The Power of the Pea

I just ate my fourth bowl of black-eyed peas of the day and will be dipping in for more in a few minutes. You see, when I was a child my Pap-pa told me that for every black-eyed pea you eat on New Year's Day, you'll earn a dollar in the coming year. I figure that if the going rate was a dollar per pea in Pap-pa's day (when a dollar a day was a good, living wage), that the value has to have gone up by now. Eating a crock pot full of black-eyed peas, therefore, will ensure a very successful year.

So, how exactly does this work? Because it has seemed to work for me these past few years. I've won a good amount of cash and some valuable prizes. I think it works for me because I believe in the power of the pea.

A few days ago, I had lunch with a friend who's as avid a sweeper as I am and another old friend who saw our sweeping chat on Facebook and wanted in on the action. They've both read The Secret - the popular book about the Law of Attraction. I've never read the book, but I have seen a few minutes of the video online, and I've read about it. I was introduced to the concept some 20 years ago, by an actor friend who had read Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain. This friend told me that when she was looking for a new place to live, she imagined the perfect townhouse in the perfect neighborhood at a great location in the city, and she turned down a street and there it was, just as she had imagined, down to the color of the buildings and the layout of the rooms.

Ms. Gawain was not the first to write of this concept. On Wikipedia, you can read The Science of Getting Rich written by Wallace D. Wattles in 1910; he called the concept Thinking Substance.

Imagine what you want. Believe it will come to you, and it will. That's the Law of Attraction. Creative Visualization. Thinking Substance. The Power of Prayer.

I remember hearing a story long ago about a friend of a friend who was not well off financially, she may have been disabled, and she really wanted a piano. She prayed and prayed for delivery of a piano. When out of the blue things fell into place in such a way that she was offered a piano at no cost, she gave credit to God and prayer. My dad told me the story of helping their new preacher move into a parsonage house recently purchased by the church. Standing in the room designated for the preacher's youngest daughter, the church members offered to re-paint it. Not necessary, the preacher said, for his daughter had prayed that in their new house, her room would be pink and purple, and that's exactly what it was.

Gives you chills, doesn't it?

So when I eat my bowl of black-eyed peas, I'm believing in the goodness and prosperity they will bring me over the next 364 days. Perhaps a grand prize win of thousands of dollars cash. Maybe another trip to New York or L.A. In the past year, I've won a laptop computer, a jousting helmet, DVDs, free food coupons and gift cards, books, and all kinds of products.

I credit the peas of 01/01/2009.

As you go through 2010, believe in yourself, be steadfast in your dreams, and may the year bring you everything you desire.