The only way to get what you really want, is to know what you really want.
And the only way to know what you really want, is to know yourself.
And the only way to know yourself, is to be yourself.
And the only way to be yourself, is to listen to your heart!
~from Notes from The Universe
This is my favorite note from the "Notes from The Universe" by the fabulous Mike Dooley. Since it came to me a few years ago my life has been forever changed. The words are so simple yet so powerful. What do I want? Who am I, really? What is being myself? Am I listening to my heart?
I've definitely been listening to my heart. All of my big life decisions were made by my heart first, logic second. But what do I want? Who am I outside of the roles I play like mother, daughter, wife, friend, teacher, consultant, etc.? And what is it that I want again?
I've never been one to focus much on the so-called materialistic side of things. When I quit my job to stay home with Allison I knew I was giving up my comfortable lifestyle. I really didn't care. I knew what I wanted. I wanted to be home with my daughter. As a teacher I had pretty much expected that I would only make so much money and get to do things "within reason" in my budget. When we became a one income family, I knew we could cut back and I knew we would figure the rest out. But after you keep cutting, and cutting, and cutting your budget you start to feel... well, deprived. We were happy in many ways but life wasn't as comfortable as it used to be and it started to get old. We were ready for a change.
The entrepreneur in me was awakening. I started writing. I wrote about what I wanted. I focused on the abundance of the Universe and the fact that God would provide. I started to let go of the thoughts that I had about material things. I knew that money and things didn't bring about happiness but having things and enjoying the abundance that life has to offer is a good thing! I knew that if I figured out what I wanted, I could achieve it. I trusted the process. We decided to move to Texas.
Let's just say things worked out the way I expected them to with some exceptions and allowances. I wanted to sell our house. That was the best case scenario or so I thought. The one showing that we had in 5 months and the one offer that came in was just not reasonable. I knew it was a tough time to sell but I didn't want to give our house away. I started to worry a bit about what we were going to do. I knew I wanted to move and be in Texas by Thanksgiving. Brad and I talked about it and we decided to rent it out. Within 45 minutes of placing the ad we had a response. We ended up having to turn people away and chose the first responder. It was so EASY once I let go my idea of what HAD to happen! And anyways, we had always talked about having rental properties as one of our MSI's (Multiple Sources of Income). Texas, here we come!
We have been very fortunate to have my family here in Texas. My parents are the best people I know and are so very kind and generous! They invited us to stay with them until we settled in. We have lived across the country from one another for about 15 years. There was lots of catching up to do! They made space for my family of four plus our little toy poodle, Peanut. They welcomed us and treated us and helped us make a life here. I am so grateful for all of their kindness and graciousness. I admire their love (40+ years of marriage) and I appreciate that now I get to have them in my life on a regular basis.
When you live with your parents when you're an adult it conjures up a lot of interesting feelings. When I left the house as a college freshman, I came home every other weekend or so. By sophomore year it was once a month. By junior year I had a weekend job and a pretty active social life so....I rarely came home. How was I to know that they missed me so much? DUH!!! I really had no idea! I was just into my own life. Now that I have my own daughters, I get it.
Over the last 20 years I have seen friends that have lost their parents, their spouses, their grandparents, their pets, and even their child. I have known people around my age and younger who have lost their lives. Something has changed in me and I realize the preciousness of life and all the special moments. I appreciate that I have been able to wake up in the morning to chat and have coffee with my Mom. I love hearing my Dad in the morning and the garage door opening when he gets home from work. The sounds and smells take me back to a place of my childhood and the "good old days" when life was easy and I didn't even know what stress felt like. I love that we have had this chance to grow close again, for them to get to know my daughters, for us to be a family. But now, it's time to move on.
In my head I've had this timeline. I wanted to be in our own place by April 1st. I wrote it down on a sticky note and put it on my bedroom wall. Allison turns five at the end of April and she'll start kindergarten in the fall. I wanted to be in our own house by then so we could have her birthday at our house, enjoy the whole summer, and be ready for kindergarten in August. I started looking at houses online. I love Smartphones! Every night before bed I would look at houses and think about what I wanted. I wrote down all the things that I wanted and I tried to be very specific and detailed. We started looking at houses.
