Years ago, before I adopted my oldest son, I had a strange vision of myself hanging out with him in chaise lounges near the water. I was handing him snacks from a plastic bag and we were enjoying a warm summer day. In this vision, I could clearly see a necklace I was wearing, and it was one I didn’t currently own. I don’t believe that creating pieces of my vision makes them happen, but I do believe that it makes me feel closer to the end goal if I have a tangible piece of it. This particular piece was a tiny tri-color gold rope chain. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen a gold rope chain in white, yellow, and rose gold, but I had to see if it existed. I wanted to go to my typical jewelry store, but something told me I had to go to a cheaper retail chain first. I went there and saw the exact necklace from my vision. I immediately bought it and sat there amazed at the coincidence. I knew this wasn’t going to make an adoption opportunity appear any quicker, but now I had a piece of the puzzle to remind me that it was going to happen someday. About a year later, I sat on a chaise lounge at a water park with my newly adopted son and handed him some Goldfish crackers out of a Ziplock bag – and it hit me. I hadn’t even really thought about it until then, but the vision was so close it was scary. There we were… the vision, the necklace, my son, the chaise lounges, and the snack bag.
Now, I was having this same feeling about a tattoo I had to get. It was Jupiter. I needed a tattoo of Jupiter on my wrist. Normally, I don’t really care to have my tattoos visible to everyone. They’re just little reminders for me. But I needed this one to be in my face every day. Jupiter has always been my favorite planet because it stands for all the things I love about life – opportunities, big things happening, blessings, energy, happiness, success, higher thinking, generosity – just things I try to live by and appreciate every day. I think something in my subconscious knew I needed a daily reminder that good things were coming. I could see myself in the not-so-distant future looking down at this tattoo and telling people how I got it as a visual reminder to not slip back into the mundane and to continue reaching for more. I visualized myself in front of a crowd – maybe even a press conference – explaining why I needed to see Jupiter and how it helped me focus on the forthcoming dream. I waited until I had the tattoo designed just like I wanted it and then I made it happen that March. It was perfect, and I still look at it every day as my reminder to always reach for opportunities that present themselves.
Interestingly enough, before Jupiter had even fully healed, new opportunities were popping up in the strangest places. My last book was starting to take off, I was hanging out on LinkedIn and meeting new connections nearly every day, and my mind was fully open to trying everything that stood before me. The connections that fell into place were almost too easy, and I found myself in a new circle of people that somehow made sense for this new lifestyle I hadn’t even created yet. Things I hadn’t even dreamed of two years ago now felt not only possible but within reach. I even began to see how my meetup with this obscure celebrity soul connection could even be possible sooner than I thought. Every avenue put me only a few people away from him without me even trying. Part of me laughed at the thought of actually establishing a close friendship with this guy, but it mysteriously made more sense now than ever. It was never about a romantic relationship for me. This was about a deeply platonic friendship that extended beyond me to my other half as well. I even pictured this actor with a new female companion and the four of us enjoying time together. I tried to make mental notes of all the stars that kept aligning just so I could look back at them one day and smile at God’s puppeteering. I considered the fact that I might be slightly insane, but I looked down at Jupiter and knew that circumstances don’t have to make sense. I considered the idea that maybe one day this project would turn into a movie and he’d see it. Or maybe he’d even stumble across this project and find it interesting enough to read. Maybe we’d meet in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with his project and I’d never tell him about it. Whatever it was, the friendship would have a reason, and I was excited to find out the meaning one day.
