It’s a Sign!

I believe in signs, I really do. When I’m faced with a fork in the road, a question that has no right or wrong answer but could have a big, life-changing repercussion, I ask for a sign.  Some people hear answers to their prayers, I receive signs.

Sign # 1 – The Special Bird
The husband was looking at online ads as usual. This is almost a hobby with him–checking out the prices of properties, cars, and other things for sale all over the country. We had this vague notion of living part of the week on a farm, and part at home. Then he found an unusual online ad. The agent had farm properties at much less than what the hubby thought was the going rate for that area! He thought the area was beyond our price range and hadn’t even considered buying there before. The husband made an appointment with the agent. The first few properties she showed us were disappointing and looked wrong right off the bat. Too flat. Then we came to one that made our eyes open wide. There was a view of mountains and a gentle roll to the terrain. Was this it? Was it possible that we found our dream farm on the very first day of looking with this agent that the husband found online? I needed a sign! If I saw a special bird in the property, then that would be the sign! I kept my eyes peeled, scouring all the trees and bushes for a special bird. Nothing. We were about the leave the property, when we saw a Black-naped Monarch. Was this our special bird?  It’s a common bird found all over the country, so not really that special. But, it’s blue and not found in our neighborhood or in the city. Plus two special points! Then, the husband tells me that he too was looking for a special bird as a sign — another sign!

This is a Black-naped Monarch, but not the actual bird we saw!

We were elated! It was time to call the lawyer and check the paperwork! Although we still had a bit of  doubt about our sign. Maybe the bird wasn’t special enough? It helped when the husband visited the site again and saw two Hooded Pittas! We are enamored of all pittas and definitely consider them special! And then I remembered the wish!

Sign # 2 – The Wish
Related to asking for a sign, is making a wish. To make a wish you simply visualize what you want and put it out for the universe to, uh, unfold. The key to making this work however is to only visualize the end result and not worry about the details. You need to be open to all possibilities.

Back in 1999 I painted a work called “Our Land Fantasy”. It was an oil painting of me and the husband standing side by side in front of a vineyard with a purple mountain range behind us. In 2000 I painted a second version of this painting called “When We Know”.  It was the same scene, but tightly cropped so that only the our upper bodies could be seen, plus some sky, mountain, and a yellow and green field behind us.  It was a painting of the moment when I know that I’m living my dream! The painting hung in my bedroom for a few years, and then went into storage.

Flash forward to April 2012. I was on top of a horse at a friend’s farm when I had a sudden realization! I was living my dream! It was a shock to see it all come together — the well-mannered horses kept in pastures, the open spaces, the location of the farm that was just an hour’s drive from my house, the friends enjoying the day, and the birds flying around. Only my dogs were missing from the picture!

I took riding lessons as a child, then stopped because of asthma. Then I took riding lessons as an adult, then stopped again. I figured that if I were to continue the riding lessons, I would eventually end up buying my own horse. And if I bought a horse, I would end up doing jumping or dressage. But what I really wanted was to do was just ride around a farm. Which would entail buying a farm. And since it seemed out of the question to buy a farm, I decided to go into birdwatching instead. Which led me to that day in April 2012 when I was hanging out at a farm with my birdwatcher friends and realized I should buy a farm!

It’s all a sign I tell you!