My mom has told me stories of her and her brothers riding their bikes to their grandma's house to visit. When I was a high school/college student I would smile and say "that's nice" to my mom, thinking ok, sure, that's nice, not gonna happen! I don't even know why, I guess it's just that gaining independence thing. (Please remind me of this when my daughters do the same thing!) But 20 years later, there I was with a house for sale in my parent's neighborhood that I couldn't wait to see! I dreamed about it and looked at the pictures so I could visualize us living there. When we went to see the house it was so disappointing! Too much work, amongst other issues and I knew instantly it was not the house for us. But the seed was planted. It would be so cool if my girls could walk and ride their bikes to their grandparent's house!
The house hunt continued. There are so many houses for sale right now! It truly is a buyer's market and the interest rates...wow! It's such a great time to buy! I kept telling myself that the right house would come to us, we just had to find it. One Saturday we went to look at some houses and although I liked some things about them, I just wasn't feeling like any of them were the right pick. I started to feel discouraged and we ended up looking at a model home. Instantly, we felt a connection. Wow! We really liked a lot about this house, maybe we should consider building. When we started thinking more about it though, we knew we didn't feel ready to commit to a builder, a neighborhood, or a house that was in our budget right now because we know that our budget will be bigger next year! But we're ready to move now! I could feel the stress starting to creep in. And then, a brilliant idea! Let's just rent for now and build our dream home later! Ahhhhhh.....relief washed over me and I felt like a million pounds was lifted off my shoulders (that I didn't even realize I was carrying!). Perfect idea! Let's do it!
Sunday I took the girls for a walk and there it was in front of a gorgeous house right around the corner from my parent's house, a sign that said FOR LEASE! What????? Is this for real? As soon as I got home I looked it up and there it was! It looked perfect and the asking price was $5 less than I thought was reasonable for our budget. I sent an email requesting a showing.
Wednesday morning we checked it out. What an awesome house! It has so many of the things that I wrote down that I wanted! Lots of space, open floor plan, office space, pantry, kitchen island, fireplace, deck, balcony with a view, master bathroom with a double vanity, his and hers walk-in closets, large bedrooms for the girls each with a walk-in closet, and a gameroom! The agent told us others were interested so we took the application and I got right to work on it! When I turned it back in I chatted with her a bit, I wanted her to know how much we wanted it! Later that day I thought of a few other things I should've said but decided no, if it's meant to be, it will be.
I talked to Allison about it and we were getting all excited. I asked her, wouldn't it be nice if you could go to the school around the corner and we could walk you to school everyday? I started to say more but she said, wait a second, I have to talk to God for a second.
Dear God, Please let us live in the house close to the school. Thanks God. Love, Allison Amen.
I love the way she prays! I told her that it was a great idea to ask God and she interrupted me, wait a second, I need to tell God one more thing,
Dear God, Please come to my birthday party. It's at Chuck E. Cheese. You can follow us. Thanks God. Love, Allison
Awww! I just love her!
On Friday we went to run some errands. I was cashing out at the register when my phone started playing Jingle Bell Rock. I totally forgot I had set that tone for unidentified numbers back around Christmastime! It's rare that someone I don't know calls me and this time it made my knees go weak and my heart get all fluttery. I knew it was the agent. When I got to the car I listened to the voicemail. Yep, it was her and her voice gave no indication whether she had good news for me or not. I took a deep breath and called her back. She asked me, are you guys ready to pack? Ahhhhhhhh!!!!! We got the house!
In less than a week after making a decision about renting, we found the perfect house! The house was actually listed the same day that we made our decision and the agent told us that five other people were denied...the owner picked us! I am so excited about how it all worked out!
I have learned so much from this experience and these are the biggest things: THINK about what you want. WRITE down what you want. DREAM about what you want. BELIEVE you can have what you want. And BE READY to take action when the opportunity comes! TRUST YOURSELF and KNOW! Also, appreciate, appreciate, appreciate! This helps you to be in vibrational alignment with what you want and who you really are!
Ok this post was long enough! :) Thanks for sharing this awesome experience with me!
Has this kind of experience ever happened to you? I'd love hear about it! Please comment or email me! kristie.ignash@gmail.com
Love to you!
Kristie
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