It’s been many years ago now, before 2000, but once upon a time, I kept lovebirds.  It began with one, and then I decided that it needed a buddy.  It turned out that the two were male and female, and they became a mated pair.
Soon, from them, I had another mated pair.  I kept all four in a large cage, and they all got along fine.

Then one day, the older female passed away.  That left her mate with the other pair.  It did not take long before the pair became aggressive against the lone male.  It became clear that he would have to be removed from the large cage.  I had a smaller cage that I used to transport the birds, in the rare instance that became necessary.  It really was rather small to live in, and I knew the lone male would need a bigger cage.

One morning, I woke up feeling inspired to get the cage that day.  It was as if I was impelled by Spirit to do so.  With an unusual sense of confidence and purpose, I walked up to lone male’s cage and announced to him that I would be buying a cage that day.  I described to him the size of the cage and how much I would pay for it.  There was a very definite energy of certainty about the way I did so.

I went to a few different stores in town.  The price of the cages in the first two stores was more than I intended to pay.  In the third store, I browsed around.  I looked at the cages in the main display area, but they were not quite what I wanted.

Then I looked up into the top stock and noticed a cage way up above the shelving.  I asked the storekeeper how much it was.  He was actually surprised to see it there.  It had no price on it.  He thought for a moment, and then offered it at the price I had declared that morning.  As I looked at the cage, I saw that it matched the description I had announced to the bird that morning.  Then I saw that it was missing a perch!  I quickly realized that I had neglected to include the perch as I described the cage that morning.  Oops!  The shopkeeper found a perch for a small additional price, and I bought the cage.

So why do I tell this story?  It is an example of manifesting.  It is important for me to emphasize that I was feeling an unusual surety that day.  It was not simply thinking that I should get a cage.  I had been doing that already for a couple of weeks.  But this day, I felt impelled by Spirit.  It’s as if something clicked into place like a switch in some gear-driven mechanical device.