Surrendering into Miracles

I am reminiscing about that sweet time when I decided I hated living in Paris, dropped out of law school, packed a little carry-on, and gave full permission to the spontaneous, plan-less travel diva in me.

Out of my 5 weeks in the US, I spent one hiding in cold wintery Portland, OR, sleeping on a couch of a friend of a friend. I wanted to go to California but kept being told: "Oh you don't drive?? Well, best of luck getting anywhere in LA!" and was terrified of being stuck somewhere with no car and no money.

Eventually, I booked a flight to Vegas where I had no desire to go, just because the flight was cheap and there were buses running from there to LA. Having no intentions to gamble or party, I booked a day trip to the grand canyon.

On the trip, I met a German girl who happened to be staying in the exact same hostel dorm on the same dates and booked the same day trip! She was happy when she met me because she didn’t feel confident speaking English (and I speak German). We not only had a fab time in the Grand Canyon - where I made her take loads of diva pictures of me blending into the landscape and subsequently changed my instagram handle to @anothertravelb*tch 🤣 - but we found out that we had similar plans afterwards!

After a few days in LA, she planned to rent a car and drive north to San Francisco along the coast on the scenic Pacific Highway. I had to go to San Francisco, because that's where my departure flight was from and I had been reading, hearing and dreaming about the highway - only dreaming, as I don't drive! Well, she offered to pick me up in LA and eventually not only gave me a - very scenic - ride, but also asked her Couchsurfing host in SF if I could also stay with him. So I ended up with free transportation and accommodation in perhaps the most expensive city in the world and also joined my new friend for more adventure-filled car-requiring trips to national parks and famous coastal destinations around Big Sur, with whale-watching, beach picnics, motel swimming pools, dancing in the car and all!

Ah, such sweet memories. How good is life when you decide to not be stopped by your and other people's (!!) worries and warnings and find the courage to go ahead and set off on your dream journey - literal or metaphorical - anyways? 🌄

I didn't know this then but I know it now: It's not my job to figure things out. I certainly couldn't have figured out something as epic as this had I tried! Why limit the epic-ness of our lives by trying to come up with a logical solution when we live in a world of endless possibilities where crazy, wonderful, improbable miracles - which we could have never predicted had we tried - can happen anytime?

The lesson I am still learning while my cute little overthinking brain tries to figure things out for me is this:

It's none of my business HOW something will come into existence in my life - I just need to trust that it can and allow the universe to do its magic.