It’s been exactly one-year today since I met Ryan Gosling. The story is worth reflecting on in full if you have a moment, but if not, the long and short of it was:
– I was walking home from Yoga (whilst on holiday in New York City) and popped into a Hummus restaurant in the East Village for some lunch.
– When I sat down the man to my right started recommending some dishes to me.
– When I looked up to say thank you I was GOS-SMACKED to realise this was actually Ryan Gosling sitting here, recommending the masabacha to me.
– I channeled my Namaste energy to ‘play it cool’ right to the very end when he stood up, looked down to me and bid me farewell.
Soooo… a year on and I’ve needed to continue intensive yoga, at least three times a week, just to (barely) contain myself.
Over the past twelve months I’ve reflected on those 9.2 minutes around 12,467 times. Excessive… perhaps. Forgive me, but I can’t help it! I think about it every time I peel aluminum the lid off a tub of hummus and every time someone says OMG (reminds me of my OMGosling moment, you see?). I exercise the memory like a muscle, keeping it ever-fresh – because, as a thirty-year-old woman it is bound to remain one of the best ‘chance-encounter’ stories of my life.
The beauty of writing on a weekly basis means that I have an opportunity to step back in time, to that very day, any day, just by pulling up an older piece of writing. It’s surreal stepping into the ‘mindset’ of yourself, a year your junior. Reading ‘the story’ of a day, from twelve months ago, lets you place yourself in that moment in time; it lets you remember exactly how you felt about life (for me; I can step into the time I embarked on a three month solo mission around the world… as it was, the week I met Mr. Gos). I was feeling excited, awe-inspired, healthy and (it’s a little hard to explain) I felt somehow like a snake must feel when in sheds a worn-skin & reveals shiny untouched scales.
Being here and looking back 12 months later isn’t really about Ryan Gosling at all, I’ll be honest with you. At that point in my life, I was embarking on a journey and a shift that I didn’t have any anticipation or expectation about; but just felt confidence and contentment in the fact that everything was going to be okay. It’s important to read little signs from the universe along the way so that we can feel comfort in our chosen path. It’s also important to spend a little time looking back, to remind us how far we’ve come to be here, today – in this place, with selected people, in this mindset, with this vision and hope for the future.
How do you feel when you reflect on a moment-in-time twelve-months ago? Do you ever write down your experiences and come back to them?
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