I rarely shop at Kohl’s. It is not a store that I am drawn to. Being a snowbird, I am always on the lookout for clothes I can wear in Tucson. Kohl’s was having an end-of-season sale. Pushing through my procrastination, I drove the eight-and-a-half miles to the store. As I opened the door to walk in, a woman and her teenage daughter were walking out. She paused, looked at me, and asked if my name was Gary. At that moment, I was taken off guard and automatically responded, yes. She answered that I probably didn’t remember her, but mentioned she was a client of mine, and I helped her to conceive her daughter. Considering her daughter’s age, that was at least 12 to 14 years ago.

Our interaction was, at most, two minutes. That short encounter left me awe-struck. Had I left my house a minute sooner or a minute later, I would have never “bumped” into this woman.

A few weeks after my Kohl’s experience, my partner and I took a short vacation in Sedona. Being avid hikers, we decided to take one of the more challenging trails into a somewhat remote area. About four miles into the hike, we stopped for a water break. I sat down for a moment, and I found a ten-dollar bill on the side of the rock I was sitting on. Again, I was struck by the timing of this discovery. I was in the middle of nowhere. Had we chosen another trail or decided to hike at a different time, I would have never found the ten dollars.

Both experiences left me feeling amazed by the universe’s timing in relation to my life. There are almost 8 billion people living on this planet. I have to assume that these occurrences are not unique to me. Whatever this mechanism of timing is, it is not something I can grasp or understand with my mind. It is way too vast to comprehend. It is only something I can bear witness to. In those moments, the infinite process of universal creation and consciousness directly touched my life.

These two very brief encounters left me with a profound resonance for the decisions I have made throughout my life. When I made them, they seemed murky and unclear but supported what I was most drawn to follow. My life felt ignited by those decisions. Some of those decisions included leaving college to live in a Yoga Ashram. My many trips to South and Central America to learn from indigenous healers and shamans. I had a compelling need to leave a successful career in the computer industry and go to acupuncture school. There are many more. At those moments in my life, as I do now, I felt summoned to connect to a deeper understanding of the mystery that lives all things and to live a life that allows me to move towards the most clarified expression of who I am. That two-minute interaction in the doorway of Kohl’s and finding the ten dollars in the mountains of Sedona were powerful moments of validation for the decisions I made that have gotten me to where I currently am in my life. These brief encounters may be just a coincidence. It certainly doesn’t feel that way. They feel like an unsolicited gift of Grace.

My experience of being human is often tenuous and uncertain at best. Despite living a life with integrity, love, and compassion, I have found that there is no guaranteed outcome. The best I can do is live with an open heart and mind. I need to lean into my life and live it with purpose and intention. As is often said, “the rest is not up to me.”

Amidst the chaos and uncertainty of life, I remain open to Grace and the gift of my life.

If you have any questions, please email me at garymerel@gmail.com or call 732-208-2836. Also, please visit my website at leanintoyourlife.net