23 Westriver road, Walkerton Ontario, sometime at the beginning of February 2009. My apologies ahead of time for I don’t remember many if any of the details but what I do remember is Emily and I discussing ever so excitedly a trip to Hawaii that we would love to take in a years time.
Both of us thinking how incredible amazing and uplifting a trip like that would be, but in the back of our minds thinking, “ How the heck are we going to pull this one off". Up until that point Emily and I were quite familiar with our new friend manifestation but still not a 100% sure on his ability to show up when called upon.
At this time I was still just making it by (financially). I had a job I loved at a small cafe in uptown Waterloo, was in my last semester at the University of Waterloo and between tuition and rent I had just enough money left over to get enough groceries to sustain my somewhat simple but ever exciting life. Emily was also in the same boat financially she had just moved back in with her parents and was trying to figure out a way in which she might make some money in life. Little did we know however that our conversation that day early in February was all it took for that seed, our dream of traveling to Hawaii, to be planted.
After that day of dreaming of far off places, sandy beaches, tropical fruit and hammocks between palm trees I, to be quite honest with you, never thought that much about Hawaii again. As of then it was a dream, a new dream for me, who before only ever dreamed of traveling to South America never once thinking about the islands people have come to know as paradise. I was almost certain that when I graduated my first journey would be to Peru or Chile. As soon as I could get the chance, as soon as I was free form the institution that was University.
It wouldn’t be until months later when I was aboard a bus from Banff to Vancouver when I would again begin to nurture that seed that I had planted months before in early February.
I was sitting on the greyhound on route to Vancouver, where I have only ever been once before in my life and I think I was 11 or 12. Around Golden BC I had made a new friend on the bus. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of this man who was about to set in motion a chain of events that I think have been in the cards since before I was born. He was a kind, older gentleman. He was friendly and open to discussing his life. He has been traveling for most of it and for the past 8 years he had been vacationing form his home on Vancouver island in Hawaii. He would go every winter and camp and live on the beaches there for $5 a night. “FIVE DOLLARS!", I exclaimed, " that’s incredible!” I had always envisioned life in paradise to be extremely expensive and unattainable and now here I am sitting with a man who tells me it costs only $5 a night to camp, and on a beach about 20ft from the ocean. Was this for real? Am I dreaming? I pinched myself, OUCH, the pain ran up my neurons did a little hop at the spinal cord and again at the thalamus, where it continued upward to the sensory area of my brain. I was awake and the answer was yes, this is for real!
Again I found myself drifting into this dreamland, where Hawaii was the central point. Only this time I was camping in a tent and living on the beach .Waking up and falling asleep to the sound of the oceans powerful waves crashing onto the beach a mere 20ft from where I lay. I hadn’t realized it then but I had just nurtured my original dream, the seed that I had planted months before, with exactly what it needed to grow. Love and imagination.
It was July meow, and I had just arrived in Tofino with some girlfriends. They had flown into Vancouver to meet me and we planned a road trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island. It was late on a Wednesday night when we pulled into town. We stayed at a hotel that we found and decided that the next day we would find a campground and set up shop for the next couple of days there. It was on a Friday morning that it happened. I had maybe $20 to my name (ha-ha that’s being generous) and as I sat at the beach listening to the waves I heard a voice, no-one was around, again I heard the voice. It was coming from within me. “You are meant to stay here, go into town and you will be blessed with a job and a place to stay.” It told me. Now this might seem strange to some but I am so use to this voice talking with me that I now acknowledge it as a real person, my higher self. And She always knows what is right and has yet to pull any fast ones over on me just for kicks. There is never and cruel laughter following her words and never once has she called me a sucker for listening to her and followed it up with a, “Man how easy it was to get you to fall for that one”. So I trusted her.
I set off for the day leaving the girls to do whatever it was they pleased and promised to meet them for dinner later in the day. I set my intention on finding a job and a place to stay. Manifestation decided to join me that morning. She walked right by my side the whole time. We laughed and joked like old pals and walked on, a little skip in our step whistling while we went. There was never any doubt in my mind I would find what I was looking for.
Then it happened my first meeting with who I like to call one of my many soul mates. I use this term not in the romantic sense, that it is so often confused with, but as a way to describe anyone who is a true reflection of your inner truth and who is about to play a huge role in your life for the betterment of your evolution. So there I was face to face with her at the bakery asking if they were hiring. She was beautiful and amazingly personable, I loved her right away. This meeting only lasted a moment (they weren’t hiring) and then I was off on my search again.
After landing a job at the second place I entered I decided to take a walk. What happened next was incredible, I swear the sign pinned to the bulletin board on my left came to life. It popped off the wall and introduced itself as if it were a real person, “ Hello there”, it said. “ I am Celestial Sphere, a beautiful little shop that you will find at the other end of this little alley way you see to your right”.
“Why thank you Mr. Sphere”, addressing it as if it were a real person, and Manifestation and I walked through the alley, whistling a way as usual. The store was amazing. It was filled with gorgeous dresses, crystals, jewellery and much more. I was only looking around for what felt like 5 minutes when who walks in but the beautiful young girl form the bakery. I introduced myself at once, something inside me told me this girl is going to be someone to you and this second meeting is no accident, there is no such thing. This is divine timing at it’s best. Now that I look back at it I’m pretty sure it was manifestation who was whispering those words into my ear.
Her name was Brittany and we immediately hit it off. We talked for a while and then it came, synchronicity, like a tidal wave it feel upon us. We both had the same dream and it was traveling to Hawaii! Watering this tiny seed that was my dream again with more love and imagination I felt it begin to grow. A tiny sapling poking her head out from the soil, ready to grow even more and one day blossom into a beautiful fruit tree.
About a month and a half had passed and I’d been debating on whether or not Hawaii was actually the next step for me. Was it truly the place my higher self wished me to go next to further my evolutionary growth and strengthen the slight connection that I had begun to form with her. At this point I had a very strong desire to also travel to New Zealand and was thinking that maybe it was there that I was meant to travel to next.
So one morning before work I said to my higher self, “ Self, what’s next for me, where is it that I should travel to next? What will be the best place for me to strengthen our connection and continue evolving this soul of mine?”.
“Well sister friend”, she always called me this because she thought of us not only as sister’s but friends, “I think that if you set your intention and asked the universe for a sign, that you might just find the answer you are looking for”. So that is exactly what I did. That day at work, and I shit you not, 3 different customers spoke to me about Hawaii, heck one guy even gave me a pamphlet he had with him. I didn’t even bring it up. It was if the universe was holding up a huge flashing sign, you know like the ones you see advertising XXX dancers on the outside of a strip club, except on this sign there was no mention of naked ladies, it only held one word and that word was HAWAII!!
It was right then and there that I knew in my heart the answer to my questions. I knew where the next adventure I would be taking would lead me. I stepped out of myself and again watched as the sapling began to grow even bigger, my dream was so much closer to me now, I could taste it and it tasted of fresh coconut and mango deliciousness…