I’ve just returned from a week-long trip to Toronto to take a class and spend some time with friends. As I wrote before I left, this is the first vacation I’ve given myself in quite a while, and I’m happy to say that I didn’t think about work at all while I was gone! This is a big accomplishment for me!! 🙂
While I was gone I kept my mind open for miracles. As expected, there were far too many to catalog in a single post, so here’s the Cliff Notes version of a few that are prominent in my memory…
Impossible Internet – I went on this trip with the intention of having an open heart and communicating clearly. Apparently I forgot to pass that message on to my computer. For some reason that is known only to the gods of IT, my computer did not play well with the internet connection at my friend Jen’s house. It was bizarre! I could read emails but not send them; I could see the Yahoo headlines but couldn’t load the articles; most of the time my browser wouldn’t even acknowledge that Facebook exists. Being an internet junkie, this normally would have sent me into a state of high anxiety. But because I had already agreed with myself that I was on VACATION, it was actually a pleasant little helping hand to stay out of my work mind and in my vacation world. Thank you Internet Gods!
2-on-1 class – Before attending a class, I often find myself hoping for a small, intimate class size. But never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to ask for a class where I was the ONLY student with TWO teachers!!!!!!!!!!! And yet, for two days of the three class days I had exactly that. I mean – that’s crazy, right?!? Complete and total focus on my learning, healing, and growth. A crazy amazing miraculous experience. Wow.
Prophetic Messages – At the beginning of each day’s class, we each picked a card from the “Saints and Angels” oracle card deck. The first day, my card was “Retreat” 
which was a perfect complement to allowing myself a vacation. The second day, my card was “Reward”…and I really did feel that I was giving myself a reward for time well-served. The third day, my card was “Be Brave” which turned out to be extremely prophetic because Tony (one of the teachers) spent some time massaging my knees. This is an extremely big deal for me because, due to knee problems when I was younger, I have been terrified of letting anyone touch my knees for the last 20 years. He wasn’t just stroking them either – he was actually sticking his fingers in and massaging stuff that makes me queasy to think about now. Jennifer (the other teacher) held my hand and I stood there and sobbed while he was doing it…and despite all the tears and snot, I really did allow myself to be brave for those few minutes.
“No Thank You” – I’m not sure if the vernacular is different in Canada or if I was just being extremely unclear, but a bunch of times when I meant to say “No thank you” to something, people didn’t know whether I was saying yes or no. I realized after it happened the third or fourth time that I actually don’t say “No thank you” – what I say is “No, I’m good.” Which, when you think about it, is kind of a silly and unclear thing to say. I’m working on being more aware and breaking that bit of ingrained habit. One of the things that my teacher says often is, “You can’t have a strong YES unless you have a strong NO,” and this was a good reminder that apparently my “NO” needs some strengthening.
Kale Smoothies – Before I went up to Toronto, Jen kept mentioning the kale smoothies that she makes each morning. I’ll admit I was skeptical – I’m all for eating my vegetables, but this sounded like it might be taking the concept a little too far. Turns out Jen is on to something FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!!! They are SO YUMMY and I happily (okay, greedily!) drank one every morning. 🙂 They were so good that when I got back to my home town, before I even stopped at my apartment I went to the grocery store and got the ingredients to make my own the next morning. Delicious.
If you want to make your own smoothie, here’s what Jen does – put the following in a blender:
- a banana
- some kale (just the leaf – tear it off the stem)
- some type of juice (she uses one of those green drinks that has spirulina and wheat grass in it, but I think you could use just about any kind of juice you like)
- some blueberries (frozen is okay if you can’t get fresh)
Blend.
Drink.
Yum.
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