Normally I would have run down to the beach to greet the boat and get the money and the packages, but on this day it was pouring rain and I waited in my room. One of the guys brought up a piece of exercise equipment I had bought and I started to put it together, waiting for my captain to bring me the money. He always keeps it in his personal bag. It takes him a while to get up to my room, he has to clean the boat, kayak in from the boat to the beach, put stuff away, etc. etc. So I thought nothing when over an hour passed and he still hadn’t arrived.

As I was rejoicing in my ability to put together this complicated piece of equipment by myself, I was listening to the soundtrack from Legends of the Fall, which I now associate with the Abraham-Hicks “The Secret Behind the Secret” part of the soundtrack from that DVD. That music (and the DVD) always puts me in the State of Bliss that I have so often now, much of it thanks to Abraham and some of the things said in that video.

So as I am tightening screws, my captain comes to my door with a long face. He can see that I am extremely happy as I showed him my accomplishment, and said, “See, I don’t need a guy for these things!” He shifts back and forth and says (in Spanish, of course) “I am going to ruin your day.” My first thought is something happened to my boat. My heart starts to pound. “Your money got stolen.” My first reaction was NO WAY, HE’S JOKING. Licho, my captain, is always so careful. My mind is racing. I start to think of how I was going to pay everyone, I had funds all worked out and I have to transfer money around to get it here, etc. etc.

Licho goes on to explain that he put the bag of money inside another bag with all the receipts from the day and the key to his motorcycle. He put the bag in one of the vegetable boxes and sent it to the beach with everything else. Licho had brought three people from town, two policemen and Norberto, a local whom I have had problems with before. He is a nice guy when he is not drinking, but when he drinks, like many of the natives around here, becomes a totally different person. He had come over here with a machete threatening me a few months ago. He had stolen things from me, from neighbors, etc. etc. He likes to drink and do crack and coke too.

It is pretty obvious who stole the money. Between two policemen and Norberto, who had come back drunk and with a bottle in his hand, it didn’t take a CSI detective to figure this one out….. I remembered that the day that Norberto had come over with the machete, I was watching “What the Bleep?” with a friend of mine, my first time watching it. I was totally into the movie and in a state of bliss at what I was learning, and at that moment Norberto comes and threatens me. I don’t know what would have happened if my friend wasn’t here, but because there was a guy with me, Norberto backed off and left.

Just two days before the theft, I had gone next door to where Norberto lives (okay, “next door” is half a mile away, this is the jungle, remember!) I was tired of being frightened that he would arrive one day with a machete again, and had a nice conversation with him. After all, I had never done anything against him, except turn down his advances!!! That is no reason to come onto my property with a machete, totally drunk! Anyway he apologized, “I was drunk, I am so sorry, wont happen again”, bla bla bla and said that next time he would come over with flowers instead of a machete. Oh boy, I couldn’t wait!

Norberto had stolen my money while I was in another state of bliss, listening to music that reminds me of Abraham and just really happy! Okay, time to deal with this. I grabbed onto the first downstream thought I could. Thank GOD that my taxi guy couldn’t get all the money out of the ATM, or there would have been even more money stolen!! That was a good one! Here we go, downstream….. woooo hoooooo!!

Then I started thinking. Ok, first. Why did these two things happen with Norberto both times when I was in a state of bliss? My answer came immediately. It is not for us to be in total bliss all the time. If it was, then we might as well be in non-physical form. If it was just all bliss, all the time, how would we know what bliss was because there would be nothing to contrast it to! Bliss would just be bliss and we would know no other way. The contrast (such a great word for “shit happens”) comes to help us to expand and grow and call us forth into further awareness and even deepened bliss. If we were just in bliss all the time, then we would be done! The contrast is there to create new desires, of course, which in turn create new growth and expansion! The joy is in the ride, in the journey. The purpose of life is life! I had a new desire to work my way up the emotional scale with the thoughts that had caused me to get my money stolen so it would stop, because this was not the first time. A white butterfly lands on me as I have these thoughts. Okay, got that part right!

I have the Abraham-Hicks “Ask and It is Given” cards and so I chose one after this happened and it was: “I learn to Pay Attention to my Feelings” Your emotions are absolute indicators of your current point of attraction. They help you know, in any moment, whether or not you are currently allowing the fulfillment of your desire. It is our encouragement that you pay attention to how you feel and allow your emotions to be the valuable indicators they are.

I now remembered that I had said several times recently and in the past that Norberto was going to steal from me. My cousin, Barbara, had come last year to help run the hotel in its final weeks because I was completely DONE with it and couldn’t take it anymore. In the time she was here, she fell in “lust” with another local boy, Jairo, a friend of Norberto’s. At the time, Jairo was a friend of mine too, but AFTER HE STOLE FROM ME a couple of times after Barbara had left, I stopped hanging out with him.

I knew Barbara would want him here while I was gone. I said “No way, he will steal from me or he will tell Norberto that I am gone and Norberto will come and steal from me.” I said it in emails and on the phone to her. My big fear was while I was gone, that Norberto or Jairo would come and steal from me!!! I GOT EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING AND TALKING ABOUT!!!! It just happened before I left, not while I was gone. Ah yes, my stream if flowing faster now!!!

BA (Before Abraham) my thoughts about this theft would have gone something like, “What did I do wrong? What did I do in a past life? Did I not tithe enough? That mother f-ker, SEE I KNEW HE WOULD DO IT, I was right, bla bla bla. But I’ve got to tell you, there is SO MUCH POWER in saying, okay, what about my THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS created this? There is so much more power in that! There is great power in knowing that you created it and that you can fix it within yourself. I don’t need to change the world and drunk Costa Rican neighbors!!! Just me!!! It is the feeling of powerlessness that gets people so upset and mad and irrational. I could very well feel powerless in this situation, that the theft happened to me, that I can’t control people stealing from me, etc. But I KNOW that I totally created this!!

It is nighttime now as I write this. A HUGE butterfly just hit me right in the face. Seriously. It is about seven inches across and has four see-through “windows” in it’s wings. It has now landed on the material I have wrapped around my light, and there it stays as I write…..

Anyway, I think that the people around me were surprised that I was not upset and mad, but actually continued being calm and even happy through it all. It is because I feel so empowered knowing that me and only me created it. And what good would being upset and mad do me? It wouldn’t change what happened. Of course, Norberto has his own thoughts going on, but it is in the perfection of the Law of Attraction that we both got what we were thinking about!

By the way, the police came today and questioned Norberto (and found him with pot ready to sell in individual bags!) and they talked to all the people who he bought things from, seems he went on a shopping/party spree yesterday. He was taken to their office and has been charged, but not put in jail yet, things work a bit differently here in Costa Rica. But it doesn’t matter to me now. I want to expand me! (How selfish!!!)