I was laying on my back in the dentist’s chair when into my field of vision came a little piece of paper.

“Here, I wrote down the name of a little town in San Diego that one of my patients really likes,” the hygienist was saying as she held a note more or less in front of my face for me to see.

“When you’re looking for your new place there you might check it out.”

“Cardiff-by-the-Sea.”

The name rang a bell for some reason. Had I stayed there before? Did I run in a marathon there all those years ago when I was running marathons? Why did I remember that name?

When I got home I told my husband about the note and added that I’d had a good feeling about the place.

“I’m going to go on Craigslist to see if there are any one bedroom apartments for rent there,” I said. “I think the universe is trying to tell us something.”

I love it when life gives me such clear directions; it saves me so much time and energy in making decisions—as if a kind of loving mother has made them for me. And just like a real flesh-and-blood mother, all I have to do is pay attention.

I didn’t used to make decisions this way.

In the beginning, when I had first started to make decisions on my own, I made them according to a lot of other criteria.

There was the “What’s the cheapest?” criteria, the “What’s the fastest?” criteria or the all important, “What will people think?” criteria.

However, I was never really happy with those decisions and always felt like something was missing from whatever I had decided to do, to buy, to wear, to eat or to you-name-it.

But all that changed when a former husband of mine showed me how to make decisions in other ways.

“Look for the green lights, and follow them,” he’d say, or,

“If something lights up for you, go for it.” or,

“There are always indicators in life, kind of like turn signals on the car in front of you. You just have to watch for them.”

I’ve used this method faithfully ever since and it has changed my life. I no longer doubt my decisions and I feel satisfied by them.

As it turns out, I did go on Craigslist and within minutes, I found an ad that lit me up on the inside.

“Light, airy, one-bedroom second floor apartment with a view of the ocean in the distance.”

I emailed the owner and got an immediate, friendly, informative—green light—response.

My old self would have had doubts.

“Maybe I should look for more places.” “Maybe I should compare to be sure.” “Maybe I could get a better price.”

But I brushed my old self off. I had learned that her ways didn’t serve me anymore.

“Honey, come and look at this,” I called out.

One of the things that I really like about my current husband—the husband who, ironically enough, I happened to meet when I answered his Craigslist personal ad—is that he’s always been an intuitive “watch for the green lights, go with your gut, look for the indicators,” kind of guy.

He looked at the rent for the apartment in Cardiff-by-the-Sea. He looked at the pictures.

“Does it light up for you,” he asked, and when I said yes, he said, “Good, because it’s only 10 minutes away from my new office with no freeway driving.”

The lights couldn’t get any greener than that.

We’re moving into our new place next month.

 

Author: Carmelene Siani

Image: Tim Gouw/Unsplash

Apprentice Editor: Brandie Smith/Editor: Emily Bartran