Real Life Magic story #8:
A story from my friend Erin's life
My friend Erin loves living in Brooklyn with her whole heart and she is moving away upstate NY in a couple of days. What?! Did you read that correctly? She loves this place so she is leaving it?
Yes, you can love somewhere (someone, something) and still know deep down that it is time to leave.
She has felt drawn to make this move for a long time, she’s tested out living there for a few months at a time, and deep down she knows it is her next step. But what am I doing, I don’t need to defend her. When you know, you know, no logical explanation is necessary. We all know this.
Earlier this week she traveled across Brooklyn to meet her friends Dan and Nat for dinner. As she passed through one neighborhood after another and watched all the classic movie-like Brooklyn moments appear before her eyes, she began to get sentimental. It was as if each one was orchestrated perfectly to induce nostalgia. Memories of this place that had been her home for six years flashed across her mind, oh, all the good times!
Fear and doubt instantly clouded her mind. By the time she arrived, she had decided that this move was a mistake.
Tears may or may not have been involved by the time she reached Dan and Nat, and she exclaimed that she was making a big mistake moving. Doing what good friends do, they calmed her down lovingly and walked into the restaurant, with Erin’s fear and doubt still lingering internally.
When she made eye contact with the waitress though, the clouds in her mind dissipated as quickly as they had appeared.
“I didn’t tell you that I worked here, right!?” the waitress said with a giggle.
Erin said, “No, you did not,” between laughs as a smile warmed across her face and her shoulders softened.
So who is this mysterious waitress who suddenly melted away all of Erin’s fears and doubts about her move?
A few weeks ago, Erin and her friend Dan had gone upstate NY and met this woman named Lozzie and they all instantly hit it off. Lozzie was living in NYC, but she used to live upstate NY and was flirting with the idea of moving back. Erin encouraged her to move back upstate. Erin was already moving there, and although it was scary to move, they would be in it together.
After meeting Erin and hearing her parallel story, Lozzie realized how much she really did want to move back upstate, that it wasn’t just a fantasy. Right after their initial meeting, Lozzie experienced many signs and synchronicities that gave her the confidence to commit to the move, and she signed a lease upstate NY five days later. Erin and Lozzie had been keeping in touch, texting back and forth, inspiring each other, and calming each other’s fear and nerves about making their big moves.
Now this week, at the height of Erin’s fear and doubt of moving upstate, out of all the restaurants in NYC, they happen to walk into the restaurant where Lozzie works, not knowing she was a waitress there.
Erin told Lozzie the truth, that she was having a moment of fear and doubt. That she had suddenly become nervous about moving upstate now that it was so real.
Lozzie said, “I’m nervous too, but we can do this.”
This unexpected encounter with Lozzie at the restaurant was the exact thing Erin needed to come back to the center and remember that deep down, she knew moving was her next step.