You Go Nowhere By Accident

Welcome to A New Life podcast with Pamela Jean, where it's all about empowering women to empower more women. Get ready, friends, to create a new life. And here is your host, Pamela Jean.

Hello my friends and welcome to this week's episode of A New Life podcast. I'm Pamela Jean. Thank you so much for joining me. As you look back on the year 2022, what do you think of it? Was your year filled with joy and happiness? Did your relationships get better? Did your marriage get better? What about your relationship with yourself? Did you fall in love with you again? Or was 2022 a train wreck? Do you feel like, oh my gosh, good riddance, go away 2022. It's time to turn the page. If we are honest with ourselves, I think we all have had awful things happen to us throughout this year. I know I have. I kind of forgot about some of the bad things. Which is a blessing, right? That's a good thing. I forgot about a bunch of the bad things. But as I looked back it's like, oh my gosh, that's right. That happened and this happened. But it's what we think about those things that will make or break our ability to live a balanced life full of peace, joy, happiness and success. This is what I know about 2022. Joy is powerful. Everyone you meet has a story. Be kind. Being kind simply changes lives. Each day is a precious gift. The importance of friendships. Failures are not what you think. Loving yourself is the key to happiness. Coaching and mentoring is my calling. I can live a life that is balanced and full of peace. Lastly, you go nowhere by accident, period. Wherever you are right now, no matter what your circumstances, there is something you are meant to do. You have a God given purpose for exactly where you are right now. This is what I mean by that. I want to start off with a story, something that I experienced 25 years ago. So 25 years ago I lived in northwest Iowa and was in the grind of building my portrait business. It was a hot summer day and I was leaving my home based studio to go run a few errands before picking up my kids from daycare. I backed out of my garage and down the driveway and at that time I was located on a busy residential street. As I waded back out into the street, there was an elderly man sweating profusely walking towards me on the sidewalk. He scared me a little. It was summer and yes, it was hot, but there was just something about him that, I don't know, I just had a kind of an eerie feeling. But I couldn't back into the street because the traffic was too crazy. So I was stuck. I had to talk to him. He knocked on my passenger window. I lowered the window about halfway. I was afraid he was going to reach his hand and try to climb in or something. He proceeded to tell me that he was at the movies, which, incidentally, the movie theater was in the mall about three blocks from where I lived at the time. He went to the restroom during the movie and went back to his seat in the movie theater, and his family was gone. They left. He walked all through the mall and couldn't find them. And he was certain that they had left the mall, left the movie theater to go to his grandson's baseball game, which is all the way across town. And he asked me if I would give him a ride to the baseball field. Well, the baseball field was literally 30 minutes from where I lived. And I thought, oh, my gosh, there's no way this old man was going to walk another 30 minutes in the heat. He would have a stroke before he got there. Normally, my answer would have been no to letting a stranger in my car. But there was just something different happening. There was just something different at play, and I didn't really know what it was. So reluctantly, I let him open the door and he climbed in, and off we went across town to bring him to these baseball fields. There was small talk on the drive. I asked questions, trying to figure out where this man belonged, because it became very clear to me that he was lost. Well, very long story short, there wasn't a baseball game across town. It was abandoned. There was no one there. His family didn't leave him. This man was suffering from a dementia episode. He left the theater to use the restroom and went back into the wrong theater. While he was desperately trying to walk to the baseball fields across town, his family was running through the theater and shopping mall looking beloved husband, father and grandfather. Can you imagine their panic? If you've ever lost your child in the store, you know exactly how they felt. Well, it was time for me to pick up my kids, and I was not comfortable picking my kids up with a stranger in the car. So I brought him to a house that he said was his daughter's house. I told him to stay sitting on the steps until they got home. And I said, do not leave this spot until they come home from the movies. They will be so worried about you. I wrote a note on the back of one of my business cards and slid it inside the screen door because I wanted the family to know or whoever lived at that house to know that I dropped him off. So I left him there, praying for his safety and praying for his family, hoping they would be home soon. I picked up my kids and it wasn't more than an hour after returning home that my phone rang. His daughter, the man's daughter, Patricia, was on the other line. There was a relief in her voice. She wanted to know what happened. She needed someone to help her fill in the gaps of what happened to her father. How did her father end up sitting on the front steps of her home? I filled her in and she was grateful. Like on her knees, grateful. It was on this day they made the decision that their father needed to be in a memory care facility. They knew the day was coming, but this incident was the decision maker for them. A harsh reality stared them down. But they were filled with gratitude that for the last two hours, her father wasn't missing. He was sipping a bottle of water in the AC at the front of my car and taken care of. You know, I think about that moment and I think about what would have happened if I just kept going. That moment really drives home to me that you go nowhere by accident. There was a reason why I left my home at that time. There was something I was meant to do. But you have to be willing to see those reasons. Seeking it, that experience was a tremendous blessing to me. So Fast forward to December 2022. Oklahoma had a weather event that canceled flights all over the country. And it was the Thursday before Christmas, and my husband and I were trying to get home. And we were caught in the middle that nightmare. Anyone from anywhere knows what we're talking about. We spent over 24 hours in the airport in Dallas. We finally boarded our plane to get home exhausted, to put it mildly. I mean, mentally, physically, we were exhausted, we were hungry. I mean, just all the things. A woman plopped down next to me. She looked like a flight attendant. Nicely dressed, very pretty, just as tired as I was, to be honest. Now I don't normally talk much when I'm on an airplane. I really stay in my lane. I sit, I put my earphones in, I pull out my book. I just, honestly, I don't really want to be bothered. But that night, it was different. It's late. I mean, really late. And I am beyond tired. And this woman and I strike up a conversation. We ended up talking the entire flight home. Crazy, right? It turns out she was flying home from a girls trip. She had started to tell me about the fun time she had with her girlfriend. But Then started talking about the man in her life. He was a married man. He had been unhappy for years, going to get a divorce, blah blah blah. I know you know someone who's told you that story. And I listened to Then I asked her if I could give her a thought. By now she knew I was a life coach. I told her what I did for a living and I said, the man of your dreams will never be someone else's husband. I saw every ounce of air leave her body. She got a little quiet and said, I have never heard it said that way before and it is so true. We shared business cards and a hug. I don't know if I'll ever speak to her again, but I do know I was exactly what she needed at that moment. I'm grateful to have my senses about me, to know that my meeting was meant to be. It was supposed to happen happen. Meeting this young woman was supposed to happen. She needed me and I needed her. My encouragement for you as you get 2023 kicked off is to look outside of yourself every single day. There are people you are meant to meet today. Right now, today, as you're listening to this podcast, as you're driving to work or you're going for your walk, there is someone waiting to meet you that needs to meet you. You will change your life by seeking out who you are meant to encounter, anyone that you run into. It's not an accident. There's always a reason. Friends, thank you for listening to the End and Happy New Year again. My wish for you is that you choose to live the life of your dreams.

Thank you for joining us today on a New Life podcast. We will see you next time.

Sam.