I was telling a friend this story, when she stopped me and insisted, “You need to write a blog post about this!”

Here’s to you, friends-with-blog-post ideas!
 
As you know, my husband and I recently celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary. We’d always planned to do something special to celebrate, but it’s 2020—'nough said.
 
We thought we’d at least go out to dinner at the fancy new restaurant recently opened at the beach near our house. When we made our reservations, they asked if we had any dietary restrictions. We said we were excited to try their new plant-based menu. The receptionist said they currently weren’t offering a separate vegan menu, but had options on the regular menu. Perfect!
 
We were really looking forward to this special dinner for a number of reasons:
 
•          we don’t eat out often to begin with
•          we’d been cooped up for months like everyone else
•          it was our silver anniversary!
 
The big night finally arrived. We dressed up, donned our masks, and drove down to the new hotel at the ocean.
 
We were greeted, seated, and…disappointed. The only thing we could order from the entire menu was a pizza with cashew cheese, or a pasta, hold the cow cheese.
 
Oh geez, what to do?
 
We were famished! I knew Niklas would have been happy with the vegan pizza. I also knew he would not want to cause a scene. It was his anniversary as much as mine.
 
I desperately wanted to make my discomfort go away. I was frustrated that we were told there were plant-based options on the menu when we’d made our reservations. I was angry that, yet another restaurant in Santa Barbara was clueless about the vast number of us choosing to eat plants instead of animals. I did not want to be labeled an obnoxious vegan by making a bunch of changes to the animal dishes. And on and on and on…all thoughts happening in split seconds. 
 
I grounded out my upset, trying to regain my equilibrium. I released my discomfort, my expectations, my need to be nice and liked.
 
Wait! What?! I thought you did that 17 years ago with the contractor?
 
Yes, I did! But, just like yoga, meditation, deadlifting—it’s a practice. You build the muscles over time. Issues still arise, but you get faster and more adept in processing the energy in real-time.
 
I told Niklas I would be happy to stay and just get the pizza, but I would prefer to leave and not pretend everything is fine. This was true, I would have made either work.
 
To my surprise, he sincerely agreed! We politely explained the situation to our server and discretely left. We walked out on air—proud of our shy selves for having the courage to act in accordance with our values despite the awkwardness that entailed.
 
We decided to go to Oliver’s, a local plant-based restaurant up the street. It was packed! We were immediately energized by the high vibe—a stark contrast to the staid, haughty energy of the “in” place we’d just left.
 
Then, as if on cue, the Universe gave us a special wink of approval. Every table was taken, except magically, the special table for 2 where the owner usually sits. We were promptly seated there, on the sunny deck, with a clear view of the sunset. We ordered a variety of delicious dishes to share and enjoyed every one!
 
There were two possible outcomes to this situation:
 
We could have stayed at the "in" place and faked our way through dinner, pretending we were having a good time, hiding our disappointment. We would have put the server’s comfort above our own, tipped as expected, etc. It would have been fine, but we would have left frustrated and resentful for having supported this business.
 
Instead, by owning our right to choose what was best for us, we had one of our best dinner experiences, and a memorable highlight to our marriage story.
 
And, it gives me a great excuse to talk about two of my passions: Energy Management & the Environment!
 
Energy goes beyond the esoteric. Processing it in real-time, in real life, that’s Ascended Presence! If you would like to learn how to use your grounding, you're welcome to take the replay of my recent Grounding & Energy Management course if you'd like to get started right away.