It's Piggy Time

My brain won’t shut off. It feels like a thousand thoughts are on their own rollercoaster ride throughout my head. I read about meditation, but I can’t do it. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to shut it off. How am I supposed to think about nothing? If I close my eyes and think about nothing, and I see nothing, then I start to wonder what nothing is. Is nothing something? I see a sea of black when I close my eyes, so that is something. If I were to see nothing, what would that look like? That is just a little insight into how my brain works.

I decided to try something that I had read about called candle gazing meditation. The formal term is Trataka, and apparently, it’s a thing with yoga people. I cleared my space, got my candle and sat in silence staring at a flame. I set my intention to ask the universe to send me a sign. I was supposed to stare for three minutes, but I only lasted 30 seconds, which was better than I could do with meditation. I closed my eyes and saw the flame. It was right there, and it was bright! It got brighter and brighter. It was the most brilliant bright flame in the middle of this complete dark and empty space. Then it happened: the thing that changed my life. The flame started to form into a shape. What was this shape? Then, there it was. It was a pig. Yup, a big glowing orange pig.

It was a sign. But what did it mean? Was I supposed to eat a pork sandwich tonight? I asked for more signs, but nothing came to me. I blew out the candle and hopped in the car to run errands. I was stuck in traffic, irritated, and then I did a double take. Right in front of me was a license plate that read PIG 64. OK, what the heck was I supposed to do with this? I continued and passed a butcher that was advertising fresh pork on sale. Then, as I was turning into my bank, I saw a sign. “Free baby pigs”. OK God, you want me to get a pig as a pet, I thought to myself. I drove to the address and came home with a cute, adorable baby pig and named her Bella.

Bella and I bonded. She was the cutest thing in the world. Her tail was half curly and half straight. Her coat was all pink with black circles, one half covering one of her eyes. Her oinks sounded more like a cross between a sneeze and a cat’s meow. She was super snuggly and loved to oink in my ear when she wanted attention. We spent our days playing, and she cracked me up. I was laughing more than I ever had before. This was the most alive I have felt in a long time. Then, on a Monday morning before I left for work, I was in the kitchen putting away the dishes and heard glass shattering in the living room. I ran to the room and saw Bella standing over the shattered antique blue and white flowered vase I had received from my great Aunt. I was mortified. As I looked at the massive mess, wondering how I would clean it in time before work, I noticed a bronze gold key in the middle of the floor. I’ve never seen this key before. On the key was a number ‘64’ and the name of a bank: the same bank I was turning into when I saw the pig sign.

I called in a vacation day at work, and Bella and I headed straight to the bank. I showed them the key, and they led me to the safe deposit box. I went to #64 and opened the box. My jaw was agape. I couldn’t believe my eyes. In the box was 20K in cash. No explanation, just 20K and a little black book. The book was blank. No note, nothing…just blank. I was ecstatic. I could do so much with this money! A new car, a new wardrobe…fancy lobster dinners. I was so excited! I went back to my car and decided to take Bella on a walk. I wanted to skip, hop, jump and release this energy. All these thoughts raced through my head of what I could do with this amount of money.

As I was walking along, the wind started to pick up and blew my hat off and threw it up against a rod iron fence by the local elementary school. I ran over to pick up the hat and looked up to see a teacher outside with her students, and it looked like they were burying a time capsule. The excitement on the kids’ faces was mesmerizing. The teacher explained how the time capsule worked, and the 10 kids were smiling from ear to ear. They dropped the capsule in the ground, covered it with dirt, and then went back inside.

Dirt. That was the magic word. Bella jumped out of my hands and ran over to the dirt pile and started rolling around in it, digging where the time capsule had been placed. Peering across the street, I saw my neighbor enter the local drug store, The Krazy Koala. The drug store always carried the strangest things and had a magic section in the back of the store. I had the greatest idea come over me. I ran across the street. When my neighbor came out, I asked her to watch Bella for a few minutes. I went into the store and bought a blacklight and an invisible magic marker. I opened the black book, wrote my message in invisible ink, and then headed back over to the time capsule spot. I dug up the capsule, inserted the 20K along with the little black book and blacklight, and then headed home.

I felt better than I had in years. I took off work, was walking back to my car with a potbellied pig, and just gave away 20K. It was the happiest moment of my life. Until...

A year later, I went back to the spot with Bella and sat outside the school, waiting for the moment the kids would dig up their time capsule. The door opened and the kids scurried outside, almost tackling each other to get to the capsule location. The excitement was oozing out of them. The smiles on their faces were massive. I could barely contain myself! Then, it happened. They raised the capsule from the ground and were beyond baffled to see a wad of cash stuffed inside. The teacher, hands trembling, took the money. As she pulled the money out, the black book and blacklight dropped to the ground. One of the little girls bent down to pick up the blacklight and stared at the teacher with wide eyes and a blank, confused look on her face. The teacher picked up the book, took the light and pointed it at the first page of the book. On it was written, “Do something magical”. She showed her students, and they all started to run around in circles, screaming and laughing in pure joy and excitement.

That was the happiest day of my life. I knew the money was in the hands of those who could come up with ideas that was way more meaningful than buying a new car or eating fancy dinners. Children’s imaginations are uninhibited, and the possibilities are endless. And pigs? Pigs are absolutely magical. This little piggy filled me with so much joy and happiness, which means more to me than any amount of money in the world.