I made several trips to New York before moving there, checking the area out and trying to decide whether I wanted to live there or not. A couple of notable things happened on two of my return trips to Ohio, things that would follow me into my future. The first was spotting a single shoe on the side of the interstate. I was driving in silence, the radio was turned off and I was alone with my thoughts, soul-searching if you will, and weighing all of my options. I only got a quick glance of the shoe, as you can imagine driving 70 miles an hour, but I was able to notice that it was a brown woman’s clog and it looked practically brand new. I thought to myself… “How the hell does someone lose one of their shoes going 70 miles per hour down an interstate!?” This was not the first time I had ever seen a single shoe alongside the road, but this time was different and I really went off deep in thought thinking about this bizarre phenomenon. “And why is it always one shoe”, I thought. I concocted a plan to travel the country searching for these single shoes, trying to find their owners and documenting their stories for all of humanity. It was at this moment I realized my soul-searching turned into sole-searching and my life as a lost shoe collector was about to begin. The next occurrence happened after the song “I Can See Clearly Now” came on the radio. I sang along at the top of my lungs, hearing the lyrics like I’d never heard them before. The song ended but I kept singing the line “Here is my rainbow I’ve been praying for” and I got to thinking about rainbows and how magical and rare they actually are. I had just driven through an area of rain and it seemed like the perfect ingredients for a rainbow, so out loud I asked the Universe for a sign. It was a very specific request… “Universe, if I am to move to New York State to start the next chapter of my life, show me a rainbow”. I was somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania and I kept my eyes wide open to spot that rainbow that I was sure the Universe was going to show me. A few hours passed and I had pretty much given up hope, I was about an hour from being home in Ohio when out of nowhere a marvelous rainbow appeared. I think my heart skipped a beat it was so surreal. I smiled and simply said…”Thank you, I will move to New York”.
