Stuff happens...and usually for a reason!

Have you ever had the feeling, in the midst of getting some really bad news, that it's for the best? I don't mean that fake smile you give as the tears stream down your face, keeping a stiff upper lip as you say bravely, "No, no, it's fine...I'm sure something better will come along." I mean when you really know that something better is coming...know it so definitively that you aren't even upset by the devastating situation you find yourself in.


That's how I felt last week when I found out that my client wasn't renewing my contract next year. Is that strange? Is that crazy? It's not the first time it's happened.


Ten years ago, I was stunned when the leader of my band, the first band I'd ever been in, the only band I'd ever been in, the band that brought me to my future husband, casually announced he wouldn't be needing me anymore. Not only did this mean I wouldn't be singing anymore, it meant I wouldn't be spending time with my main squeeze - at shows, at rehearsals. N

ot to mention the fact that my ego was bruised beyond recognition (as it is now, I suppose). Even still, I so clearly remember resting my head against my husband's solid chest, my tears soaking a through the front of his flannel button-down, peering up at him through the tears and saying, "The thing that's so strange is that even though I'm crying, even though I'm so sad about this, I know something better is coming along."

A few months later, I was back in the band, subbing in for one of the singers who hadn't shown up. A few months after that, I was their only singer, singing four sets a night, and that same bandleader was calling me "A.I.," for Allen Iverson, the then Philadelphia basketball player known for making 50-plus points in a game, the one the team couldn't do without. A few months after that, when the bandleader quit dramatically, the band looked to me to lead them. And I did. Though I knew something great was in store, what I didn't know that cold winter night as I was sobbing on my future husband's shoulder, was that the same band from which I had been summarily dismissed would one day be mine to lead.


I have that same feeling now. That the Universe is opening up space in my life for something. Something phenomenal. Something beyond my wildest dreams. So, am I scared that I don't know what that is? Sure, I am. Am I scared that I don't have guaranteed income beyond next March? Darn skippy. But you know what? I'm excited, too. Because the Universe has never, EVER let me down before.