Magic Fortune

Recently I did a collage of Chinese fortunes I’d found when helping a friend clear his home before moving years ago … and just sent it to him.

And he asked me why I did it.

I think they might have been in a basket in the kitchen or something, and just struck me as a collection … so I saved them and had intended to get them to him some day. I mean, he saved them so, they must have been important …

Why don’t we just read a fortune and then toss it? Sometimes, we read them aloud to our dinner partners, end with “… in bed!”, compare, have a good laugh … and leave them at the Chinese restaurant or toss them along with the take-out boxes.

But if there’s something in it, we keep them. Hope? Wonder? Perhaps an avoidance of the potential dire consequences should we fail to honor their oriental magic, fueled by the mystery of how this particular message could have come to us at this particular time and place … the trick our brain does to make it seem the “perfect message for me right now” … and those are the ones we keep. The magic ones.

As I look around, I’ve got a few I can point to right off … among the collection of items forming the centerpiece on my dining room table: “You will soon be visited by an old friend”. Taped to my drawing table at an angle where only I can see them and only when I’m actually sitting in the chair: “Don’t underestimate yourself. Your social skills are needed by others at this time.” (that one came with startup #2 of 4) and “You will receive unexpected support over the next week. Accept graciously.” I’m sure there are others lurking in my many books, jewelry drawer, kitchen and glove box.

And he asked me why I did return them? Well, obviously, It was because of the magic.

To return the magic that had surely been important at a time and place. I’m not sure if it still holds, but I gotta say, putting together the collage and then selecting the images to fill in did seem like the weaving together of powerful threads he had surely gathered, however done – whether jokingly during dinner parties, a lone night with late take-out, or purposely brought home from social outings of one type or another.

So that’s why I did it.

And now I’m wondering what other fortunes I have stashed here and there which are quietly doing their work … put in motion by an inner impetus stimulated into resonance with the universe.