Do you believe in Santa Claus?
That was the essential question running through the film, ‘The Miracle on 34th Street’.
In the cinematic classic, Kris Kringle works at Cole’s department store as Father Christmas listening to young children’s wishes and dreams for Christmas. Everyone sees him merely as a happy old man playing a role for the season. Kris sees otherwise. He believes (and ultimately knows) that he isn’t some fancily dressed up character used to attract customers to the store to buy their Christmas presents. He is, actually, Santa Claus for real.
After being tricked into an assault he ends up in jail, and loses faith in who he is (see, even magical people have that happen!!). Encouraged by his lawyer to defend himself he goes to court to clear his name and declare that he is, indeed, Santa Claus in the flesh and not some fairy tale told to children.
The case soon looks doomed until the daughter of Cole’s events director hands the judge a Christmas card with a $1 dollar bill inside. On the bill she put a ring around the phrase, ‘In God We Trust’, which is printed on US dollars. In that instant the judge realises that the whole of society is founded upon the faith and trust in a being that can’t be seen but is, nonetheless, entirely believed in as the unseen hand and guide in our lives there for us at each and every turn. If the government and citizens can base their fundamental system on that belief, then Kris Kringle can equally be believed to be Santa Claus.
The film suggests many miracles – that Father Christmas is alive and well. That children and their love can turn us from hard hearted cynical individuals into soft hearted caring people. That when all seems lost, if we keep believing, winning can appear from out of nowhere. And above all else, that those who do believe great and phenomenal things are the ones that end up changing the world and keeping the world in a good place.
Belief is a miracle maker. Miracles have to be believed.
Life itself, just to be conceived and be alive, is the ultimate miracle of all for each one of us.
So, whatever situation you may find yourself in or are currently in, remember to keep believing in who you are and how the end result will be like celebrating at Christmas. Because belief is the very spark that makes miracles happen at all.
Or as Kris Kringle himself said in the film, ‘To me the imagination is a place all by itself….It’s a wonderful place’.
I believe that he is right!
There you are driving to work and a certain song comes on the radio.
Or you see a TV show that mentions either a world event in the past or features a specific period in history like the 90’s or when the Berlin Wall fell.
In each occasion, no matter what you were currently doing beforehand, your mind was transported in a flash back in time to a specific moment as if you were there again. No years had passed. No-one had gotten older. You never went anywhere. You are there again. Just you in that space with the people and circumstances of that day in living colour plus the emotions, and smells, and weird little recalls that appeared in your mind all of a sudden. Your greatest memory was a fresh as if you never left.
That is the power of our cinematic mind. It has an almost time travelling ability. Where you were once eighteen and on a trip to the beach with your three best girlfriends or that Saturday in December on one of the coldest days known to humanity when you bought your first Harley bike, your mind can catapult itself right back into the very centre of that experience. You can see it, feel it, and almost touch it.
How many times has this happened to you?
When was the last one? Just a few days ago or last month?
It’s common. It’s normal. It’s the same for everyone. It’s also the key to your future.
Your mind has the same super sharp creative capacity to project itself into the future as it does into the past. It doesn’t know what time is. It simply acts ‘as if’ what it’s envisioning is real and existing. Just ask someone who is convinced they are about to lose their job or that their partner is cheating on them even if neither are actually true. Or indeed ask a patient who is told they won’t recover from a condition or an athlete that they will never win medals who believes they will.
As Shakespeare wisely wrote, ‘Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so’.
If you can view a scene that you once occupied many years ago, the mind can also spring you forwards to another scene in your coming future in the same sharp detail. It doesn’t care. It goes where you take it. It forms a picture of what you direct it to. It’s just been easier for you to remember previous special moments in your life because you weren’t aware you could imagine another wonderful scene you could live in the future too.
It’s time to do this. Take your mental skills and turn them into future building like you did with memory gathering. Instead, now place yourself in another setting – one to come, one you wish to call your life, one you want your mind to believe is here right now this second, your daily world. Show it everything and add amazing feelings, sexy circumstances, feel good sounds like laughter, fab people, and tons of images of you livin la vida loca.
Then take that picture and hold it every minute of your days ahead. Repeat that vision over and over again. Never lose sight of it and work to move towards it. Hardwire it into your mind. Make it your life around you.
Because if you do, your favourite songs will be the new ones you will be dancing to in your not too distant future.
Everything happens at a certain time.
You may like to think that you are someone who never leads the same day twice, but take another look because your mind has different ideas.
Our lives are scheduled. We are creatures of mental habit. Don’t believe me. Ok.
What time do you get up each day or leave for work?
What time is your morning coffee or preferred lunch break?
When you are free to choose, when do you like to sit down for diner?
And most telling of all, if you have an appointment, meeting, or social engagement booked, how early do you have to be?
I’m sure as you answered them you found that, by and large, the answers were fixed. Your mind only feel comfortable if your tea break is 10.30am, your evening meal is on the table no later than 7pm, and you panic if you aren’t at least ten minutes early for meetings and meals out. You see, we live by a subconscious set of time frames we have wired into our thinking. They become a background ‘must’ in our mentality. God the stress if my coffee isn’t on your desk by 11am or traffic tailbacks tell you that dinner is going to be at least 30 minutes late.
We are a mind controlled human so that we can cope in life, arrange our life, stay safe in life, feel better about life, and generally run our life in ways that keep us happy, sane, and satisfied.
The good news is that time IS on our side because it’s in our mind. We can change that mind and so change the times that changes our moods and feelings with them. And anyone anywhere can be the source of that change as we all on our mind. Tomorrow if you want good times you can switch the times you do what you do and how often. That itself could alter what you experience and with who. That’s future building!
As Bob Dylan sang, ‘The Times They Are A-changin”.
They certainly are….
If you don’t mind that is.
