The other day I had an awesome opportunity to witness instant manifestation in the making. Now, most often when someone says this sort of thing, one prepares to hear a beautiful story about something wonderful happening because someone chose to set their intent in that direction and it all worked out. This is not a story like that, but it is a word to the wise about setting intentions, indeed!
I was meeting a friend for a coffee date at a local Tim Horton’s restaurant. When I arrived I stepped inside to find myself about 3rd in line, standing behind an elderly couple, and in front of them was a man around my age (NOT elderly!) placing his order. Behind me walked in a group of 4 people. As I am standing in line, I overhear the older woman in front of me say to her husband one of the most despicable things. She said, “Oh, great. The entire staff is made up of BROWN people. Our order is gonna get screwed to high heaven.” Now, normally I might not say anything about anything that I have overheard. But this. Not cool. I cleared my throat and said, “Racist much?” They looked at me behind them, in my black leather jacket and my shades, and cowered a bit. First off, yes there were a lot of brown folks working the counter…something that I had not actually noticed until that wench brought it up. But there were also 2 white folks behind the scenes filling orders. So what her deal was is beyond me.
They get to the counter and order. As he is searching for change to pay for their order 2 coffees are set in front of them. He looks at the coffees and says, at the top of his lungs, “Are those LARGE? I ordered MEDIUM! I am NOT paying for a large!” The man at the till said, “No sir, yours are medium and that is what you paid for.” The man then yells, “Then what are THESE ABOUT?” At that point the man who had placed his order ahead of them steps up and says, “Actually, those ones are mine.” He takes them and the person who set them beside the till instead of at the receiving shelf apologised to both customers. Then the old hag decides that she is paying. But her husband already paid, which the man at the till informed her. Then she yells, “Well did you give us a RECEIPT? WE NEED A RECEIPT!” So he prints off a receipt and hands it to her. She holds up the line to check and make sure that they only paid for medium coffees.
Then their order comes to the receiving counter. As I am placing my order she starts yelling again about how she ordered coconut cream, not whatever it is that was in the bag. The WHITE guy, who filled her order looks in the bag, apologises for the confusion and refills the order properly. They sit down. Unfortunately, the only table left available is beside these idiots. So I sit down and begin my coffee while I wait on my friend to arrive. As I do, they are constantly bitching about how these “stupid BROWN people don’t know how to fill an order to save their lives.” I am energetically shielding myself from this toxic nonsense, but finally I had enough. (This next part is edited a wee bit because there were many expletives used in my comments to them) I looked at them and said, “FIRST off, you are two of the most racist idiots I have encountered in a long time. Secondly, you have no right to say such despicable things about people. Thirdly you should be ASHAMED of yourselves for blaming the “brown people” when it was the WHITE DUDE WHO SCREWED UP YOUR ORDER, WHICH, IF YOU WERE PAYING ONE IOTA OF ATTENTION AND WERE NOT WEARING SHIT COLOURED GLASSES, YOU WOULD HAVE KNOWN.” People were now watching us. They noticed everyone staring at us. The old man said, “Let’s go. We can finish our coffees in the car.” At this I responded, “THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN EXCELLENT IDEA.” There were a LOT of other things I wanted to say, but didn’t because they were now leaving. Off they went. I hope they never return. I then moved to a different table that opened up, and as I did I looked over and saw the man at the till looking at me. He nodded and mouthed “Thank you”. I winked and nodded back. I sat down and within 15 seconds my friend arrived. As I gave him the Reader’s Digest version of what happened, I realised that this would be a very entertaining blog, so here we are.
Now, here is the thing. As hideous as these people were, they demonstrated to me, yet again, the power of suggestion and manifestation. When they walked in and noticed the “brown people” serving at the counter they immediately went into the belief system that brown people are innately flawed and that their order would, therefore, get totally screwed up. And even though it was not the “brown people” who did anything wrong, their order STILL GOT SCREWED UP. Voila! Manifestation! They aced that one!
But the thing is that if they were thinking clearly at all they would not have had that belief system to begin with AND they would have noticed that it was the white dude who was incompetent. They would also not have manifested the entire thing in the first place.
When I go into a food establishment I expect that the food will be good and the service will be stellar. Very rarely am I ever proven wrong on that. And someone has to screw up REALLY BADLY for me to address it with them. I look at it as being grateful that I am able to sit in the establishment and order food for which I can afford to pay and experience the absolute divinity behind not having to cook or to clean up afterwards and I still get fed tasty food. Appreciation is the key. I always tip abundantly because I have worked in the food industry and I know not only that the pay is far under what it should be, but also that the people the servers have to deal with on a daily basis can be horrible at best at times. The service has to be non-existent for me to withhold a tip.
When we look at our lives and the things we have experienced, we have to also look at the lies that we have been fed about those experiences. I don’t know what the older couple ever experienced, but I can be sure that, from the way they acted, they were fed racist nonsense pretty much daily. This not only disgusts me, but it saddens me. It makes me feel dirty that my skin is the same colour tone as is theirs. Yet I am also abundantly aware of the fact that the colour of my skin has very little to do with who I am as a person. Yes, it has indeed afforded me some privilege, which would not have happened had it stayed the same colour tone it was when I was younger. But the thing is that I saw at a very early age how people in my community treated “others”. It did not matter what kind of “other” a person was. They would become a target. If they were poor they were targeted. If they were Ukranian they were targeted. If they were Hungarian they were targeted. If they were Jewish they were targeted. If they were gay they were targeted relentlessly. All the while my head, as a young person, was spinning because I knew this was ALL WRONG and had no power to change it.
Now I do have some power to address things. This is why I was so harsh to the elderly couple. Someone, anyone, had to make their behaviour be understood as unacceptable. I just happened to be the storm that they did not know was brewing in the building. I was always taught to respect my elders, which I do, when they are not acting like idiots and racists. Once they cross certain lines, they get to experience wrath that they never knew existed in our world. So be it. I think more people need to be consciously active on that front, instead of just being offended on social media. It becomes so easy for people to say whatever they want to on social media and think that they are anonymous enough that no one can touch them. But to actually look someone in the eye and stand up to them…that is an entirely different game, one with which I am very familiar.
*Notes:
- I do not make it a habit to be confrontational when out in public places. These people, however, really pissed me off.
- When we look at manifestation in our lives, what we are really looking at is how we think about ourselves and about others, and all of that goes on inside, not outside.
- Sometimes what goes on outside of ourselves is very screwed up. We do not have to immediately assume that we did anything to encourage or manifest that. There is a thing called Free Will. Sometimes one person’s free will broadsides another person’s free will.
- Sometimes when out in public, seeing what people are like, it makes me love my dog a whole hell of a lot more.
- Sometimes when I get back home my dog seems to just know that it was a rough journey and that I need extra cuddles.
- Sometimes when I get back home I discover that my dog left me gifts in anticipation of my return. Once said gifts get cleaned up off the floor, the cuddles begin!