I did not take a selfie of us, but after conducting my NMW group from South Bend Indiana, and not reaching my friend, I walked from my little Airbnb suite in the big green House (pics below) many blocks thru tree-lined streets and Frank Lloyd Wright type houses at 9:15 pm to”Eddy Street Commons at Notre Dame, where I met an amazing 32-year-old African American woman who “gets” what I’m all about and is already working her server shifts (at this great restaurant where I landed) as a self-made life coach who is writing a book. Q, she calls herself.
She discovered me because I took a break from the amazing food she recommended (I mostly only order veggie sides and appetizers these days—pics below) to dance.
Yes, DANCE! Even tho there wasn’t a dance floor. Even though no one else was dancing. Even tho there was almost no one in the restaurant. Even tho no one noticed me—except her.
Why Dance? (Danxe as Siri just spelled it—and the way my Tennessee-born dad used to say it!!). Why? Because the song “ROLL WITH IT BABY,” came on and my body was programmed to move!
From 2001-2004, whenever I was particularly down and hopeless about the course of my finances, my health, and my 4-year divorce process, I would put on Steve Winwood at almost full blast and grab Jamie and we would bounce (on the little rebounder trampoline i had bought to help with my chronic illnesses) for as much of the song as I could make it through. If nothing else, I wanted to pass along to my 5-7 year old daughter the words and the spirit behind them: “When life is too much, Roll With It Baby” (my nickname for her). And of course I was playing it for myself, since she had not yet forgotten how to roll with it!
So when this incredible young server saw me dancing alone in the restaurant, she came bounding over to affirm me for creating my own dance floor and ask me why I was dancing. When I laughed and hugged her and I told her that I can’t NOT dance to “roll with it” she said she knew what I was taking about, and when I said I was a happiness and self-love coach, she said she knew what I was talking about, and then she sat at the table with me and for a half hour, and we knew what we were both talking about….no separation.
No age. No color. No methodology. No limits. Just love—and a passion for paying forward what we had each been given out of hardship. She is so all about being part of what we are doing here, and clearly also about being what she is doing and shining her big light. So cool! And I hope to return tomorrow with my childhood friends from Iowa for more of this FABULOUS fresh food.
Had I not danced, we would not have known we were kindred spirits, as is almost every person I meet. Who knows, she may end up Being one of our Coaches-in-Training who now support members of our groups. So if you become part if that, you will become part of this chain as well…. so much serendipity and connection. The more I am “Living in Symmetry,” the more of these kinds of events happen each day.
As we follow our hearts and trust what comes to us to do each moment, and trust that all is being cared for as long as we keep doing the part that appears us as ours, with complete love and abandon, and work the thinking that would tell us why we shouldn’t (ie, “don’t danxe—No one else is!), then everything falls into place.
I don’t know the definition of a bad outcome anymore, as we are just so busy making lemonade (or pie, or gelato, or window washer) out of anything that looks or smells like a lemon.
It really is OK to be this happy. it really does create the energy to sustain even more love and service for others. It really is ok to follow your bliss. (And, yes. That IS jalapeño butter—not sour cream—and grated Parmesan on the roasted corn and amazing little red peppers and a dark sweet sauce you would not believe on the huge chunks of roasted cauliflower.) 🤗v
