Saturday, January 15, 2011

Lucky Chance

Lately, I have been getting the sense that Lucky was going to come back into my life again, this time as a male german shepherd. The thought gives me a peaceful feeling . . . since it comes as a quiet "knowing" as opposed to a desperate desire. It's just nice to think about the fact that she may come back again. It hasn't felt like it was going to be anytime soon, so I haven't given it too much thought . . . that is until this week.

The anniversary of Lucky coming into my life was January 12th (It was the day I won the lottery at the SF SPCA fifteen years ago) so my sweet girl was on my mind a lot this past week. The night before that anniversary, I began thinking about the possibility of her coming back and wondered how I would know it was her. I decided to pose the question before I went to sleep to see if I got any answers in my dreams that night. I didn't have high hopes for an answer, because I have posed questions before, and either didn't remember my dreams in the morning, or my dreams were so weird, there was no way to try to pull an "answer" out of the weirdness. ;-)

This time though, I woke up about 3:30am with what I think was an answer to my question. My heart was racing, as I woke with a bit of a startle, and there was a phrase running through my head . . . a german shepherd named Chance. I sat there for a few minutes, contemplating what was happening . . . the name Chance ringing in my head . . . I wasn't sure if I should believe it was an answer to my question, but I don't know why else I would have been startled awake at that hour, with a clear name in my head. Eventually, I fell back asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, on the 12th, I was relieved that I didn't feel sad, like I did last year on our "anniversary," when I felt so overwhelmed with grief, I couldn't leave the house. Instead, I felt light and I felt like I just wanted to honor this special day. I watched the video of the news coverage of her adoption and it made me smile. It felt nice to remember how magically we came together and what a profoundly positive impact she had on my life. I think I will always feel a tremendous amount of gratitude on the 12th of January, because having Lucky come into my life was probably one of the best thing that ever happened to me. It certainly put me on a path I am grateful to be on.

That night, I got home late from my last client appointment of the day. It was about 11pm and even though I knew I should just go to bed, I decided to watch a little TV. I sat down on the couch and started channel surfing. After flipping through quite a few channels, a movie caught my attention. It was on the Hallmark or Lifetime channel and it looked interesting so I put the remote down for a minute to see what the movie was about. Within about two minutes, one of the characters was introducing himself to a pretty blonde lady on the show and he said, "Hi, my name is Chance." My jaw dropped. I thought it was such an odd coincidence. It made me giggle and I wondered if it was a sign that my dream was indeed an answer to my question. After all, Chance is not a very common name.

The next day, I told one of my best friends about how I woke up with the name Chance in my head and then saw a movie with a character named Chance. This kind of stuff is a little "out there" for him but as always, he did his best to be supportive. He said, "Well, it kinda makes sense, Lucky and Chance are similar names with similar meaning." I thought it was pretty cool and decided I would just keep an open mind to any german shepherds I encountered named Chance, although I still didn't feel like it was going to be anytime soon.

The next day, I was out running errands and was waiting to pull into a shopping center parking lot. I had to wait for a car turning in from the other direction and when I pulled in behind the gold sedan, I noticed the personalized license plate. I knew the collection of letters spelled "Luckychance." My mind began swirling as I drove down the aisle and pulled into the first opened space. I looked over at the next aisle, and saw the gold sedan slowing down to pull into a parking space . . . and I noticed my heart was starting to race.

I suddenly felt a sense of urgency to get out of the car, because I wanted to look at the license plate again and I wanted to see exactly how it had been spelled, as I couldn't remember if it was "LKYCHANC" or "LUKYCHNC." I grabbed my purse and my phone, jumped out of the car and quickly walked over to the next aisle, looking at gold sedan's parked in that aisle. Not a single one had a personalized license plate. I started wondering if I was losing my mind, as I began walking up and down that aisle and the next one over, looking at every gold car's license plate. There were probably 15 or more gold sedans and not a single one had a personalized plate. I took a walk up and down the aisles again, thinking maybe I had the color of the car wrong, so I looked at every single license plate on every single car but it was no where to be found. It was as if it had magically disappeared.

I laughed to myself, when I realized I was bordering on being a little crazy, as I walked up and down the aisles of the parking lot, stalking a car that seemed to have disappeared into thin air. I figured I ought to just go into the store and finish what I had come there for, but I couldn't help feeling an odd excitement pulse through my veins. I liked thinking that I was getting messages from the Universe, and I was happy that I was noticing the clues I was being given.

I still don't feel like I am going to be getting a dog anytime soon. It continues to feels like it's a ways off, like maybe next fall, but it still feels good. I like thinking that I may now have the information I need to know it's the "right" dog for me, when I meet him. I guess only time will tell . . . but I have a feeling I will be writing more about this later in the year. Stayed tuned!


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