Reading “signs” from the Universe needs nuance.

The Universe clearly guided us to Santa Barbara, but the story of how we came to live in our current home is a great example of how necessary nuance is when listening to the Universe and working with “signs”.

We had unexpectedly moved to Santa Barbara in late summer 2012. We had been living in France for two years, so when we landed in SB, we had no US cell phones, cars, or even driver’s licenses; no friends or family. It was the height of the tourist season when homes and hotels had been rented months, sometimes a year in advance, so there was literally “no room at the inn” for us.

So here we were, jet-lagged, with three small kids, in a new city, crammed with our luggage into a tiny room in a crappy hotel outside of town that only had availability for a few nights. Not only did we need to find a place to land more permanently, but we also had to search for a place to stay every couple of nights since vacancies were so few! To say we were desperate would be an understatement.

We looked at a map of the area to try to narrow down our home search. We immediately crossed off Montecito, a suburb of Santa Barbara.

That’s where Oprah and Ellen and Rob Lowe live. My bohemian self would not be happy there! I’d never make friends. I’d have to be fake to fit in. No chance!

I asked for a sign to show us the right home.

I was way too stressed to be able to perceive subtle nudges so I pleaded:

I need a sign and not just any sign—please make it a crystal clear, hit-me-over-the-head sign. I had used this exact phrase when I’d asked my Angels to help us find an apartment in Paris a couple of years prior and it had worked!

That weekend, we attended many open houses in Santa Barbara. At one, we saw The Sign! Both Niklas and I noticed a particular book—it was pressed between several others on a shelf in one of the rooms. This book was so clear and hit-me-over-the-head specific to us that it was obviously our sign. We’d found our house! Hallelujah!

We confidently started calling it “our” house. Like most people new to the area, however, we thought it was way overpriced and despite us putting in what we thought was a reasonable offer, they outright rejected us.

Wait! What about The Sign?!?!?! We were so confused.

We were also panicking. Around this time, we found out that all the schools in Santa Barbara were impacted in the grades we needed for our children. We had arrived too late in the summer so the kids would be split up into three different schools.

The days were evaporating, and the kids were not enrolled in school which was about to start.

I felt stress in every cell of my body. I was overwhelmed and in survival mode, where it’s really hard to keep a spiritual perspective. The only practice I was able to do was ground and talk to my Angels.

I remember so clearly that Tuesday night. I cried out to the Universe. I know you guided us here. We are meant to be here. What is the deal with The Sign!?!? I am confused. We are willing to be guided but need some direction.

I grounded to release my worries and calm my torrential thoughts. Hours later, I finally slept.

I had a dream.

In my dream, I saw myself driving around Montecito. I distinctly heard, Try Montecito!

I woke at the crack of dawn and told Niklas about my dream while whining to him, I don’t want to live in Montecito! I cannot live in Montecito! 

Despite my hesitations, Niklas looked at Craigslist and found two places to rent in Montecito. By 7am we had viewing appointments for later that morning, and by 1pm we had signed a lease.

The best part was that Montecito is a one-school school district so if you own or rent a home there, your children get to go to school no matter what. All three kids would be going to the same school, and we had found a home to rent in a matter of hours!

What about The Sign?!?! Was it wrong? Did we read too much into the sign? Maybe it wasn’t a sign after all?

As it turns out, it was our sign.

You see, when we saw the sign house in Santa Barbara, the Montecito house was not on the rental market yet. Putting an offer on the sign aka “book” house consumed all of our time and energy and prevented us from finding something else – and hence miss the Montecito house.

The night I had the “try Montecito” dream, the Montecito house was being listed as a rental on Craigslist. Since I woke so early, we were some of the first people to see the ad; we called, took a tour, and signed the lease hours later.

Here’s where signs get tricky. This sign was so specific that we knew it was meant for us. Did it mean we were supposed to ignore our fiscal reality and overextend ourselves just based on the sign? No. We still had to make the final decision ourselves.

Not only did I have to release the sign, I also had to let go of my preconceived ideas of what living in Montecito would mean. (They turned out to be wrong anyway.) I had been certain it wouldn’t work, but when I received the message in the dream and reluctantly trusted it, multiple stressors were resolved in a matter of hours!

The moral of the story:

Besides just being a chronicle for my kids, this post has a message: it’s fun and fine to ask for signs, but remember that the signs will never be more powerful than your own information and intuition.

Have you ever asked for and received guidance from signs? It would be fun to hear your stories!

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