Home, Sweet, Home

I awoke Friday morning in the comfort of my quaint boutique hotel room in the Lakeview section of Chicago. A sweet hotel on a tree lined street equipped with a king sized bed, comfy sheets and a late check out. This would be my day to sleep in. The is the last day on the road for a while since I would be driving to Cincinnati today for an extended stay.

I awoke around 9:20, strolled downstairs to catch the complimentary continental breakfast, piled a tray of food and headed back to the room. I stripped off my clothes, turned off the phone and rolled back into bed for a requited sleep. I awoke around 11:05 from a dream. A dream that placed me in a friend's house to where she delivered some bad news. She was ill and devastated. I tried to soothe her and give her theories of why and how this could have happened to her before I woke.

I hadn't talked to her in a while and decided that as soon as I get on the road today, I was going to call her and check in. I leaned over to check the time on my phone. I had two missed calls since I shut off my phone at 10:00. My sister and my friend I had just dreamt about. Without checking my voicemail, I immediately dialed my friend's number. She picked up and sounded somber. She proceeded to tell me about a doctors visit she had that morning. She had terrible news. She was ill and devastated.

I won't get into the details of the illness out of respect for her privacy, but could not help but want to share the near cosmic alignment that had just happened. Within the brief hour that I had fallen back asleep, I had a dream that delivered the exact news she had left me a message about. After weeks without any communication with her, she would call me on that day, at that hour, while I was having a dream about the exact news she was calling to deliver. This is beyond coincidental. She agreed we are definitely connected in some way.

I can't help but believe that there are powers out there that we don't always understand. A current that pulls us in the direction of places and people. An energy that is so profound and influential it has the ability to highjack our subconscious and send ripples through our senses. If we could only learn to trust it and tap into the messages it sends, we may be able to find answers we crave and direction we desire. We might be able to have faith in that voice in our head and welcome it as a companion to the pull in our gut.

I drove back to Cincinnati concerned for my friend and wandering about that incident and what it could mean. What the voices in my head have been telling me the last couple of years and where the pull in my gut is leading me to now. I have decided to surrender to it and know that wherever I am being pulled and for whatever the reason, it is the place I need to be.

I arrived in Cincinnati at around 9:00 and passed the new stadium, perched alongside the banks of the Ohio river, hosting a winning evening for the Reds. Fireworks illuminated the sky and downtown was alive. The river flowed calm while the skyline beamed argent.

The drive through downtown was a stark reminder of my Dad and how he loved this city. I thought of how much the Cincy skyline has changed since his death in '98.

He would have begged, borrowed and bribed to see me roll through town with a car full of luggage and a moving truck on its way. I couldn't help but think that if there was a higher power and a realm of subconscious I didn't quite understand, maybe it held a connection to my Dad. Maybe the second speeding ticket I received just moments earlier was a way for him to orchestrate my timing to arrive downtown as the fireworks were set off. A way to welcome me back home after a long pilgrimage away.

Even if far fetched.......I choose to believe so.