  I was astounded at the love and support for something small and silly like this, but boy was I grateful.  I mean, tears in my eyes grateful and it was mostly to my Dad.  I kept my promise to return the stump to the earth, to replenish it.  It was then that I remembered my morning message for the day.  Had I chosen or let myself become pessimistic, I probably would have hijacked and blocked the flow of energy that facilitated the stump breaking.  By having faith, almost in a optimistic playful way, like my Dad taught me, I was able to manifest an easier, almost magical way to accomplish the goal… and it was so much easier, and took much less energy.

Those two trees my Dad and I planted in his backyard did indeed grow large and strong enough to hang that hammock.  It took about 10 or so years, and I had young children by then.  I got to explain to them how Grandpa and I planted those trees in their places for the purpose of hanging the hammock in which they were giggling and swinging.  I told them how we nurtured those trees over the years and made sure they had enough water when there was a drought, and kept the weeds from growing too close to their trunks.  We planted them with the faith that those trees would grow strong and that one day we would indeed hang that hammock, and used playful optimism to fuel the manifestation into reality.