The Blessing of Obstacles

The other night I found myself in tears outside a theater in Manhattan.

Two months prior, I’d ordered show tickets online as a gift for my boyfriend’s birthday. The e-tickets were supposed to arrive in my inbox the day of the event but hadn’t. I’d called the ticket company three times and was vaguely promised I’d have the email by showtime, but here we were ticket-less, fifteen minutes to a performance we were super excited to see.

Extremely stressed out on the subway on our way to the theater, I had asked my spirit team, and specifically my friend Diana on the other side, to help in any way that they could. At one point in the crowded subway car, I was stunned when a woman sat down across from me who resembled Diana. In that moment, I knew that Diana was on the case and we’d be ok. But when we got out of the subway, I still had no ticket email and I freaked out.

Our last-ditch effort was to see if any tickets remained to be sold at the box office even though the marquee said “sold out.” (No, I couldn’t access my e-tickets through the box office unfortunately.)

Here’s how it turned out: instead of our original nose-bleed seats in the back of the balcony, we ended up front and center for a way cheaper price than the original tickets (and I got refunded for those). By a twist of fate those amazing seats became available in that moment right before start time...thank you, Diana.

Yes, I had been teary, stressed out, heart racing, worried that the birthday gift for my boyfriend wouldn’t happen, that the night would be ruined and we’d miss the show we’d been looking forward to for ages. But worst case scenarios don't have to be real. You can expect the unexpected. My faith had wavered, but the energy of the universe showed up, perfect as always.

Obstacles can take many different forms, but time and again I’m shown the magic that can happen when we move through them.

One day a few years ago, I was grieving hard for my cat Willow. It had been two years since she’d passed, but for whatever reason, that day I was remembering how everyone used to say her eyes matched her fur perfectly. What a random thing to remember, and it made me miss her so much in that moment. I got frustrated with myself because I had to get ready for an appointment and since I was trying to motivate myself and rejuvenate my puffy red face from my crying fit, I was running late. And why was I hit by so much grief two years after losing her? Amazing how we can be rough on ourselves in the down times.

As I left my apartment and went to step onto the elevator, an Irish setter blocked my entrance. We did one of those dances back and forth until his person apologized and got him to shift to the side to let me in. As I petted the dog, I told his person it was no problem and then I heard myself say, “Oh he’s so handsome — his eye color matches his fur perfectly!” I had only realized after I’d said it that that’s the feature I’d been obsessing over about Willow earlier. That memory that made me cry and be late…the thing that timed everything perfectly so I’d get a message from Willow through the dog in the elevator. I felt the weight lift in my heart as the elevator descended.

Then there was the time I was on vacation walking down the sidewalk to the beach when a cat strolled out of a house and plopped down in the middle of my path. I of course bent down and petted him and told him how beautiful he was. After that moment’s delay, I continued down the street, only to stop short as someone backed their car super fast out of a driveway in front of me without looking to see who might be coming down the sidewalk.

Sometimes obstacles in our path can be lovely and life-saving. What if we saw life’s curve balls, delays, and detours as gifts sent to help us? Feel the grief when it comes, don’t worry about being late, trust that your night will turn out better than you can imagine. The less resistance, the more openness, the more the help will come. When the help comes from animals and spirits on the subway, I’m all in. 💜