How Making a Petition to the Universe Got Us a Free Car
Have you ever asked the Universe for something, something perhaps a little outlandish and unlikely, and then somehow had this thing spontaneously appear in your life?
I have.
In fact, it happened to me just recently. Considering my previous blog posts about ‘the revolutionary power of synchronicity’, I think this short tale is worth telling.
Road Trips
It all started with the fact that, over the last few years, we have spent quite a lot of money on rental cars. From our off-grid explorations at Freedom Farm in Teruel, to the trip to the little round house in Gredos, we have grown accustomed to renting cars to make trips like these happen.
This can be summarised in one word: expensive! We probably could have bought a car with the amount of money we spent on car rental for those trips!
When we were on the way back from our Christmas break in the mountainous area of Gredos in 2021, I felt so inspired to keep on exploring rural Spain. But how were we going to do that if we didn’t have a car to do so?
Having to rent a car to explore was making what would otherwise be a cheap trip into an expensive one. It clearly wasn’t sustainable in the long run.
But the public transport in rural areas in Spain leaves a lot to be desired, with many places only really accessible by car. If we were going to figure out where we want to move to, we had to be more mobile.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew that the only option was to buy a car.
But there was just one problem with that: we didn’t have the money. Plus, I had just quit my job. Hardly the right time to splash out on a vehicle.
Petition to the Universe
As we were driving, a thought crossed my mind: “Basically, I want a car but I don’t want to pay for one”.
I began to laugh to myself. What a ridiculous idea!
I was in good spirits after spending time with my friend Harmony and her husband whose finca we had visited just before leaving Gredos. Riding this high, I began to warm to this idea.
https://shared-earthliving.com/searching-for-alternative-rural-spain/
Feeling inspired and audacious, I decided to take it one step further. I decided to enlist the help of the Universe to see if we could make this ridiculous idea manifest.
Inwardly, I began to direct my intention to the Universe at large.
“I need to be able to explore the mountain villages close to Madrid at the weekend but to do so we need a car. But here’s the thing: I don’t want to pay for one. Could you help us out with this please?”.
Playfully, I even said it outloud:
“I want a car but I don’t want to pay for one!”
Part of me was doing this in jest. Did I really think that someone was just going to come up to us and say “here, have my car”?
Yeh right!
Yet deep down, I was being deadly serious.
Outwardly, I was laughing, but inwardly I was honing my focus. My intention was clear, firm and strong. I had my inner poker face on and I meant business.
I put it out there one my time: “I want a car but I don’t want to pay for one”.
Then I let it go and we continued on our journey back to the city.
We brought in the new year at home drinking hot chocolate, wearing fluffy slippers and reminiscing about the amazing time we had spent in the little round house.
Patience
Guess what happened next?
Nothing.
And then more nothing, followed my more nothing.
I was working hard on my permaculture design course and trying to figure out what my next move was going to be now that I was free of the confines of the 9-5.
But I hadn’t forgotten about my petition.
New Developments
Then we got the news that we were going to have a family visit. Sergio’s mum and her partner were coming from Argentina to stay with us in June, a month before I was due to leave Spain to work in the UK for the summer.
They had big plans: spend time with us in Madrid, visit family in Galicia and Palma de Mallorca, and finally, a road trip around Europe, passing through Spain, Portugal, Italy and France.
Not a bad plan, ey?
However, in order to do it, they were missing a vital ingredient. A car!
A few weeks after they arrived, they finally found one that they liked, a second-hand, blue Peugeot. Not exactly a ferrari but it would surely get them around Europe nicely.
I didn’t think much of it, and set off on my return to the UK.
Grand Plan
A month into my trip Sergio told me he had some good news. They were going to leave the car with us once they go back to Argentina!
“They what?”, I said, a bit surprised. “But how are we going to pay them back?”.
That’s when he told me the grand plan they had hatched. We were going to rent out it on the same car-sharing websites that we had used to rent cars for our previous trips.
That way they could make a return on the money they had paid and still have a car when they return to Spain in the future.
Of course, I was pleased with this news. Having access to a car would give us the freedom to travel and get to know rural Spain better – a vital step on our journey.
I was keen to see what was happening in the villages around Madrid, feeling certain that there must be some alternative communities doing interesting things. I wanted to find them and join in! A car would make this possible.
Had my wish been granted? It certainly seemed that way. We were, in effect, going to get a car for free.
But we all know that theory and practice do not always match up. I knew better than to get ahead of myself.
“I’ll believe it when I see it”, I thought. Best to wait and see how the land lies when I return to Madrid at the end of the summer.
September 2022
I had been back in Madrid just a few weeks when my in-laws returned from their trip.
They are well into their 70’s, but this hadn’t stopped them from having a great adventure. They had travelled 1000’s of kilometres and arrived without much forewarning after driving down from France exhausted.
They spent the next month and half resting and relaxing with us and spending quality family time together. Excitingly, the plan about renting out the car still stood. Sergio went about fitting it with a better radio and giving it a good clean, ready to publish online.
It all seemed too good to be true. It seemed like we really were going to get that car that we hadn’t had to pay for after all!
But still, I didn’t want to count my chickens before they hatched. As much as I consider myself a dreamer, I am also a practical, level headed person.
I would believe it when I was heading off somewhere to explore somewhere new in it! Until then, I was keeping my excitement and disbelief under control.
New Beginnings
Come November 2022, my in-laws had returned to Argentina. We had our house back. We also had a blue, second-hand Peugeot parked on the street outside.
Almost exactly one year after making my petition to the Universe, we were driving to the coast, on our way to stay with a few friends in their house in the mountains of Denía.
We wouldn’t have been able to do that trip if it hadn’t been for this car. Another reason to celebrate the new year!
Narratives
What is the moral of the story?
I don’t know, be nice to your in-laws, maybe? 😉
I don’t know if my petition to the Universe really played a part in this, or if it would have happened anyway. But doesn’t it make for a better story if we choose to believe it did?
We are the authors of our own stories. We get to choose the narrative.
We could decide upon a dead universe that is deaf to our wants, needs, prayers and joys. A hostile universe that is distant and impersonal, cold and separate from our beating hearts.
Or we could create a Universe that is open to collaboration. One that can hear us, see us, feel us and speak to us. One that is ready and waiting to co-create with us if we are willing to accept the invitation.
I know which one I like best.
What about you?
Final thoughts
I don’t know if this plan to rent out the car is going to work or if my in-laws will want to sell it in the future. Or if they will come back to Madrid at some point and take it for another spin across Europe.
But in the meantime I am grateful to my in-laws for leaving it in our care and for giving us the possibility to explore more of rural Spain more easily. Without it, we would be severely limited.
I am also grateful to the Universe for answering my petition and for giving us a helping hand on this journey.
Where will we go now, in this little blue Peugeot that we are suddenly the caretakers of?
Watch this space!
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Let’s co-create a more beautiful world!
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