My husband and I took our son to get his hair cut the other day.  We use the same stylist consistently because our son really likes her and she does a great job—we’ve formed a relationship with her over the years as well.  We weren’t able to get in with her a few weekends ago when we had time so we moved forward to her next available time.  So we take our little one in and we are just getting started with the hair cut when someone bumped me.  I looked down and it was a little kid just trying to pass by, no big deal, they run around the place like crazy all the time.  After a while as we are full on in conversation with the stylist and she is cutting our kid’s hair, I feel another bump but this time higher on my arm.  I automatically move out of the way thinking it’s another kid, but I swung around to make sure I wasn’t blocking someone.  It was our ex-sister in law tapping me on the shoulder.

I honestly didn’t even recognize her at first—it’s been close to 10 years since we’ve seen each other.  Throughout the years we’ve only heard rumors about what she was doing and what she was going through, but we’ve lost contact over time.  As soon as the lightbulb went off, a huge wave of emotion went through me.  I couldn’t even explain it.  I hugged her immediately and almost started crying.  She looked so good, like she was in such a different place than before.  Then sadness.  We had a complicated relationship over time from not really liking each other at first, to getting along, to falling out, to my husband and I getting married without the family, to getting the family back together, to her wedding, then to the implosion of the relationships all together.  We talked for a bit and exchanged numbers and it actually felt really good.

As my husband and I left with our son, a thought shot through my mind: this life is coming FULL CIRCLE.  I don’t understand what that entails yet, but there has to be something in the works and it feels big.  They say that we repeat lessons until we learn them, but this is different.  I’m working for the same place I was when we first met after leaving and coming back although I’m in a vastly different role.  I’m even working on the same location I did when I first started there.  I’m driving my parent’s car although it is a different arrangement than before (I’m not a high school student borrowing the car).  There are experiences I wanted before that I’m now saying yes to that I previously declined.

The universe has reasons for everything.  When we left, my husband told me he had seen her come in but he wasn’t sure it was her.  My back was to the door the entire time so I didn’t see her enter, and then in true form, once I started talking with the stylist, everything else fell away.  So she felt comfortable enough to know it was me and to approach.  That says something.  We could have pretended to not see each other, speculating about it later, but I know there is more to this.  Perhaps there is more to tell, more to learn about what happened all those years ago.  Or maybe it’s just a chance to offer some support and gain closure.  But the universe brought us together for a reason.     

I’m not sure what all of this means but I know it means something.  There is no way that this is not the work of the universe.  There are days that I struggle to find a reason for everything.  Days that I struggle reconciling what I want to do with what I have to do.  With getting angry at myself for the situations I’ve put myself in and not being where I want to be.  And days I struggle with feeling like I’ve lost so much time from not starting in the first place that I will never get where I want to go.  I’ve asked to start over in a bunch of ways—and maybe these circumstances that keep bringing me back are a sign that, on some levels, I am able to start again.  I have another chance to say the things I wanted to.  I have a chance to do what I need to do.  Maybe this is all aligning so I become who I am meant to be.  It also gives me some comfort that if it’s happening again, perhaps it was meant to be in the first place—and now I can choose another option. The mundane only seems mundane until you see it fall into place.  Pay attention and figure out what it means.