A Chat with Future You

Manifesting your reality - while holding that vision lightly.

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about the five- and ten-year plans I used to make, obsessively, in my twenties. This degree by this date, this number of new countries visited, this many musical instruments mastered. There’s an alternate universe me out there somewhere who finished her MA in folklore at 22, just like she planned, and then steamrolled straight through a tenure track before 30. There’s another one where I became a California State Park Law Enforcement Ranger. In still another life, I hopped aboard a leadership program and rode it to a Senior Executive Service job. I hope those “me”s are having a good time, because none of that sounds very fun to this-universe me!

I’ve wondered, occasionally, how to square the popularity of ideas like Law of Attraction and manifestation with the yogic yama, or ethical restraint, of aparigraha – non-grasping or non-attachment. Is it possible to believe in our power to shape our reality - while also accepting that things mig…