Showing posts with label roommate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roommate. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

A Place to Call Home

This was the posting I had originally intended on Thanksgiving Monday as I have posted every other Monday as of late. Since writing this, I have discovered that this place may not be - available - after all. However, I will still share it in the hopes that it might help someone if they find themself in a similar circumstance or help me (perhaps manifest a new or ideal home if this isn’t the one ... something as good or even better, though this was almost perfect!).


Remember in my previous posting (if you read it…go ahead and read it now before this one!), that I spoke about patterns in life?

One of the patterns that my roommate and I experienced while searching for a third where I currently live was attracting people with a mental health disability and/or people who were affiliated, for example working in the field. We were also attracting responses from really young people, from late teens to early 20’s, mostly males. And people from other countries.

Well? “What about it?” you might ask. Well, I think the universe has a sense of humour at times because it seems like this time I attracted a three-in-one package deal! Let me explain.

As my roommate recently gave notice to move as we were having difficulty finding a roommate to share this big bright house, I decided to as well as I had enough of weeds, cold, and ants. I wanted my ideal place to call ‘home.’

I discovered one place that I felt was ideal as it met most of the conditions except for one major one: the area in terms of transportation primarily to and from work, as well as choir rehearsal and community events that I attend (often as a volunteer). Otherwise it was perfect. New, clean, double-paned windows, a woman same age and single as I, and pets (including my favourite cat), near nature (trees and water).

However, I decided to repost my Craigs List ad Friday morning and keep it posted even though I had given a cheque for the damage deposit after work that same day. Was that my intuition at work? I did feel a little off about the decision though not sure 100% why. I think a possible feeling of isolation and safety (in terms of the bus routes) were the concerns I had.

The feelings persisted all during the long weekend and particularly when two people made a comment that raised a red flag for me in my mind as if in warning. One was that I didn’t seem happy about my potential move. The other was the word ‘safety’ and I’m generally a courageous person walking in the dark and through woods (well, when I was in my mid-teens anyway). However, there are no lights in these woods so it is potentially very dark at night. At a brisk pace, it is a good five-minute walk out of the woods in broad daylight.

On Thanksgiving Day, I received a call from a woman late afternoon whom I had originally met at a workshop and/or networking group a number of years ago. She happens to live in the same neighbourhood (about 10 blocks south of where I currently live) and is originally from another country. She also happens to have a child with an intellectual health disability who is male and young (early 20’s). Sound familiar? This is the pattern I was referring to earlier.

A friend who joined me to see the home said the word 'cozy' when we first saw the house from the street. I loved the look of the house from the outside immediately including the colour (blue, my favourite), and the garden and porch at front even before I walked in.

She very recently moved into this lovely home on a curve of a road slightly tucked away with a front yard with trees and bushes seemingly protective of her dwelling. Her home is beautiful, bright, cheery, ‘natural’ (lots of wood including attractive hardwood floors and wooden beams downstairs), with an oasis of a garden both at the front and the back. It has the look and feel of a sanctuary and I fell in love with it instantly.

I love everything about the home that I saw except for the single-paned windows. However, that can be remedied by plastic and/or other means to deal with it, like socks and slippers, sweaters, and blankets.

I was given a choice of a potential bedroom which I thought was pretty neat. My preference was the pretty, light-blue bedroom upstairs with south-facing French doors greeting the porch at back and a window facing west where more natural and bright light can enter. (My soul needs a lot of light.) The main common living space upstairs has windows too including one facing west that has a lovely stained glass window. This house has character and personality from the natural wood and beautiful wooden floors (which I prefer over carpeting) including the wooden beams downstairs, to the stained glass windows and built-in bookshelf, to the gas fireplace to the chalkboard wall. Now that is a pretty sweet deal!

I can actually write notes to her/her son/myself AND most fun of all poetry and/or songs if there's room while the owner writes stories as she is a storyteller! Then there’s the back garden and patio outdoors (where I can hang laundry as I notice she does too).

The home is bright and cheerful with painted walls of various hues instead of traditional – and boring – sterile (institutionalized), off-white or shell walls. The vivacious colours of the home reminds me that my potential roommate (owner of the home) and I share a desire for beauty and colour as I notice she too has colourful dishes (original mugs/cups made in Italy for example, not manufactured as clones like an assembly line).

That really appeals to my sense of beauty that my soul requires as well. The place including garden at front and back is inspiring and that is what I ideally prefer to have in my new home, a place to create and a feeling of inspiration to do so.

