Are you open to what is appearing in your life right now?

When life presents something, you don’t always need to know how it’s going to turn out. Just stay open to what is appearing now, that is where the magic is. Enjoy my video or read the transcript below:

One of my greatest experiences happened to me after I had been in India.

I was making some jewelry on the plane flying back to the United States.

Making jewelry was something I loved to do, I’d always have my jewelry making supplies with me so I could make my jewelry on longer flights. There were even times I’d give “up in the air” discounts to flight attendants. When they’d walk past me and say, “Oh nice!” I’d ask, “What do you want? I’ll custom design it.” And I’d give those “up in the air” discounts and pay for my plane ticket by the time I got to the other side of the world.

Anyway, one such time I was sitting there after I had been in India, making my jewelry.

A woman came walking by, looked down and said, “Hmm, nice!”

She was a passenger, and although I had specifically moved my seat so I could be alone,

she sat down next to me and we started talking.

She said, “What are you doing?” and I said, “Making jewelry.” And one thing led to another, and next thing you know I’m helping her to make two really bad bracelets for her daughters.

After a while had gone by, I asked curiously, “Ruth,” which was her name, “What do you do?”

She paused and said, “I have an organization in Bangalore that supports women who have been suppressed, raped and beaten.”

I blurted out, “Oh my God!” And she said, “Yes, we have about 25,000 women that are part of the organization.”

We continued to talk throughout the flight, and when we arrived at our stop, she asked me, “Janet, do you think someday maybe you could teach this to my girls?”

“Teach jewelry?” I asked, a little surprised.

“Yes,” she said, “Can you teach jewelry making to my girls, so they’d have some skill?”

Without much thought, I replied casually, “Yeah, yeah. Okay.”

So we exchanged email addresses and went our separate ways.

This was right around Christmas time, and after I arrived back to the United States all I could think about was Ruth and the girls. For about four days I just couldn’t stop thinking about them!

I finally decided that I’ve got to go back to India, that I’ve got to go back and teach these girls how to make jewelry.

So I put all of my jewelry making tools together, bought a ticket, and off I went.

I remember everything so well. I remember getting on my plane at Cedar Rapids, on my way to Minneapolis, from which I’d go to Delhi.

While on my plane from Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis, I have a complete meltdown.

Suddenly, it became so clear to me what I had done.

I paid full amount for the flight, right in the middle of Christmas season, to fly across the world before I had even gotten a hold of Ruth.

I thought, “I’m going to India to teach women how to make jewelry? I’ve never taught anyone how to make jewelry!” and all of a sudden I broke into a major meltdown.

“I can’t believe how stupid you are!” I said to myself.

“You are so stupid; I can’t believe you did this! How could you do this?”

I continued to curse and torment myself during that flight, and by the time I arrived in Minneapolis, I ran straight to a phone and called my dear friend Rodica.

I said, “Rodica! I can’t believe I did this, what a dork I am! How could I do this? How could I buy a ticket without even knowing if Ruth is going to be there?!”

Rodica, in her firm voice, said to me calmly, “Jani, the Force is with you. Get on that plane!”

So, I got on the plane and did exactly what Rodica said.

What was significant to me, was that the moment I stepped onto that plane, all my fears vanished. It was really strange because before that, I was so hyper anxiety ridden.

On the way, I checked my emails to find that Ruth had emailed me back.

It said, “Jani, yay! I’ll have about 20 girls ready for you to teach. We are so excited!”

So, I flew to Delhi, and from Delhi I flew to Bangalore where Ruth and the girls were.

As I walked into the room where I was to meet the girls, I immediately noticed how terribly filthy the room was. And the temperature must have been 100 degrees, it was scorching hot.

Then I noticed the beautiful girls and their smiling faces. Ruth then looked at me and said, “Jani, they wore their very best dress.” I looked at her and said, “Wow.” And then she said, “Jani, they wore their only dress.” To which I replied, “Whoa, got it, Ruth.”

Ruth explained to me how poor these girls were, how they lived in little huts, and how they slept by the side of the highway so that the rats wouldn’t eat their feet because the cars would scare the rats away. I was shocked. I exclaimed, “Oh my God!”, I just couldn’t believe it.

That whole week I taught all the girls how to make jewelry. I kept thinking to myself, “Oh my God, this is so great for them. This is so great for them!”

By the end of the week, I decided that I was going to start a jewelry club. I called it, “the Janima Jewelry Club” and told them, “The best of you are going to graduate!”

Of course, I graduated everyone.

I said to them, “You will all be a part of this jewelry club. You can send your jewelry to me, and I’ll send it to my girlfriends! You’ll be able to earn money, and we’ll have this great thing going together!”

And that’s exactly what we did.

But the greatest thing for me about all of this happened at the end of the week when I was leaving. None of the girls spoke English, but at the end of the week they all stood up and said together in unison,

“We love you, Janima!”

And it was when they said that, that I realized it wasn’t them who were the lucky ones.

I had been the lucky one. I was the one who got to see these beautiful angels who had absolutely nothing walk in every day acting as if they had been given everything. I saw them being so filled with gratitude, so thankful for every moment that they got to spend with me.

So, what I would like to say, is this;

When life presents something, you don’t always need to know how it’s going to turn out. Just stay open to what is appearing now, because when you stay open to what is appearing now, that is where the magic is; that is where the gifts are.

With love

Janet Bray Attwood

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