me and Ben, Olympus Epic
I loved our discussion about destiny and manifesting in the last post. Thank you everyone! It made me think of the time {about 9 years ago} when I was working at a clothing store. I was discussing Ben Harper’s music with a customer {I am a HUGE fan} and I said to him, “There are artists that you love and there are artists you want to meet. I want to meet Ben Harper.”
A few hours later, when I finished my shift, I took a different route home. I decided I needed a little exercise and walked about 10 blocks out of my way to catch a different bus. As I hopped on the Fillmore 22, I noticed that Ben Harper was sitting right next to me. I couldn’t believe my eyes… Not only does the universe provide, but at times it works so quickly. I think of this story when I want to remind myself of the magic.
{The photo above is actually of the second time I met him. Have you ever seen a bigger smile? Another story for another time.}
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Wow – what a smile you have in this picture. You have incredible teeth. You look more like the superstar than Ben!! (I hope that isn’t putting down your “superhero”) Manifestation is amazing and it’s amazing that it really works!!
Is that really Ben Harper’s hand? It seems overly large resting there on your shoulder. Wow!
Love that story…very, very cool.
holy moly!! he is my biggest crush… so humble and talented and glowing…and married, i know. wow, you have some mad karma or something! i want to hear the 2nd story!
WOW!! i had to stop what i was doing and comment on this. i’m going to start telling more people that i want to meet you. maybe you’ll be on my bus tomorrow.
WOW…Ben Harper…my biggest crush. thankfully, my husband actually understands this one 😉
*i want to meet Ben Harper* *i want to meet Ben Harper* *i want to meet Ben Harper* *i want to meet Ben Harper* *i want to meet Ben Harper*
andrea,
what a great photo. you are completly glowing here. could it be that meeting ben did this to you?
i really belive we can manifest things too. when i was 23 i quit my job where i made enough money to pay all my bills because the enviroment wasn’t healthy. i lived alone and was very worried about how i was going to make rent. a friend of mine gave me $10 and said go to the closest starbucks, buy a paper and your favorite coffee and then just read the paper and do nothing but enjoy the coffee. don’t think, don’t stress, just be. then he asked me what type of job i wanted. i told him i wanted a job where i met people, i had benifits and it worked around my school schedule.
i went to a starbucks i had never been to before. a woman working there was setting up a new display. when i asked her a question about the new disply we started talking about things as well. ten minutes later she asked me if i would be interestd in being an assistant manager of a starbucks that happened to be less than five miles from my house. not only did i get a job that covered my bills, it worked around my school schedule and gave me great health benifits while in school. i met so many people there that i still talk to today.
i remember that each time i need something. i just ask the universe to provide for me the best way it can. and it always does.
sigh* that just makes me so
h a p p y!
it’s so nice to have memories to conjure up, to remind yourself of the magic. i’m with mati, hear ye story #2!!
we create the life experiences we have in one way or another…
very cool~
What a beautiful smile, what a happy story! I find that I would have nothing to write about if my life had flowed as smoothly as I’d hoped. And I feel more textured as a person for the positive unexpected things that I’ve been gifted with, and the negatives as well. I haven’t had that experience of throwing an idea out to the universe and seeing it realized … perhaps I’ll throw something out there now.
Get published, get published, get published!
whoa – you are too cool!!! doesn’t the universe work in wonderous ways!
hee hee hee
i’m sitting at work
and just opened your blog
up came up the picture of you and mr harper himself
and i positively SQUEALED
“oh no way! that’s AWESOME!”
😀
luckily workmates are used to my gleeful outbursts.
this life does indeed work in magical, manifesting ways.
Other magical things on this day:
A dragonfly mug of tea.
I swear, tea is heaven in a cup.
How did they manage to discover the healing cup of tea? My Chinese friend, the divine Mr Paris, tells me that once upon a time, according to Chinese legend, an Emporer was sitting in his garden drinking a cup of hot water (as you do.)
And leaves from the nearby jasmine tea floated into his cup. Instead of plucking them out, he left them in, then tasted it ~ and decided:
Dang that scrummy!
Thus, the Chinese folktale of tea.
Not sure precisely how I got to that… but nonetheless 😉
Bright Blessings to your day!
Love and laughter,
Leonie
I love you’re glasses. Mine are that exact same color exept they’re more square and have zebra stripes on the back side.
Sorry, off topic.
On a more on-topic note, BEN HARPER?!
I’m very very jealous. I LOVE LOVE LOVE his The Will to Live album.
I may have to move to California.
Andrea,
Now that is one adorable photo ( of both of you). You look so HAPPY! I remember your bus story – a great “kismet” moment as a friend of mine calls them. I have had a few of these myself in the past year or so. They are really wonderful and surprising, but do give you the feeling that there is something to this chance thing, and that we do help manifest these coincidences somehow. Many unseen energies we’ll probably never understand.
It does help to think of the magic when we’re feeling down or powerless.
Love it!
Stephanie
Isn’t it funny how things work out? And sometimes how they don’t? God (or whatever) does work in mysterious ways…
You are quite the expert manifester, Andrea! What’s your secret? (Beautiful smile, by the way.)
Ben was riding the 22 Fillmore?? Lovely musician. Saw him perform at the Sweetwater in Mill Valley years ago…Taj Mahal was in the audience. (You know you’re good when Taj shows up to listen.) 🙂
P.S. You’re just too adorable. This is the first photo I’ve seen you post where you actually look your height. 🙂
I saw Ben Harper play at a record store in San Diego about 11 years ago. It was cool, he played some acoustic guitar for the crowd. Interesting how manifestation works. I need to try it more often.
