Some things are just meant to be, like getting my bearded dragon, Bruno. Here’s what I mean.
My bearded dragon, Lizzy, died a couple of months ago. Soon after, I suspected that I’d get another one, but I waited just to be sure. Then three weeks ago I started a half-hearted effort to find an adult dragon – emails to my vet, the RISPCA, a few other places – but I didn’t really invest myself in my effort. Things changed six weeks later. I had a flash that I was to get an adult male bearded dragon, and his name would be Bruno. This flash came in an instant while I was doing something mundane and I knew it was right. And this was the start of my positive thinking about the new pet.
I was writing a donation check to an out-of-state animal shelter, the shelter that got us our dog, Simon, and I realized I hadn’t contacted the director about adopting a bearded dragon. I sent an email, she responded two hours later with a phone number, I called the next day, and picked Bruno up the next morning. It all went so fast, like it was meant to be and everything was being made easy for me. The animal control officer of the town had picked up two male bearded dragons last year from a family that had to re-home them. He kept them for the year, but was hoping to find a home for one of them. My email arrived and everything went quickly. All it took was me recognizing that I was ready for a bearded dragon in my life and that I would have a bearded dragon (that’s the positive thinking). From there, everything I did and everything that happened just followed naturally. Even the officer felt the speed of this was “meant to be.”
I have fought this “meant to be” concept all my life – it didn’t fit in with logic and scientifically-proven facts. It’s only in the past years that I’ve accepted it. Twenty years ago, that was how I retired from teaching. One morning, while take a shower, I just knew it was time to retire (and it came in a flash). It was the middle of my thirty-fifth year of teaching teenagers math and my retirement went rapidly once I knew it was right. I have never regretted that decision, because that decision brought me to volunteering as a docent at our local zoo, which brought me to handling small animals at the zoo, which brought me to learning I have a love of reptiles, which brought me to getting a bearded dragon (Lizzy), and now my bearded dragon, Bruno.
That’s what I mean, meant to be.