Like I said a few days ago, the minute you decide to leave town the clients come out of the shadows wanting work completed. An entirely new project came in yesterday from an old client. It’s large enough that I was able to put it off until I return. What’s odd is that I was told this was coming, but not from any writer friend or veteran freelancer. No, I had a psychic tell me so. And she said I have the gnomes to thank for it.
A close chum of mine talked me into visiting a taro card reader once. I expected it to be fun and a lovely waste of money. However, we were in the midst of a taro card reader who also billed herself as a psychic. Mind you, I’m skeptical by nature, but hey, I was in this for fun, so what harm was there?
I walked into the dress shop where the woman operated. My friend went first while I browsed. Then it was my turn. I sat down, smiled and said hello. It was about then that all hell broke loose.
She turned over cards, which revealed some very nice things. I was happy. I had a man who was nuts about me. I was creative. Okay, all three anyone could probably guess and get right. Then her face darkened. She went into things, very private things, that no one could’ve guessed. I won’t go into them here, but they involved people close to me. As I got up to leave, the woman was close to tears and I was, well, a bit shook up. She was experiencing the personal turmoil of people I know but that she didn’t know existed. That bumped up her credibility a bit, for she was bang on in every instance.
When my chum asked me to go back, I couldn’t help myself. We visited months later. This woman remembered me, and as the cards were revealed, she said things had worked out for someone in the house. She was right. She also said my fortune was coming. “Look for it in April.” Well, April came and went – twice. No fortune.
This year, I was talked into going back to see her. I had to be convinced because now the fortune question was looming. It hadn’t come. Nor had a very specific prediction for a friend. Let’s just say I went for my friend and not for myself. I wanted answers.
The first card was turned and she said, “The gnomes want something from you. They’ve given you a lot and they want something.” Okay, what gnomes? And exactly what had the Travelocity dude done for me lately? She said the upswing in work I was experiencing (how did she know that?) was a result of them protecting me. Uh, okay. She said if I reward them, write a story about them, do something to please them, they’ll be happy and I’ll be uber prosperous.
If it were any other creature, I’d have laughed this off in a heartbeat. But see, I was subjected to (almost voluntarily – it’s strange what you’ll do when a hot guy does the asking) an 8-hour seminar on nature spirits. These buggers have been around for eons, it would seem, and folks like Rudolf Steiner have written about them at length. Even though the hot guy and I left that seminar both uttering “what the…”, we remembered. How could you not? And I’m a big believer in a sequence of events that happens for a reason. That I knew what gnomes were (in detail enough to explain to the psychic, for she didn’t know) because of that seminar, well, that’s just too coincidental to ignore, right?
Gnomes, apparently, are subterranean troll-like things that work the earth. Think seven dwarfs here, only slower and shorter. Oh, and probably invisible. Yea, that’s why we left dazed and chortling halfway home.
But now I was facing probably the oddest moment in my odd little life. How do you repay a gnome? Does ripping off a statue from someone’s lawn and sending him around the globe count? Well, I couldn’t afford that anyway, and it’s been done to death. Gotta be more creative. After all, they’re counting on me. So I started where I figured they’d be. I dug up and replanted the garden. I spent oodles on perennials, started seeds indoors, transplanted, watered, fed, weeded. I don’t know about the gnomes, but I was pretty pleased with the results.
Now to the weird part (and you thought that was it, right?). The minute I started the garden work, my writing work flourished. I swear this is the best year I’ve had freelancing. I easily surpassed last year’s total already this year, and things are definitely aligned to finish off better than I was ever paid at any full-time job. Do I believe the gnomes did it? No. I believe my marketing, contacts, and skill set has much more to do with it. But hey, you don’t want to tick off a gnome, so I’ll keep digging and weeding.
At any rate, I’ve now completed my GRP (gnome recognition plan). This story, this blog post, is about the gnomes. I may not really understand mystical things, but I’m not one to turn down an opportunity to go into unexplored areas in the name of creative progress. It doesn’t hurt to explore the idea of something we don’t know about or understand or even believe. Beyond a dent in my own credibility and the risk of embarrassment among peers, this post costs me very little.
But hey, if I get a book deal soon, I’ll put a good word in for you with the guys. 😉
Hmm, I have four gnarly gargoyles staring at me all day from the building across, maybe I should start throwing them breadcrumbs or something.
Congrats on the success!
I think I better start recognizing the gnomes and see if that turns the tide for me. Great that you’ve got lots of work coming in though! YEAH!
MKay… The weirdest part of the whole post? Not the gnomes, not the tarot reader (because my gift to myself for surviving the summer with all four kids is a deck of tarot cards – which is slightly weird because I’ve been thinking about getting them far before you made this post), not even the digging and the garden, but that I followed and understood everything you said. 😀
Congrats on a great year Lori! (and could your gnomes talk to my gnomes and apologize on hubs behalf for not getting our garden in this year?) Thx!
Ah, tarot cards. You might want to read my post about this!
Sixth Sense ~ Mama Mentor