My Next Costa Rican Adventure & Letting the Universe Have Me
The hotel I could potentially help sell is the very first hotel I ever stayed at in Costa Rica, and where I first fell in love with Costa Rica. This is me at their pool when Pete and I visited in October 2013. Our family stayed there during our wedding. One of the owners made our wedding cake! Selling the hotel would be very symbolic!
Starting tomorrow, the next two weeks mark a very important turning point in my life! I head back to Costa Rica to explore new & life-changing business opportunities. The projects I have been working on the last year and a half has lead me to meeting some very influential and important people, and I am so blessed for that and for what's to come! I won't go into too much detail about my business opportunities in this post, for reasons of discretion, but I can say that I am going to meet with a potential real estate buyer for a friend's hotel that I linked up and I'm also going to explore a job opportunity in another part of Costa Rica. The buyer gave me a tentative arrival date as I was finding out about this new job opportunity, and just like that, the winds of Costa Rica called me back, requesting my presence. The chain of events that took place led me to book my airplane ticket on the fly, without having any certainties that the buyer would come through or that the job offer will be all it appears to be.
Last November on Santa Teresa beach. Wearing Sulara Wear.
The outcome of what will happen these next few weeks, I know not, but I do know that I must trust the process completely and let go of any negative or doubtful thoughts that come up (and they do!). In my human mind, I do not have the capabilities to fathom or understand what will happen or why things happen the way they do. The recurring theme since deciding to plan my trip back is to not plan anything! The Universe is telling me,
“Go with the flow. Release control! Simply show up.”
Each time I try to make a plan, something changes 5 minutes later. I try to rework the plan, and it changes again! I booked my ticket for 6/29 and let my dear friend know in case he was around. His name is Ricardo, he is a fellow vegan, and he is from Costa Rica. His father is well-known in Costa Rica because he runs an aviation company that handles air medical transport within Costa Rica. Ricardo has helped me out in immeasurable ways throughout my trips to Costa Rica, from picking me up from the airport and taking me the 6 hours to Santa Teresa (with my cat, Zuko!), to introducing me to the man that married Pete and I, to arranging emergency air evacuation for my friend when she got sick, to connecting me with the guy that I will be meeting for a job opportunity, and more! He has been an amazing friend and I feel very blessed to have met him through the online vegan community.
Coincidentally (or not), Ricardo had plans to be in LA this weekend and him and his father planned to return to Costa Rica the same day as me. This was his reply to me about my trip, literally minutes after I booked my flight: "Did you already pay for the flight? Because we're actually coming back on one of our flights so it's free, so if you want you could go back to CR with us." A rich guy chartered the jet from Costa Rica to LA, and we would be able to catch a ride on the jet on it's way back.
Dang it!! Why didn't I message him before booking my flight? And why did I book with such gusto!? To be fair, who can imagine that their friend has a free private jet ride to Costa Rica for you on the exact date you want to return? Anyway, he did! Immediately I looked up cancellation policies and found I would have to pay $200 to cancel and retain the credit, which to me, is worth it for a free ride to Costa Rica! I know I will return to Costa Rica many times, so the credit will be used and I could look at it as a $200 jet ride, and a priceless experience. I would never charter a private jet no matter how much money I had, but if there's one going anyway, why not hop on board? You know you would, too! The chance to do that ever again seems slim, so I really wanted to take him up on the offer.
The problem is he couldn't confirm it 100% since the rich guy hadn't confirmed it. My husband, Pete, suggested I keep my flight to be sure that I can go and not get stranded. I enjoy the novelty of life so much that I really wanted to go for it. I struggled with canceling my flight, but kept it just in case for a few weeks, since the fee is the same regardless. Canceling my flight means canceling my return ticket as well, leaving myself in Costa Rica without literally any plans.
Depending on how things work out, I could be on the last seat on Delta's flight squeezed between Joe-Scmoe and Sam-who-knows-what on the red eye to Costa Rica or I could be flying in luxury on a private jet. If I was rich and always flew private, the excitement would wear off, and if I simply took the safe route of keeping my flight, I would be bored with the predictability. The not knowing what's going to happen is what makes life exciting!
The flight we will take if all goes through. Photo from www.aviacioncr.net.
Aside from that situation, I have been blocked repeatedly when trying to make plans for this trip. The real estate buyer gave me an approximate date weeks ago but didn't confirm his plans until yesterday (long after I already committed to heading to CR). Because I wasn't sure on his plans, I couldn't plan if I was going to Santa Teresa first or to the other area first where the job is (not close by!). Not knowing when exactly I would arrive in CR, I couldn't book any transportation on the ground in Costa Rica, and I couldn't make any hotel reservations! I couldn't arrange my way to LAX because I didn't know the exact time the jet will leave (first it was late 6/29, then it was 8 am, and now it's 4 am!) And now, I have no return plans! The Universe is intent on teaching me the lesson of completely letting go and letting her have me and I surrender.
I found a ride to LA with Pete's brother and his wife since we all spent the weekend at my parent's house today. I literally just booked my shuttle to get to LAX by 3:30 am (it's 7 pm the night before!) and I'm still unsure on if this jet will actually take off with me on it. Pete is beyond worried for my safe arrival, and I've realized that worrying it not going to change a dang thing. The worry and anxiety we experience over the uncertainty of outcomes is something we create by choice, through our internal dialogue. Having a plan doesn't guarantee things will go a certain way, either. It's a mental trick we play on ourselves, thinking we can predict the future with "plans" and from this trick we calm our nerves down! But in reality, no one knows what will happen - so we can instead learn to trust the process as it unfolds and to trust that we are in the right place at the right time.
The greatest lesson I've learned from Costa Rican culture and from living amongst Ticos is to let go of the reigns when trying to plan and control a situation because it will all turn out perfectly and exactly how it's meant to if you just show up. My wedding in Costa Rica exemplified this, as I designed it all from scratch, had no idea how it was all to be executed, trusted the process, and then enjoyed the experience of watching it all come to life before my eyes. I understand that people want things to be set so they have make sure they are safe, but expectations can also be the roots of disappointment. When we expect things to go a certain way, we close ourselves off from the current and flow of what the Universe has planned (do we really expect that we know better than the Universe?). The details seem to work themselves out moment by moment if you can trust the messages you receive and take care of yourself in the moment (not in some uncertain, unexpected future).
The wedding was beyond perfect, even without over planning. Some things didn't get confirmed until the day before! But there were howler monkeys yelling during our ceremony... What could be more perfect and how could you plan that anyway? Just go with the flow of your life!
Am I nervous about how everything will unfold? Of course I am, I'd be a damn liar if I said otherwise! The work lies in constantly reminding ourselves of our true nature, to come back to the present moment, and the breathe through the nerves. It's normal to feel nervous but it becomes a problem when we let it take over. So, will I fly to costa Rica in a private jet or sandwiched between two strangers? Will my and Pete's lives change forever in the matter of a week, or will I return to San Clemente with no progress? I have no idea. You'll have to stay tuned and find out as I do!
Call to action:
- Follow the path your life paves willingly, rather than forcing the road with a jackhammer. Know that the process of letting go is scary and anxiety-provoking at first, but that you can breathe through it and remain calm.
- Take care of your friends and they will take care of you! Just be a good person and your energy will be your currency.
- Try not to predict outcomes of events. Rather, see plans as a way to put you in a certain place at a certain time so that something could manifest (whether it was what you were expecting or not!).
- Let the Universe have you! She will take good care of you when you do.