Providence

We had great aspirations to get up and do our exercise in the earlier hours of the morning...but...Erin was so sweet as to not bother me when she realized that I had not slept well. So we slept in and did not head out our separate ways until after 8:00. I am very grateful to Karen for kicking my butt out the door and making me exercise. Yesterday I whined that I was too tired because of what I had experienced on my flights over here but she would not allow any further whining from me. Go Karen!

As an aside, I really am grateful for this opportunity to spend this time with these two women who motivate me highly to improve my health and well being. They are grand examples and spending these days with them has and will help to strengthen my resolve to work towards health and the peace that health brings in my life.

We had hoped to be to the Globe Theatre by 10:00 when the box office opened to throw ourselves at their mercy and beg for tickets to one of these last two final performances of MacBeth. Those of you who understand my history with this play will know what an absolute dream come true it would be for me to see this performed in the Globe. However, because of our late start and the fact that it is so easy to become distracted when out running and exploring, we did not arrive at the Globe anywhere near ten o'clock. (Might I just say that the walk/run that I did alone this morning was something that I would not have traded for the world, see my FB status that outlines some of things I saw and experienced, it was a trip.) And when we approached the man at the box office he kind of rolled his eyes and told us that there were NO tickets available. But then a man in the next queue jumped in and offered to sell us three tickets to Friday's matinee and to throw in tickets to the behind the scenes lecture that was being presented tonight. We were elated. I cannot speak for Karen and Erin, but I am very excited that the tickets are for the grounds so I get to experience the Globe just as the commoners did back in the day and I wouldn't want it any other way. It turns out that this man was an English teacher, born in Rhode Island but now teaching at an embassy school in Uganda and four of his students, as well as his fellow traveling teacher had not been able to make the trip and so he had these extra tickets which he sold to us for face value, kicking in the lecture tickets as well. Everyone benefitted and we got, not only tickets, but also the opportunity for the lecture, something that I find terribly exciting.

After leaving the Globe with tickets in hand we ventured into a very different part of London looking for the Doctor Who shop. We found it, but we saw a very different side of London than we have been seeing in the Westminster/Covent Gardens area. It was good for us to experience this adventure. And Erin and I came away with two lovely Tardis keychains.

We then headed back to the area around the Globe where we found a French restaurant for food and enjoyed a wonderful repast until time to head to the lecture where I was so very excited to learn that we would have the privilege of hearing from Professor Michael Dobson himself. It is probably also providence that I did not think to ask this of the man who sold us the tickets because had I known that it was Dr. Dobson, I would have been and chattery and obnoxious companion leading up to the lecture. Dr. Dobson is the director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford Upon Avon and to have a chance to sit right there in that small meeting room and have him offer us his insights into the Scottish play. Well...it was the opportunity of a lifetime and I am terribly grateful.

I have thought a great deal about the providence that I see so often cropping up in my life. I am so very blessed and it really often does not feel like an accident. And today I find that especially true. First, there is the fact that Karen and Paul and their family chose to stay in Colorado all of those years ago when leaving was a very real possibility on their radar. And now they are a wonderful part of my life and are women that I can have this kind of experience with and also share time with them right at this time in my life when I am ready to make some changes that they are uniquely qualified to help me see clearly in this time and this place when I am removed from the distractions of my every day life.

Then there are the smaller things. Like feeling prompted to follow one crowd of people when I was out exercising this morning and finding myself in the Victoria Embankment Gardens. Everyone else was using the Gardens as a shortcut but I found a treasure. Things like the fact that when we got off of our bus stop at St. Paul's Cathedral, we took a slightly less than direct route to the Millennial Bridge and this caused us to go by an ancient church that I happened to glance up and read the placard only to see the words "St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe". This is the parish where a number of my ancestors were christened, married and buried. WOW! I had always assumed, due to the name, that this was located in some small town in the English countryside. But there it was, right in the heart of London. That was a real treat and part of an answer to the prayer I had offered to connect with the spirits of my ancestors while on this trip. And then there was the so perfect timing that put us at the box office of the Globe at the same moment as a kind man who had tickets to sell and even the opportunity to attend a lecture given by someone I admire greatly, adding tremendous richness to what is rapidly becoming a Shakespeare themed vacation. There are more, but you get the picture. It is my firm and solid belief that there is a higher being out there who is very aware of me and has love for me and understands just how much this trip means to me and I believe that I am being given a few choice providential moments that make an already magical experience one that is truly the experience of a lifetime.