Anyone else believe in "The Universe" ?

[Shameless]

It's hard to explain, but essentially I am not at all religious in the bible-sense, mainly due to the fact that I was not raised religious and I live in a fairly religion-neutral country. However, I can't seem to find an appropriate substitute for the word "God" for what I believe in. Mostly I just call it "The Universe".

As I said, I am not religious, don't believe in the bible, etc. but I often find myself 'praying' (to no one) and thinking things like "xyz will happen when The Universe wants it to."

I think a lot of the reason for why I think in this way is due to my life always being very eerily geared towards the whole 'everything happens for a reason'. For my whole life, pretty much everything I set out to do is a always giant struggle, and it takes me forever to get anywhere and then BAM, it happens and it's pretty much perfect.

Here's a couple of examples:

It took me 3.5 years to get a job in the industry that I am in now. I applied for so many jobs. I got this job in March and I've already been promoted and transferred to a town that I've wanted to life in for my entire life.

Another one… I was having a terrible/stressful time finding a place to rent. I decide to suck it up and go to view this place that is really crappy and kind of out of my price range. When I get there I meet the Real Estate agent and she offers to show me this other place, then we get to talking and realise that she is friends with someone who works for the same company I do, and then BAM by the end of the day I have a place to rent.

Is anyone else's life like this?

Got any good stories of "The Universe" in action?

Bonus question: Is anyone familiar with the concept of 'The Secret'? (It's a book/dvd about using your thoughts to attract the things you want, i.e. thinking about getting a certain job/car/whatever and then it kind of magically comes to you.) Do you believe it works?

[bugk]

I have the same beliefs as you. I believe in the The Universe as well, it's kind of like my own god looking out for me. And I'm not entirely familiar with The Secret. My mom watched it and she liked it so she explained it to me but I was a preteen-early teenager so I don't think I caught on very well; but we do practice that way of thinking. My mom wanted a painting but couldn't afford it so she put a picture up of the what the painting was based off of and money on her closet wall, and she would rub the pictures each morning she got ready. And in about a month she was able to pay for the art!