Have you ever experienced something unexpectedly wonderful? Something that just seemed to fall into your lap when you needed it the most? That's what happened to me recently, and I wanted to share my story with you.
I needed a break. Not just a little bit, a lot. I had not gone out into the world since before Covid. And in that time I've gone through a separation, an unexpected surgery, and eventually a divorce, I re-birthed myself as a podcast host starting The Creative Genius Podcast, which unexpectedly rose quickly to a top 1% podcast; my entire identity underwent a complete transformation. But I hadn't had the chance to catch my breath, much less to get out into the world and plug into the magical perspective shifting energy that comes with travel (especially solo travel, right mamas?)
In this time I was hit squarely in the heart with my life's purpose: to be in service to the creativity that is trapped inside so many people. The Universe, who I thought had forgotten about me up to that point, suddenly had an impressive to-do list for me.
When I got hit with COVID earlier this year, it hit me hard. It felt like a depression, and I really needed a break. I didn't have the money for a retreat, and even if I did, I couldn't go because my kids' passports were snared up in passport Canada, and truthfully I can't really afford to take my two kids on an airplane anywhere right now. I wasn't asking for a break, but I think the universe knew that it needed one.
One evening about two weeks ago when the nights were just starting to get a bit longer and spring felt just a bit more plausible, out of the blue, an acquaintance from my neighborhood texted me. They had booked a trip to San Diego, but they couldn't go, and they wanted to give me their penthouse suite with a view of the ocean. They didn't want any money for it, they just wanted me to have it because they knew I had been having a tough time. It felt like fate.
I asked my kids' dad if he would take the kids for an extra couple of days so I could stay for a week, and he was really easy about it. Sometimes things are just meant to be, and this was one of those times. I could have made all kinds of excuses about how I was scared of flying, or couldn't afford the car rental, or to pay for things in American dollars, or to be away from all this work. But I know better. When she gives me gifts, I do everything I can to say yes. I got on the airplane 6 days later.
It rained almost the whole week. More than one tanned, toned local apologized to me for it. But I didn't mind at all. I walked up and down the gorgeous surf beaches in the mist, one thing I love about rainy days on the beach is that there's no one else there. You really do have the beach to yourself.
I walked most days for about seven hours. I packed a snack, my journal, my book, my watercolours, and my backpack, and I would head down to the beach and just walk. I talked to myself out loud, asking questions and working stuff through. It was like a walking meditation retreat, an extended prayer. I don't even know the word for what it was, but it was a powerful experience.
I cried and laughed with myself. I was gentle and kind with myself. I let myself do whatever I felt like. I meditated every morning and wrote in my journal all throughout the day - I had almost filled up an entire spiral notebook by the time I flew home. So many epiphanies came to me. Big ones. Ones, that feel so special and enormous that I wrote them down more than once, so big that I am not quite ready to share them with you yet. They are still bubbling around in my system, reorganizing my cells. But I will, in time.
All of this happened because I was open to it. I didn't actively seek it out, but when the opportunity presented itself, I said yes. Sometimes we need to be available to the universe, to let things fall into our laps. To learn how to receive. When we're open to the unexpected, magical things can happen.
When we are listening carefully and being nice to ourselves, and allowing ourselves to receive, when we say yes to the opportunities that come our way, it truly can change the course of your whole life, in the best ways.
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