The beauty of the past and present

As I walked the city I had lived in for 15 years total, so many memories came back to me. There were special periods in my life in Stockholm that I knew were special somehow & now looking back, I see how special they were and in what way. Even when you are appreciating the memories you are making, the context changes as we live our lives & things evolve. There are meanings, lessons, learnings, nuances that become more evident when you can look back at them. It’s like the lens gets wider and you can see how things relate.

One day during my visit I went out to meet some friends in a pretty new area in Stockholm. I hadn't been there for years. The last time I was there, it was just being built. Now it was like its own little city on the water and it was quite amazing to see how it had transformed. On the way on the tram, I passed a dear friend’s old apartment and remembered the many visits I had with her there, before I lived in Stockholm and then all the dinners we had together when I did live in there. I remember staying there for 2 weeks while she was gone and I had decided to move back. I remembered all the times we had picnics out on the rocks overlooking the water & all the different friends who joined us during those years.

The memories were flowing during my entire trip and it was almost like watching a good movie. I could almost hear the soundtrack. As I was re-connecting with these memories and meeting my friends and making new memories, I felt so much. And most of all, I felt connection – connection to all the people who made my time in Sweden what it was and connection to me and to the person I was while I was there.

I see how much having that experience has shaped who and where I am now. It’s not totally clear, actually. I’m still processing and the lessons and learnings are still coming. What I do know, though, is that we often hear not to dwell on the past. And I thoroughly agree that it rarely serves us to DWELL on the past. However, it can be an excellent idea to re-visit it now and then and to follow your journey a bit.

What memories or periods in your life would you like to re-visit and learn from? Think back to that time and answer these questions or any others that feel relevant: What made your life rich back then and what were you most missing? How does that compare to where you are now? What is your biggest learning from that time in your life? How did that time lead you to where you are and who you are now?

Full Circle

I was a bit absent on my blog this month since I spent the last 3 weeks in Sweden. The trip was rich with memories, learning & lessons. I thought about this story as I sat on the plane on my way there. Whenever I think of it, I am always amazed by the twists and turns of life. And more & more, I see how much is happening in the background without our knowledge if we aren't paying attention AND how much power we have when we DO pay attention.

 

I'll never forget the day I went to my first teaching assignment in Stockholm. I just got hired as a freelance Business English teacher and I took the train out to a suburb to the company I would be teaching for, Telia AB. Just as I was walking up to the building where I would have my first class, it hit me....

About 11 years earlier I was working at a Japanese trading company in Stockholm doing administrative work. I had a lot of contact with customers in Sweden and was the middle person in the purchasing of telephone cables from Japan. Our biggest customer was Telia (at that time it was called Televerket). One of the men I had a lot of contact with told me once that he was taking English lessons that his company provided him with.

I remember thinking that teaching English at a company was something that I wanted to do. I wasn't very fulfilled doing the work I was doing at the time, but didn't see how I could teach English since I had no training. I quickly gave that idea up. A few years went by, a relationship ended and I found myself back in California feeling lost and confused. Finally, I decided it was time to go back to school. I did and earned my MA in Teaching English as a Second Language.

After earning my degree I was ready for another adventure. I found a job in Finland and taught at the university of Turku for a couple of years. This was a huge challenge and a wonderful learning experience. While at the university, the idea of teaching Business English kept coming back to me so in 2002, I decided on a new adventure, going off to Stockholm to see if I could get a job doing just that.

As I stood there that day ready to begin my teaching career in Stockholm, I realized that this was the exact company and the exact location where my customer had been receiving English lessons many years before. It struck me how the plan had been unfolding the whole time without me even being conscious of it.

I've had a few of these experiences in my life and they have taught me the importance of being clear about what we want. As I've become stronger in myself, I've realized also how we can speed up the process of achieving our dreams by talking about what we want, writing about what we want and even living as if we already have what we want. This last one is key as it brings up the FEELINGS of having what you want - which helps the energy wrapped around your goal find you much more easily.

Sound a little spooky? Yeah, maybe. But I can tell you, that day as I realized the synchronicity of what had happened, I knew that I was EXACTLY where I wanted to be doing EXACTLY what I wanted to be doing. I also knew that with even more awareness of what I was choosing to focus on, pretty much anything was and IS possible.

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