Perfectly Placed

“There are places I'll remember

All my life though some have changed

Some forever not for better

Some have gone and some remain

All these places had their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life I've loved them all”

-         In My Life, The Beatles

I heard that song this morning as I was driving to visit my Dad in his new house. Whenever I hear it I remember it, first, for being my high school graduation song.  Then I remember it as the song I danced with my Dad to at my wedding because the DJ didn’t have the song I originally wanted.  But today, it rang true thinking of how everything has worked together, perfectly placed, to bring me exactly where I need to be as I travel this Hobo Life. Since writing my last blog post so much has happened that reminds me of the people and places I’ll remember all my life.

Last week I was in Utah for my annual trip with the group of ladies I met on a Grand Canyon rafting trip in 2022.  I’ve written about this group a few times over the last few years.  The bond we formed that week is extraordinary.  We had the experience of a lifetime rafting down the Colorado every day and sleeping under the stars every night.  We had no phones, no bathroom, no shower, no communication with the outside world that week.  All we had was the sound of the Colorado River, river stories from our guide and each other to lean on.  Over those six unforgettable days we transformed from strangers into a sisterhood, eight ladies taking care of each other who now spend a week together every summer on a new adventure.  This yea

rs trip was to Red Mountain Resort in Ivins, Utah.  We did yoga and strength classes, hiked Snow Canyon State Park, and the Narrows in Zion National Park.  It was challenging and so much fun.  I simultaneously hated and loved hiking The Narrows.

What does that have to do with the Beatles song? …The perfectly placed events that brought me from a conversation in New Jersey to a raft in the Grand Canyon. Late in 2021 on a walk with my sorority sister, Alyssa, I said before I start my new job I want to spend a weekend at a spa in Arizona.  My phone heard me and later that day I saw an ad for a spa in Arizona.  About a month later, I was at a meditation class at that spa wearing a T-Shirt that said “Texas”.  That T-Shirt led to a conversation with a group of ladies visiting from Texas. Two of those ladies were signed up for that Grand Canyon Rafting Trip the following summer and they invited me to join them.  I’ve already written about my camping anxiety in a previous post, "That Pee Bucket is a Game Changer"  I was there for a reason, these people and places I remember led to a cherished friendship with “The Adventure Ladies”. 

The first few months of this year I was in Arizona and planned to start the drive back east the third weekend of March. My route originally included stops in Mississippi and Alabama before going back to Chattanooga to visit my friend Eddie on the way back to New Jersey. The morning I was leaving my cousin called to tell me my favorite uncle suffered a stroke. I rerouted my trip and, instead, drove directly to my mom’s in NJ. I made it back to Brooklyn to see my uncle a few days before he passed. On the drive I called Eddie to let him know I had to reroute my trip and I’d be down to visit later in April. He couldn’t talk long because he wasn’t feeling well and said it hurt to talk. I wrote about Eddie’s illness at the end of my Serenity NOW blog post in December of 2022.  Eddie was another of those chance meetings in my travels.  A few days after I was supposed to have arrived at his house for the visit I texted to check in on him.  Within minutes, his sister called me to let me know he passed away.  Had I been able to stick to my original plan the day I arrived would have actually been the day he passed.  Once again, everything was perfectly placed to lead me to where I was supposed to be.  Not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about both Eddie and my Uncle Tom… about all the what if’s.  For some reason, in this instance, the people and places I remember are the detour that guided me to the goodbye I could give, and being spared the possibly devastating scene I was not meant to witness. 

As I sit here thinking about all the twists, turns and detours over these years traveling I am reminded that God always puts me exactly where I’m supposed to be. I start off with a plan that is constantly edited, bringing with it people and places I was meant to encounter.  Looking back at how everything worked together for good, I’m reminded of the expression, don’t miss the forest for the trees.  Sometimes it’s so difficult for us to see the forest, we only see that one tree we’re focused on – that one thing that we want to happen in a specific way at a specific time … but God sees the forest.  He sees all the trees, all the roots that run deep and intertwine under the surface that make up the forest. What I thought were detours, twists and turns were perfectly placed by God bringing me to the people and places I’ll remember all my life.

(Pictures of Me & My Uncle Tom, Me & Eddie, and Me with 6 of the 8 The Adventure Ladies in Utah: Andrea, Carolyn, Claudia, Donna, Jody)