Sunday is our day to grocery shop and my husband and I work to turn this weekly task into quality time together. We usually plan our meals for the week while we shop and gather up what we need. We peruse the magazines and gift sections; later we have coffee and a pastry or bagel in the store café and just hang out and talk, enjoying each others company. On the way home we often stop at the bookstore. We leave the house around 730 in the morning and arrive back home around noon, relaxed and happy.
Yesterday, while shopping, a beautiful magazine cover caught my eye and I causally tossed the issue in the cart. On the way home, we stopped at Borders Books. Both of the titles I was looking for weren’t available. But, as I turned to leave, a book on the bottom shelf caught my eye, THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE, LOVE YOURSELF, LIVE YOUR SPIRIT, by Sonia Choquette. I have never heard of this book or the author before, but, the book called to me and I bought it.
After returning home, putting away the groceries and arranging the dozen roses my husband had picked out for me, I settled in my home office and turned on my computer to write The Dreaming Cafe weekly message.
Now, you may recall from my blog last week that I paid off my car note instead of spending ten-days in Tuscan and although I was happy with my decision I was still disappointed. I then settled on ‘Plan B, which was basically to shorten my vacation from ten days to seven and create my own book festival and writing workshop at home.
But, we all know how hard it is to try and do ‘your own thing’ when you are vacationing at home. I knew what it would be like for me. The overflowing laundry basket would whisper to me, even in my sleep, the dust bunnies would be winking at me from under the coffee table and my husband would be sadly looking at a cold and empty oven wondering if he would ever have a home cooked meal again.
All of this was running through my head while I was trying to focus on my writing. I needed a break and found a new email in my Inbox from a friend of mine living in Florida.
To say that her email floored me would be an understatement. She blew me away with an unexpected offer to come stay with her, in her home, by the ocean during my time off.
“Wow, what a generous offer.” I thought to myself, “I could write everyday, work on my website, relax…”
Both my family and I can accept when I have to leave for a few days, a week or even ten days if I am scheduled to attend a workshop or a conference. But, leaving my family to go to Florida to sit around, read, write and think all day? I wasn’t sure I could do that, or if they could handle it, even though it felt like the right thing to do at the right time.
As I was debating with myself two beautiful images caught my eye. I turned my chair and on the corner of my desk sat the magazine and book I had purchased earlier that day. The picture that had captivated me in the grocery store and prompted me to buy a magazine I would not normally purchase, Coastal Living, with a beautiful sun porch and ocean view on its cover. And, along side the magazine, an ocean blue book jacket with a picture of a little girl playing in the sand at the beach, Sonia Choquette’s book, the one I had impulsively picked up that morning at Borders.
I looked back and forth between these two images and the email on my computer screen.
Two impulsive purchases and an unexpected email all with the same theme…the ocean, solitude and beauty.
Some would say it was just a coincidence.
I believe it was Synchronicity, a God Wink, The Universe lighting the way.
Needless to say, Plan B has been scraped and Plan C is on the way. Stay tuned…
