The Sign That Gave Me Chills Up My Spine
If you're into signs like I am, this is a true story about signs, and how my deceased cousin came through to help.
As many of you who are close to me know, I lost my cousin, Clint, tragically 8 years ago.
Clint used to work for the Chicago Blackhawks, and I always associate the number 88 with him. (This info is important later.)
I always ask him for signs, and sometimes I feel him playing tricks on me or playing certain songs. Also a sign.
If any of you have lost a loved one, you're probably familiar with these feeling and have had similar experiences.
It's fun, right?!
Sometimes I get the spooks, but most times I'm like, "Chill, Aly, you know who this is, and it's all good!"
So, what was the sign I received from above?
Follow me:
A year and a half ago we purchased our first house, and it was the most exhausting experience of my life.
We must have put an offer in on more than 10 houses.
Mind you, this is when everyone was buying houses, and the market was absolutely crazy.
We were determined though because the interest rates were low, we had so many options to choose from, and we were determined to stop renting.
Problem is, I love a house with character, and my husband loves the sleek, modern look.
What could go wrong?
In the struggle of it all, I decided to call out to my angels, guides, higher self, whatever you want to call it.
I said, "If a house is supposed to be ours, I want you to show me anything Chicago related inside of it and that will be my sign that this is our house."
30+ houses later - no Chicago sign. Great.
BUT! As fate would have it, as my husband, my parents and I are walking into an open house, our real estate agent calls us and lets us know that one of the houses we had put an offer on accepted our offer!
FINALLY! HAZZAH!
But wait. Now we're outside of this other house we were interested in. What do we do?
Screw it.
We walk into this open house thinking let's just go in and take a look and then we'll leave and get the paperwork started for the other house.
The SECOND we walk into this house, the agent running the open house starts talking to us about Chicago (thanks to my dad's Cubs hat). She was from Chicago, she had told us how much she loves the Cubs, Blackhawks and Bears, and even invited us to go to games with her when the teams were in town.
For some reason, I wasn't convinced that was my sign (um... what?).
As we walked through the house, I continued thinking of the other house. Maybe I was just excited something had stuck, and I didn't want to go through the paperwork again. Maybe it was all the character in that house that I loved that my husband just nodded and smiled at.
As we were about to leave, the agent gave us her card, and what I saw on it made all the hair on my body stand up like I got shocked touching a static-filled doorknob in an office building (referencing Office Space if anyone's seen it).
On the business card, it stated that this woman's office was on CLINT MOORE ROAD and had the number 88 on it.
I stood in the backyard of this house completely frozen, staring at the pool and thinking how on EARTH are these signs so loud and in my face?!
We've got Chicago, we've got my cousins name, and we've got the number I associate with him.
My husband really loved the house. I wasn't so convinced because apparently 10 signs weren't enough when there were zero with any of the other houses.
Because I'm stubborn, I wanted to stick with the character house and my husband wanted the Chicago/Clint house (what we actually call our "little beach house").
How did we decide which house to go with? We let the fates decide, of course.
We flipped a freaking coin. Why? Because neither of us wanted to convince the other one, and we wanted to avoid any feelings of resentment. Afterall, this is a HUGE purchase.
Cut to: I won the coin flip, and we moved forward with the character house.
That was a freaking disaster.
OUR real estate agent turned into a total dick (pardon my French), he made promises to the seller's agent on our behalf that he couldn't keep, we argued with the sellers because of things that came up during the inspection... a laundry list.
We gave up.
I cried (shocker), I was emotionally exhausted, our lease was up soon, our landlord was now becoming a huge wad... OOOOVERRR IIITTT.
But then, one of us said, "What about the little beach house?"
We thought surely someone's taken it by now.
Well guess what - someone had.
BUT! It fell through!
So, we went for it. And of course, we got it.
Let me tell you, we LOVE our little beach house.
It's a perfect size for the two of us plus some company, we love our little pool, our neighborhood is clean and fun and next to everything, and bonus: it's about a mile to the beach.
What was I thinking? What drugs was I on? (None, mom, don't worry)
Moral of the story:
Listen when your universe is talking.
Listen when your universe is SCREAMING.
Listen when your universe throws a 90 mile an hour baseball at your face.
Going against the natural flow of the universe and what it has in store for you will make you feel like you're swimming upstream, crawling up hill, or walking up an escalator the wrong way.
When you feel this, stop in your tracks and ask your universe for a simple sign and I guarantee you'll start flowing. (Insert "Rollin with the homies" hand gesture from Clueless here).
So, this is my big THANK YOU to my universe and to my cousin. Next time I'll listen to you the first time.
PUT IT IN YOUR UNIVERSE:
Identify an area in your life you're struggling with (new job, new house, new partner, new city, etc.)
Ask your angels, higher self, deceased loved ones, God, whoever - for a specific sign to show up and give you the "nod" you need (journaling around it is a great tool)
FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THE SIGN WHEN YOU RECEIVE IT
If you have a similar story, please share in the comments section!