Ok, so, maybe I should keep my gushing on the inside…but, that’s just not me. Andrea, you are officially the COOLEST. Coolest. Person. Ever.
you are so cute!
I love Ben Harper so much I named my child after him (and my husband didn’t even mind…)I look forward to reading your blog everyday and this is why.
That is a fantastic story, Andrea! Obviously, you were meant to meet him.
When I was a little girl (age 5 though 11, probably), I just KNEW I was going to meet my trule love, Donny Osmond. Every time my birthday came around, I would blow out the candles on my cake and wish to meet Donny. I did, indeed, meet him–but not until I was about 32. It was a hoot. And I love thinking that I got my little-kid birthday wish.
That is a fantastic story, Andrea! Obviously, you were meant to meet him.
When I was a little girl (age 5 though 11, probably), I just KNEW I was going to meet my trule love, Donny Osmond. Every time my birthday came around, I would blow out the candles on my cake and wish to meet Donny. I did, indeed, meet him–but not until I was about 32. It was a hoot. And I love thinking that I got my little-kid birthday wish.
ben harper is the epitome of sexy. 🙂
beautiful photo!
xoxoxo
eMiLy
Who would’ve known – you were into pink? Do you still have these glasses, they look good on you!
I want to believe in your quote – maybe one day I’ll too have this piece of luck 🙂
You have got the mad cheese going on, girl!
Thank’s for posting this one – I live believing in ‘ask and you shall recieve’…It sometimes takes longer than you would like, so it’s a buzz to hear when it happens in a flash. And it does sometimes happen that way. You lucky girl…
Thanks for sharing. There is a woman where I live who sings and I used to love going to listen to her, literally once a month. I wanted to be her friend, to drink wine with her, to really know her, although I did fear the reality might disappoint my illusions. She is now one of my best friends. And the reality has been great.
i love this story!
tis true indeed!
ben is one of my favorites
he is a rare gem 🙂
Hum. I’m taking some time away from NYC right now trying to relax (realxing is HARD man!) and I’m up in Mendocino, spending time in the woods, and on the beach. I think I need a little magic right now, so this is a great story to remind me. Your blog is so good at reminding me. Off to converse with the Universe and work on some magic.
And while I’m at it, your blog is such a wonderful little peice of glowing magic on the internet Andrea… it’s so great to come home to every few days. Home on the web. I know you’ve been told this by a bijillion people in a million posts, but you should REALLY WRITE A BOOK. About… things you write about. It would earn a place of honor in my bedside table. Right next to Sabrina Ward Harrision, and Everyday Matters, Rumi, the Bible, Isabel Alende and Edna St. Vincent Milay… Just saying… 😉
Thanks!
don’t mind me…just peeking in here to see Ben again…very nice. 🙂
Talking of magic…
I think what you have here is very magical indeed. Your photos and thoughts about characters, details and fragments of life with all its depth and magic all conspire together to give a very positive, life-affirming site. It kind of reminded me of the film Amelie actually -you are doing a very wonderful thing in sharing this philosophy with other people.
I stumbled across your site yesterday, through various links from other bloggers sites -I hopped from one to another to another completely randomly, and to my luck I came to yours. It turned out to be just what I needed.
I am 20, I live in the UK and I am in my first year at University, living away from home, making new friends etc. I always imagined that I would meet a great group of positive friends at Uni, but in fact, I have found one fantastic boyfriend, and a group of friends who I care about a lot, but who are very negative and draining. I find it very sad that three 18/19 year olds can be so negative.
I can’t tell you how great it was to read someones blog who is positive about the world; its surprises and pleasures and joy. There are so many other blogs out there, which like my friends, are humourous, but entirely cynical and/or self-deprecating.
I just wanted you to know I appreciate what you’re doing – Thanks 🙂
Oh man…Ben Harper!
The first time I saw him perform was at Stubb’s in Austin, Texas back in the 90’s and I was mesmorized! Life changing stuff.
The next time Ben Harper graced my life was when I was sitting in Ivory Jack’s in Fairbanks, Alaska on a cold winter’s night. Sitting on a bar stool next to a handsome stranger – my friend put ol’ Ben on the jukebox and it strummed up a conversation between me and this mystery man. Turned out that stranger ended up being one of the love’s of my life all by posing a simple question spawned by Ben Harper’s lyrics…”Have you ever been with a queen?” (Taken from “I’ve been with witches and I have been with a queen…)
I love to look at that picture A! What a grin on your face ! Rock on witcha’ manifesting mamma self!
What a great story. It’s really funny how destiny seems to play out the way it does.
hi andrea,
your wonderful story reminds me of something that happened to me–when i was 20, i lived in europe on my year abroad. it was a difficult time for me, and at the end of the year i decided to travel around the continent for a few weeks.
everyone told me to go visit florence, that it was the most beautiful city in italy. so i managed to get a spot in a completely full hostel in the oltrarno, the less touristy, more magical side of town. walking back to the hostel each night i was there, i’d notice this amazing building from the fifteenth century, with a beautiful courtyard full of plants and rusty bicycles, and tell myself how wonderful it might be to live there.
i came back to berkeley, finished school, and began cooking. two years later, i told my chefs my dream of living in florence, and they found me a job with a wonderful woman, who agreed to find me a place to live. when i got to italy, she picked me up from the airport and took me straight back to that exact building i’d admired years before. it was amazing, and it caused me great joy and happiness every time i’d come back to my apartment for the rest of the time i lived there.
what an incredible thing to happen. big fan of the ben.