I prefer to create a place called 'home' that is a sanctuary and haven for both her and I that meet and match both our needs. My heart and spirit knows and feels this is an ideal place for me and my soul to be safe and feel nurtured.

I am truly grateful for her timely and synchronistic call. If it wasn’t for my friend visiting, I may not have gone out in the rain and cold down the hill and back by foot (as I misplaced my bus pass and had a bit of a sore throat).

So indeed this is a thanksgiving for me to be giving thanks...for all that I have...abundance, friendships, food, laughter, joy, a light heart, beauty, colour, a potentially bright and homey place to call ‘home.’ Ah (sigh). Relief! And joy and gladness and … GRATITUDE!


Unfortunately, since the writing of this post, this place may not be available if her daugher moves in. Apparently she wants to return to stay with her mom. I just have to trust and have faith that whatever will be, will be (que sera, sera).

There I go again, needing to relearn the lesson(s) so I don’t have to repeat them and learn the hard way.

The lesson in all this for me expressed succinctly is as follows: trust and follow my intuition as it heeds me all along! I need to pay more attention to it instead of coming from a place of fear and lack, rather than trust and abundance which the universe is.

I believe I was trying to force myself into the situation, talking myself into it, justifying and defending what I thought was meant to be. I need to remember that in order to find a place called home, I need to tune in to my ‘home’ (my heart chakra/intuition).


I will probably reconnect with you readers (thank you for being that) sometime after my move next month, not necessarily Mon. Oct. 25th or the week thereof. I shall see how things go. Hopefully I will share a magically magnificent miracle! I’m counting on one...NOW!

Till next time!

Monday, September 13, 2010

At Odds

Recently I have been posting ads on craigslist (www.http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/) in order to find a suitable roommate to replace our previous roommie who got married.

I discovered in the process that my roommate and I were at odds about our final result. I eventually had to ask her what was going on. I wondered when I was getting a ‘yes’ she would say ‘no.’ I found out that she wanted a male, different in terms of interests and/or occupation, and growth, while I wanted a female, similar interests, and harmony. Now how do you compromise on gender?! (Ruff! Ruff!!)

During the interview process, I somewhat reluctantly agreed to meet the son of a friend of hers who has a mental health disability. Now I didn’t know that about him initially. However despite that, I immediately got a ‘no’ as soon as I saw him inside of our front door, then when I shook his hand, and again later when we were talking with him.

I ended up going against my better wishes and judgement and agreed that he move in feeling somewhat pressured. There were a few times during the month where he would call and show concern for my needs (being a light sleeper for example), but when this occurred the last Friday before the end of the month, a red flag went up for me.

This time, I didn’t feel right so I spoke with his mother briefly and then left a message for him. He called me back later that night but I decided I wanted to sleep on it. Then with an extremely busy Saturday having our carpets cleaned and two appointments, I didn’t have time to phone him nor could hear his two messages that he had left me. I was also still undecided.

All of a sudden a woman came to mind. I felt the need to contact her to get an objective opinion as she is extremely intuitive. I barely told her anything not even the person's name when she proceeded to tell me something that confirmed my restlessness that I had felt most of the past month (in August). When I finally heard her answer and got the ‘no,’ I realized that my intuition had been guiding me all along. It was heeding me, whispering to me in the form of my restless heart, mind, and spirit.

I felt lighter, like a weight had lifted off me. And I remembered a way to know if a decision is right or not: imagine what would happen if you follow through with a decision (in this case if he moved in) and sense how your body/mind feels. This also confirmed to me the ‘no’ that I received right from the start.

How many times has this happened to you (where you don’t heed the call)? It happens a lot to me. Even though I am extremely intuitive, this time – as most times - I was too much in the middle of it all, in the thick of things that I couldn’t see or feel with clarity.

My intuition is always right and I mean that sincerely. I’m not kidding. It’s just that I don’t always pay attention to it as I ideally ‘should.’ It would save me a lot of trouble, time, heartache, frustration, angst, worry, you name it. And not only on my end, but the other person(s) on the other end as well.

So, learn the lesson from me so you don’t have to go through pain and turmoil. Trust your first impulses, your instincts, your intuition however it informs you. Trust me. Trust yourself!

p.s. While posting this, my roommate and I are still on the hunt of a roommate. I got a ‘yes’ to two men, but both backed out for different reasons, one of whom I thought was a perfect fit. Time will tell...