Before that could happen, though, I had to work on the here and now and get my financial obligations in order so I could get back to actually writing this project. I decided to reach out to a few potential clients and see if I could land a high-profile marketing gig. I thought maybe I needed a fancy title in order to make things happen. I got wrapped up in it for a month and finally snapped out of it. What in the world was I doing? I spent my whole life building my career in a way that I would never need to work full-time for anyone else… yet here I was practically begging God to make that happen. I stopped and took a step back in my head. I had gotten off track. I was trying to line up the pieces in a way that made sense to me, but life has never happened that way for me. The goal wasn’t a fancy title so I could meet A-listers. The goal was to simply clear my plate and increase my income so I could work on this project more. I remembered what I needed was a great client… not a great title. I asked God to take over again, and I promised to stay out of His way as much as I could. Times even got a little tough at one point, and I began to question everything. Each time, I’d look down at Jupiter and tell myself I had bigger things ahead. Sure enough, out of absolutely nowhere, things started lining up again. A client reached out to me after 3 weeks of me thinking they had moved on. This was a huge opportunity that was presented to me by a very large global company. This was an instant leveling-up even though the market sector was an area I’d never researched. I accepted immediately and hung out on LinkedIn a bit to see what else might bubble up while I was waiting for this new client to begin working with me.
A man happened to notice me from a friend’s profile and reached out. He was a film producer and wanted to just make the connection to see if we had any common grounds. I thought it was a bit strange and almost declined. Then I thought back to an interview with my “go to” celebrity – an interview about how he just said “why not” to an out-of-the-blue opportunity and things started happening for him. Once again, I used his life’s decision to inspire mine and I agreed to a Zoom meeting. I wasn’t really sure why I would have anything in common with a film producer, but I thought maybe I could get some original songs in his productions. After all, I’d always wanted to dive into the tv, film, and gaming industries to see if I could get songs pitched and cut. Maybe this meeting would be a way into that genre. We set up a meeting, and I instantly felt at peace with this person. He was honest, didn’t make any promises, and told me upfront he just wanted to network to see where things might lead. We visited for about an hour, talking about everything from music to a film he had planned that would feature a good friend of mine. We started to end our call, and something was nagging at me so hard to tell him about this project. In 15 seconds I had an hour of internal monologue with myself about whether I was about to potentially ruin this whole project by telling someone about it or whether it might open up some doors. I blurted out something like, “Are you in a hurry to leave or do you have 5 minutes for me to tell you about something I’m working on?” He was very receptive, and I gave him the elevator pitch to this whole idea I had.
I wondered if his brief silence was his way of trying to find a polite way to tell me I was completely nuts. However, to my surprise, he simply said, “This isn’t a book. This is a feature film – and I have the writer for it.” I was a little taken aback that he so quickly understood and bought into my idea. He then began to tell me a story of how he and his writer had been wanting to make a movie in the same vein, but they never could really find the right direction. He said he felt my idea was exactly what they’d been missing. I sat there thinking to myself, “this whole project is centered around the word ‘Reverse’. Everything is done backward… and now here I am talking about making this into a movie before I ever even finish the book.” Of course, it would happen this way. Why would I expect anything else? My brain began to swirl in this punchbowl of creative juice. Do I go ahead and fabricate an ending so the script writer can write a complete movie? If so, the real project would never get to be completed in the way I had intended. If I waited and allowed the project to continue, the movie would remain open-ended for a bit. I opted for the latter and decided to see how things continued to play out. I also decided I needed to get passports for my family (another one of those random thoughts). I knew I wouldn’t be needing them anytime soon, but once again, I could sense traveling to other countries was going to be a part of my future. I needed them as another piece of my puzzle – just to remind myself that I really would visit some of these countries and beaches on my bucket list. I wasn’t sure if I was going to finally have the funds to travel abroad for fun or if these adventures would be business related – I just knew it was going to happen.
There’s a tingling almost unnerving feeling you get in your soul when you feel life’s shifts on the horizon. It’s never been an alarming feeling. It’s more of an anticipation that leaves you feeling restless with every beat of your heart that rushes the blood through your body. I knew good things were on the way, and I wanted so badly to know the next chapter of the story. But I had to wait and be patient. I knew I couldn’t force things – especially when this entire project was supposed to be based on circumstances. So, it was time to sit back and wait a bit.