Feng Shui, Wine and the Unexpected

Today started out a bit differently than most days for me. I went into the kitchen for breakfast, opened the refrigerator door and saw that the entire refrigerator was covered in red wine! Why you ask? Let me explain.

A few weeks ago I was watching a public television special on wine. It was a fantastic program; I learned a lot and I put my new knowledge to immediate use. One of the tips from the program was about the various ways to store unfinished wine. The enemy of wine is air and unfinished bottles of wine often go bad due to the exposure to air. One way to store leftover wine is to use a vacuum pump to re-cork the bottle. The theory here is that the pump pulls the excess air back out of the bottle as it creates a seal. (The program instructor didn't believe the vacuum pump idea worked well.) You can pour the residual wine into an empty water bottle, filling it right to the top. And finally, and this is the one that seemed brilliant to me, you can store the unfinished wine in a Ziploc bag in the fridge!

Well, as you can imagine, I had to try this right away! The first time it worked like a charm, the wine was perfect! The second time, and this brings us to this morning, the Ziploc bag wasn't such a brilliant idea. Ziploc bags, as we all know, are not always secure. So an hour later, after much cleaning, I had a sparkling clean fridge, no wine for dinner tonight and no time for breakfast!

What does this have to do with Feng Shui? On the surface, nothing, but beneath the surface it's all about releasing our expectations and going with the flow. Let me explain. In the world of Feng Shui we often recommend adjustments or changes in your living environment to support your goals and desires. These adjustments take the form of objects, such as accessories utilizing color, shape and placement to create balance. The Feng Shui practitioner gives you suggestions and then you select the object of your adjustment based upon your personal preferences. And you place that object with the intent to change and improve the quality of your life in some way. Sometimes it works out the way you expect it (my first Ziploc bag experience), and sometimes it doesn't, (my second Ziploc bag experience).

How can you be sure your adjustments will create exactly the outcome you desire? You can't. When we align our energy with the energy of our environment and change things to improve our lives, sometimes the way our lives change is quite different than what we expected. Is this bad? Not at all, I believe that the best change comes when we release the need to control the outcome and trust that our highest good will be served. When you make adjustments this way, you leave room for what you desire or something even better - and in my personal experience - 'something even better' is always better than what I had in mind!

So, make some changes, try things differently and see what works for you. Then adjust again. Just as life is an on-going experience, Feng Shui is an on-going balancing system that can improve the quality of your life - if you let it! And if things seem to turn out a bit messier than you expected, adjust again and try again. Change can be a bit unpredictable, but it's a necessary step between where we are and where we want to be.

Clean up the wine, open a new bottle and enjoy it!