(long, and one heck of a read...)
I went to Atlanta this weekend to see my parents, brothers, and grandma. (Atlanta Peeps, I didn't tell anyone I was coming. I will be back during Spring Break with the boys.) I had an awesome time with my family. I didn't get enough sleep, ate too much of my mama's food, played massive rounds of Scrabble, saw the movie Sisters (super raunchy, btw, like the female version of The Hangover), saw my grandmother (extraordinarily difficult) and went trap shooting with my dad.
And then I was stuck in Hartsfield-Jackson Airport from 1:30pm to 10:10pm on Sunday. Was greeted in Baltimore by a car frozen in ice at 12:30am. Made it home safely by a) rolling down the windows to allow twenty degree cold air to hit my face, and b) singing Eagles and Glenn Frey songs at the top of my lungs since every radio station except the R&B and Country ones were memorializing Glenn, who had passed way that morning. Got to bed at 2:15 am and was up at 5:07 am. That should be the end of the story, right?
Oh, no...this is Ms. Mocha Angel so read on for a magical mystery tour....
I flew standby. My mother worked for an airline so I can fly deeply discounted. Cheap? Yes. Is the flip side of cheap possibly not making it onto a flight? Yes.
I was bumped of the following flights:
-the 3:10pm - gate B12
-the 5:55pm - gate B4
-the 7:15pm - gate B19
By 7:15pm I was tired, grumpy, restless, and fairly bitchy. Like, don't nobody talk to me. I just want to get home. The one person I did talk to was Quincy, a brother who works customer service for the airline. When I walked up to him AGAIN around 7:20, he was like, "Really?" "Really..." I said. The last direct flight to Baltimore was 10:10pm. Because of the three hour wait until the next flight, Quincy told me the gate may change. All of the previous flights were on Concourse B. The gate listed for the 10:10 flight was A19. (This is important to the story.) So I dragged my grumpy, tired behind to Concourse A.
I walk to the escalator, step on, and not five seconds later, I look to my left and I see someone I recognize. Under my breath I said in sheer shock, "Mike Dooley?" I said it again, this time to get his attention, "MIKE DOOLEY??!!"
Me and Mike
He looked at me and I almost passed out. This man is on the escalator to my immediate left. Not my diagonal left. Not behind me to the left. My IMMEDIATE LEFT. I said, "Mr. Notes from the Universe is standing right next to me?" Still on the escalator I am having a total groupie moment. Goodness only knows how loud my voice went. I said, "Do you remember me? I met you at Kripalu in August. You signed my books. You looked at my Mocha Angels manuscript and we talked about publishing." He says, "Yes, I remember you. You looked familiar."
By this point, we are off the escalator. The next words out of my mouth were. "Do you know what a shitty day I have had?"
Pause.
If you don't know why I was having a total "Holy Gratitude, Batman!" moment, allow me to explain. Mike Dooley is the founder of TUT (The Universe Speaks). He is the Beyonce of manifestation. He is the Barack Obama of co-creation. He is the Oprah of inspiration. He is the author of Infinite Possibilities, Manifesting Change, Top 10 Things Dead People Want to Tell You, Leveraging The Universe, and more. He is the guy behind the daily Notes from the Universe. He is the man, who, back in August, looked me straight in the eye, and said, "You are going to publish books. You going to do the exact same thing I do and be super successful at it." Five months later he is standing right next to me at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.
Do ya'll see why I was having a "standing at the microphone holding an Oscar, deer-in-the-headlights, I have to catch my breath before I speak so I sound fairly intelligent like I got some home training" moment?
Back to the story...
We walked to Concourse A together. I explained my day. He said he was headed home from Texas from a Train the Trainer conference that TUT offers. His flight was at gate A9. Mine was at A19. That picture above was taken at my gate. He was sooooooo nice. He even asked me the status of my manuscript. We talked about other personal stuff that was supremely helpful. I hope that my half of the conversation made sense because the whole thing was surreal. If we hadn't taken a photo, I might not have believed it actually happened. My other hope is that I was as helpful to him, in some way, as he was to me. We talked for about 15-20 minutes.
Once he left, I sat down at my gate in complete disbelief. I looked at the counter and saw that the flight listed is not to Baltimore, but to West Palm Beach at 10:31pm. I walked to the Departures board. My flight was now at gate B18. I nearly passed out again. If the gate for my 10:10pm flight had remained on Concourse B, I never would have ran into Mike Dooley. I would not have had a reason to leave Concourse B. Remember: Mike's flight was at gate A9. Mine was at A19. Now it had changed. Quincy had told me it was likely my gate location would change. And it did.
I called my mother and my ex-husband to tell them what happened. I ran back to Concourse B, found Quincy, and said, "You are not going to believe what just happened!" I didn't know this brother from Adam, but he was the only person, outside of Mike, I had spoken to in the airport. Turns out Quincy himself had met Dick Gregory that same day. Then he said he was interested in yoga and meditation and is a vegan. I said, "You know I got this blog, right?...." We wind up talking until 8:45pm when he got off from work.
These were my takeaways/reminders from a stunningly remarkable day:
- I was reminded in stunning fashion that I am a Creator. Everything in my life, good, bad, and ugly, led me to that moment.
- Prayers are answered. They don't come in the way we expect. They do come in a way we can understand.
- Love (God) is everywhere. Love is in the worst of situations. There is nowhere Love cannot be because Love is what we are made from and made of.
- Keep your heart open. The older we get, the harder it is to do because of life's disappointments. Believe me, the past six months have been brutal and extremely challenging. I have fought to keep fear at bay and keep my heart chakra open to love, in all of its forms.
- Keeping your heart open allows you to walk in the magic and miracle of life.
The Universe manifested itself into physical form (Mike was wearing an Infinite Possibilities sweatshirt... I mean, come on!), talked to me, hugged me, took three selfies with me, and said, "Your life is going to be AWESOMER, BIGGER and GRANDER than you can imagine!"
The Universe didn't just change my day. It changed my life.
Love,
Althea ◦
