My dear friend told me a story that reminded me of just how generous the Universe can be. Several years ago she was widowed and living alone, with a solid career, adult son and his family, lots of friends. Her home was beautiful and large, filled to the rafters with antiques (the basement had aisles and aisles, organized and plentiful, of antiques she had collected). But she wanted very much to live by the water in a house on the ocean, where she could take long walks on the beach and she could wake up to a beautiful sea view. Although she didn't exactly know how, and she had never lived by the ocean before, she never let that dream disappear from her consciousness.

A few years after her husband died, she was laid off from her job, had to sell her lovely home and auction her antiques, settling into a small condo. She took it pretty well, she said, and had almost given up on her dream of the ocean house when an old friend from college came back into her life. She didn't really want a relationship, but ended up falling in love. Now she and he are married and living in a house about a quarter the size of her old house. This little cottage is on the water, on Cape Cod Bay, and she wakes up exactly as she dreamed she would some day, with an ocean view.

The way that The Law of Attraction works is sometimes circuitous. We might find that we attract what we want, but the route to that desire can be a little curved, winding and bumpy. In many cases, we might not even know we are on the right road! Here are five tips to help you stay open to all the possibilities and assistance the Universe has to give as you attract your desired outcome:

Explore every road

Often what we need comes to us and we don't even see it. Explore all opportunities and keep yourself open to possibilities. When you allow yourself to block incoming data, information and people, you are essentially getting in the way of your own desire. That side road you've gone by so many times might take you exactly where you've been wanting to go.

If the road is closed...
Find another route, or do the repairs to open that road. Sometimes this means you have to take action, using your emotional and intellectual energy to not only stay open minded but to open some doors in your own psyche you may have closed long ago. Opening doors that you have feared or avoided may indeed be painful - yet we must make the effort to find out if we are blocking ourselves or not allowing full awareness.

Stuck in traffic?
"This moment is as it should be." Deepak Chopra wrote these words in his book Ageless Body, Timeless Mind (1994). When things get tough and you feel stuck, remember that it is a process and the moment you are in is one more step toward your desire. Take comfort in knowing that each moment is exactly the way the Universe means it to be. When traffic is backed up, take the time to look around you and see what the Universe is trying to show you.

Be a good Samaritan
That lost dog you just passed on your way, that woman in the restaurant who is lonely and just wants to talk, that friend of yours who is grieving - these are your ways to give back to the Universal energy and appreciate your own many gifts. All of these energies are put in your path because you have attracted them: they are part of your journey and you are part of theirs.

Focus on your destination
Keep your sights on the destination. As you explore, don't forget where you are going. No matter how lost you get on this trip, or how many possibilities you attract, or how many obstacles you encounter, keep your thoughts focused on your desire so that both you and the Universe don't get confused about what you want to attract. My friend, despite her setbacks, never let that desire of living by the sea leave her awareness.

Yes, the Law of Attraction states that your thoughts directly shape the events which occur in your life, but these events, our desires, are not going to just drop into our laps - we have to put our energy to work and keep our mind open to all the Universe has to give to us.