How Did This Become My Normal?

Sometimes I look around at my life here and think, “how did this become my normal?” 😊

On Friday morning, we started the day having breakfast with friends in Madrid. We spent the day watching short films and ended with our friend’s award-winning screening, with his cast and crew calling in from Oklahoma City to answer questions in front of the audience.

Then we jumped in a cab, rushed to Atocha, and took the train back to Sevilla. The train left on time but somehow arrived 20 minutes late, which would not have been a big deal except we had 45 minutes to get to a 60th birthday party on a boat.

And you can’t be late for a boat party.

The taxi line was huge, there were almost no taxis because of a concert, and by the time we finally got one, we had the driver race to the plaza near our house. We asked him to wait, ran inside, dropped our bags, ran back out, and made it to the boat just in time.

The party was so much fun. I got to see friends I don’t see often enough, and when it ended, we thought the night was over.

Then another friend asked if we had ever been to “the religious bar,” which is three minutes from our house, and somehow we had never been there. We stopped in, ordered the Sangre de Cristo, and a tuna band walked in. My friend struck up a conversation with them in her broken Spanish, convinced them to sing, and one of them grabbed her for a dance. Then they sang for my husband’s birthday, and my son was absolutely ecstatic because he loves tuna bands and may now have a way to join them.

These are the experiences you can never plan.

The Part I Wish New Arrivals Could See

I’ve been around a lot of new arrivals lately, and I recognize their nervous energy so well. The bureaucracy can feel overwhelming, especially when your Spanish is still limited and you’re putting important decisions in the hands of another government. You can do your best to check every box, bring every copy, make every appointment, and still know that some things depend on the person reviewing your paperwork that day.

That uncertainty sucks. Most of us have to live through it, but I do believe it gets easier. You learn what to spend your time on and what you simply cannot control.

And then, little by little, the place that felt unfamiliar becomes the place where you have breakfast with friends in Madrid, barely make it to a boat party in Sevilla, celebrate Father’s Day around a pool, and accidentally end up connecting with a tuna band in a bar you had walked past for years.

That is the part I wish every new arrival could see.

💛

Reflection Question: What is one unexpected moment that made a new place start to feel like home?

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