If someone would’ve told me, I was moving to Florida to live on a five-acre homestead with chickens, quail and peacocks surrounded by nature beauty and horses I would’ve laughed at them and said “apparently you don’t know me very well.  I don’t do extreme heat, and humidity is not my friend, I’m happy to do cold but no heat.”  I made a vow to myself never to live in a place that makes you feel like you’re melting the minute you step outside.  However, looking at it in its entirety, it does have my specific request endlessly journaled night after night in my gratitude journal as if it had already happened and now it was, or was it?  This sounds like stepping out of one reality and into the movie I scripted for myself, but why Florida?  How unfair!  I’m feeling grumpy about this and as usual the Universe sighs and laughs…” Oh Maria!  Hahaha You’ll see” …

So here I am in sunny Florida!  I still can’t believe I’ve lived here for 17 months already.  My argument was always “the heat” but now that I live here, on the Gulf Coast, my argument could also include snakes, Palmetto bugs (a fancy name for huge flying roaches, and no I don’t have them in my house), scorpions (yes those have been in the house, I’ve had one in the bathroom and one in the kitchen sink) lizards of all shapes and sizes, an armadillo (he’s my exterminator for ticks and fleas and anything else), snails that when they are actively moving, antenna out, they make me feel like I’m in a Dr. Doolittle movie, my crow army who loves the occasional peanuts I throw out for them and well I could go on and on but you get the idea.

A few weeks back a fancy white peacock or peahen, I didn’t get that close, flew in for a brief encounter as a nod that a resurrection of sorts was happening.  I feel like it was a direct manifestation after my client Liz, sent me photos of a recent trip abroad that included a spectacular white peafowl.  I’d only experienced the blue colorful ones, never a white one and thought about it for a few days thinking I might paint it.  Then one afternoon a week or two later, the two male peacocks are screaming very load, they are loud to begin with.  I decided to go see what all the commotion was about.  When I stepped outside, I hear a new call that was more guttural and deeper than what I was used to hearing from the peacocks.  I stepped out far enough into the yard and there it was, a beautiful regal looking white peafowl sitting on the mound of dirt we use to refill the coops after a hard rain.  The Universe had responded to my desire to experience one in person.  I’ve never seen one around here in all the time I’ve been here, come to think of it I’ve never seen any peafowl, not the blue ones either.  It was clear something magical and other worldly was taking place.  I needed to be extra present to see what the true message was here so I could flow in alignment and continue to be in a place of receiving.

Themes surrounding self-confidence, rebirth, renewal and Divine connection were bringing me into higher states of consciousness and at the same time life was slowing me down.  I wasn’t rushing to something I thought I needed to do or going to stores to self sooth my dysregulated nervous system, I was becoming more present than ever.  I noticed it in my client, Joe, as well, each time he’d return home there was a new light shining in him.  This new house-sitting situation was shifting us at the core.  Him in the act of giving and me through receiving.  He was stepping into a new reality, one he could only dream of, and I was doing to the same, slowly unwinding giving myself space to breathe.

So here I am, on my own in a new environment with my cat Bella, four chickens, five quail and two peacocks and a peahen in my care.  It’s become my understanding that Bella hates Florida more than I did but after these last few months, she’s slowly finding the same peace within that I’m finding.  I was also a caring for my clients 90lb 13 yr old chocolate lab named Lasagna.  Even as he aged it’s clear he didn’t realize how old he was.  He had high level puppy energy, and I can say for a fact his dad, my client and friend Joe, never let him think he was anything but a big puppy.  Unfortunately, as I write this, we had to say goodbye to him a few weeks back as he transitioned over the rainbow bridge.  As sad as it is the timing was synchronistic as my client is now stepping into a new life that has him on a continuous high-level path of self-exploration and achievement.  His work has him focused on a new direction with new life goals.  Suddenly he has the life he’s always dreamt of even if it means no longer having more freedom working for himself.  Even in his grief he sees how the path they walked together for almost 14 years had shifted and gently asked for change.

I often reflect and ask myself, “how did I get here”?  The path was so clear, and simple, I felt it in every fiber of my being even as my brain was screaming “No not Florida!”  There was no figuring it out or trying to make it work.  That’s the fate and destiny part.  I grew up on Long Island, born and raised.  I never imagined myself leaving.  Even as I went through my last divorce, I clung to the idea of staying in the only place that felt like home.

Just before Florida called I was living in Stony Brook, Long Island with my friend who I shared a house with since October 2018 when we spontaneously moved in together after her fiancé suddenly passed and my divorce became final.  It was a slightly challenging friendship; we were like night and day.  We made it work not asking too much of each other and knew the boundaries.  In 2023 we moved to Stony Brook and for me it felt like this was the last place we would live together.  I was feeling a change I couldn’t see clearly and at the time, I didn’t realize life wasn’t simply changing my address, it was quietly asking me to become someone I hadn’t met yet.  The friendship had stabilized both of us as it was meant to.  I could feel a new adventure waiting for me to say yes!

In February 2024 her daughter’s living situation shifted and through a conversation we had I asked her “if you could live anywhere where would that be?”  She said Florida and I said you’re free so go and start living your best life…she did, however her and her mom missed each other and yet again the Universe had other plans.  I was not going to Florida because I was on a mission to get on a five-acre homestead somewhere (again not Florida!) and grow herbs for the herbal business my friend and I had just started together.  We talked about the homestead and setting ourselves up for an herb farm making herbal remedies (my part of the business) and hair care products (her part of the business).  The more we talked about it the more we disagreed on where to live.  She didn’t like the idea of Florida but it’s where her daughter was and I, in my mind, was headed to the mountains somewhere but I could see the writing on the wall, we were not getting a five-acre homestead together, or land to grow herbs nor would we continue our friendship.  It was clear as day, that timeline was quickly coming to an end.  It had served its purpose beautifully.  Now there was a new adventure calling and I needed to be ok with wherever life was taking me.

Next week I’ll share how an incredible opportunity, a willingness to trust my intuition, and a few surprising turns brought me an unexpected detour.  Along the way I’ll share some of the mindset shifts that helped me recognize—and step into—a life I never would have imagined for myself…

Next week I’ll share how an invitation to journey across the ocean unexpectedly became the first step toward the life I never imagined I’d be living.