This morning I awoke just shy of 6:00 - my new wakeup time with the sun! Yay! I was up and alive and on purpose. This week is one of working on the business. In four days I will be on retreat in the boundary waters where I will spend 2.5 days without interruption, distraction, email, cell phones, and alas kitties (they are my Greek Chorus, but they can be a terrible distraction when their environment changes).

Two weeks ago I had a similar Monday morning with the sun. I woke up to the sound of birds chirping. I’m going - let me sleep - I have double paned windows and a storm window, yet I still hear chirping - I think that means I am supposed to get up. Usually when I wake up early I go for a walk to the coffee shop about a half mile away. So I got dressed in walking attire but remembered my gloves were in the car and ventured down to the garage.

Upon entering the garage I open up the garage door - Now, I’m wide awake and know what I am doing and I hit the garage door button - Wait a minute - I’m not going for a walk am I.

Ok we are going for a drive to someplace else to walk - I still think I am going for a walk.

Well, every time I try to go somewhere specific I am blocked by a light, a stalled car, pedestrians in the crosswalk.

Ok, why don’t you just take me where you want me to go. And away I went. Onto the freeway, through downtown, left onto 394? Down and up the valley - turn right. Get off here. Ooooookay. Last time I was here was in a similar state of mind. Hmmm. Drive a little further and I am at Cuppa Java, a delightful coffee shop in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of Minneapolis.

I walk into the place and it was JuMpInG! WOW! I mean, not that it was loud, actually the opposite. It was quite peaceful but just bouncing with energy. And it is a Monday morning! They were playing great music that they normally don’ t listen to. People were in a great mood. One of the sales people’s brother was in the newspaper. What a great place to end up.

So I go about ordering a croissant with jam and cream cheese and a dry cappucino and sit down for leisurely time on my cover story of re-laying out my website. That wasn’t what I was there for was I. The universe had other intentions for me. In walks this man wearing a jacket which has embroidered in it a very traditional Guatemalan design, one that I recognize. I’m going this is interesting. Apparently he too had an unusual morning. He too was guided to be here. He had just worn this jacket today for the first time to see what people thought of it. Well it creates the conversation starter that we need to engage our conversation. I share with him that if my recollection serves me that the pattern is one that they use on wedding blankets to signify union, connection, community. Interesting.

We have this fabulous conversation that lasts nearly two hours and finishes exactly with the amount of time I need to drive back across town without speeding to make my first coaching call. An amazing person, contact and next step perhaps in our mutual development, a cigar buddy, and a potential new friend. Exactly who I needed to meet.

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So Today I go back to the coffee shop - this time not pulled but find it to be calm and pleasant and a great place to do some work that need my attention. After a leisurely hour I drive off, but instead of returning to the freeway I am pulled to the lakes via the back roads and I find myself on this thumb of a park that juts into Cedar Lake. Its magical. I grab my camera and walk around the shore. Its windy, its cold, and I am going "What am I doing here, I am not dressed for this." And as if being answered directly, the wind died down, the world slowed down and I could hear the tinkling of the ice. A magical sound. It is kind of like the sound of ice dropping in a glass on a hot dry day multiplied by thousands.