They said I owed $2,000

A rental car lesson I won’t forget

Hey love,

A few months ago, I flew to Houston for literally one day. It was one of those whirlwind trips where you barely have time to settle in before you’re packing up again. I landed, picked up a rental car, spent the day with my brother, slept a little, returned the car the next morning, and flew home.

About ten days later, I got an email from the rental company saying I had caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to the car.

I opened the photos, looked through everything they sent, and I knew immediately.

That didn’t happen.

What surprised me wasn’t that I knew it. What surprised me was how clearly I could feel the pull to start defending myself. I could already sense the part of me that wanted to gather every detail, explain the whole timeline, and build the strongest possible case before anyone had even responded.

Then I had an awareness I don’t think I would have had a few years ago.

If I poured all of my energy into proving this didn’t happen, wouldn’t I also be making it much more real in my own world?

So I replied to the email. I explained what I knew, asked a few questions, and waited.

No one responded.

Instead, while I was in Hawaii with my husband and Shyla for her volleyball tournament, the rental company began trying to reach me in every other way they could. My phone started ringing, then the voicemails became more urgent, and the emails began warning me that I needed to contact my insurance immediately or risk the claim being sent to collections.

Every message felt designed to create intensity.

My husband kept saying, “Just call them,” and I understood why. That would have been my habit too. Handle it quickly, tell them everything, and make sure they understood I hadn’t done anything wrong.

But every time I reached for my phone, I checked in with myself and asked, “What energy would I be calling from?”

The answer was always some version of fear, urgency, or the need to prove myself.

So I didn’t call.

I wasn’t pretending the situation didn’t exist, and I wasn’t avoiding the fact that I would eventually need to address it. I was simply unwilling to buy into the intensity of something I already knew had not happened.

In Access Consciousness, we talk about how something becomes real when we align and agree with it or resist and react to it. Either way, we begin feeding it our energy and making it more solid in our world.

The rental company already had a reality they were inviting me into. My choice was whether I was going to make it mine.

At one point, I sent another email. It was short, and it said:

“I’ve replied to your emails and haven’t received a response. Once someone answers my questions, I’ll continue the conversation.”

Then I went back to my vacation.

That was new for me.

The old version of me would have carried the whole thing around Hawaii. I would have talked about it, checked my phone constantly, and spent all kinds of energy preparing for a fight that had not even happened yet.

This time, whenever my mind wandered back to it, I would ask myself, “Am I about to flow my energy to something I already know didn’t happen?”

Usually, the answer was yes.

So I would choose again.

By the time I got home, making the phone call finally felt light. I wasn’t calling from pressure. I was simply ready to have the conversation.

A man named Brandon answered, and I could feel my old habit trying one more time to jump in. Part of me wanted to give him the full opening statement, complete with every piece of evidence and all the reasons the company was wrong.

Instead, I took a breath and thought, “Brandon didn’t create this. Brandon is just the guy who answered the phone.”

So I calmly told him I had been trying to get a response to my emails and asked whether he could help me understand where things stood.

He began clicking through the file while quietly talking to himself under his breath.

I sat there lowering my barriers, staying present, and reminding myself of what I knew.

A minute later, he said, “Okay. You’re going to receive two emails. The first one is just some legal jargon that won’t make any sense. The second one you will want to save… because it will say your case has been closed.”

I actually laughed and asked him to repeat himself.

He did. The case was closed. That was it.

$2000 claim went POOF into the ethers… with little to NO EFFORTING on my part! 

Like.. is this even real? and sure enough, moments later, I received the emails and Brandon had done what he said. He closed my case… without me even having to ask him!! 

Later, I realized the biggest gift wasn’t that the case had been closed. The gift was finally understanding what it feels like to acknowledge that something exists without pouring my life force into it.

I didn’t have to fight it or defend myself against it. I simply had to stay connected to what I knew was true.

Since then, I keep thinking about how often we make something much more relevant by giving it all of our attention. We believe we’re proving it wrong, but the intensity of our defense can be the very thing that gives it power.

Where you put your energy signifies your point of view… and your point of view creates your reality.

A long time ago, that sentence sounded like an interesting concept to me. In the last 10 years, I’ve had it shown to me over and over again just how true it actually is… but after this experience (which I wouldn’t have ever thought to be possible)... it feels like what I might call “embodied”. I can perceive it’s truth in my bones!!  

This isn’t to say that we should go around “avoiding” everything and calling it “not making something real”... I’m merely suggesting that you consider what point of view you are taking with the energy you are feeding it. 

Game changer. 

🌟 Your Add Wonder Tools

Here are a few questions I’ve been playing with since that phone call:

• Where am I flowing my energy to something I already know isn’t true for me?

• Am I responding from my awareness, or have I stepped into someone else’s reality?

• What am I defending that may not actually require my defense?

• If I stopped feeding this with my attention, what space might become available?

• What would happen if I trusted what I know before going into reaction?

I have a feeling life will continue giving me opportunities to practice this.

Hopefully, the next one won’t involve a rental car company.

Until next time, may you trust what you know a little sooner, decline the realities that aren’t yours, and save your energy for creating the life you actually desire.

With wonder and one less imaginary dent, 💛