Yes, I’m going to talk about Wilco again this week. Sort of. But I’m also going to talk about my oldest son and spirit guides. I thought we could all use some lighter subject matter this week. I’m also writing this under my recently adopted mission statement, which is a quote from Mary Oliver that goes like this:“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”That’s why I have this blog. So that I can share with anyone who will take the time to read it all the astonishing things that happen in life once you start paying attention.I went to see Wilco this week. Twice. As I’ve written before, I’ve flown to Vancouver, New York, Vermont and Colorado just to see my favorite band play. So, when I found out that they were playing back-to-back shows here in Austin, going to both shows was a no brainer. However, the astonishing part is how I discovered that they were even playing here in the first place.Let’s back up to the middle of July. Upon the recommendation of my functional doctor, my husband and I went to see a spiritual path healer. Now, I have had all sorts of readings before but this was the first time that I had seen someone who sees and communicates with spirit guides. My husband and I met with her for two hours and we walked away with some mind-blowing insights into our marriage and ourselves. Not the least of which was the inner child work she asked us to do but that’s fodder for a future blog…This particular healer has also written a book and, because the only thing I love more than writing is reading, I downloaded it to my Kindle and dug in. In it, this healer talked about how we all have spirit guides who are with us at all times. Some of them are angels and some are family members who have passed on. She said that they are always communicating with us and that sometimes that idea that suddenly pops into our head is actually put there by one of our guides.The day after I read this, I am sitting in a work meeting and a voice in my heads say, “Why don’t you check out the Wilco tour dates again?” Keep in mind that I hadn’t been to see Wilco in a couple of years and had been frequently scouring the posted tour dates for the past few months trying to figure out which city I was going to have to fly to in order to see them.So, imagine my shock and surprise when, as I scrolled slowly over the same old tour dates, two new dates popped up that were in Austin! I couldn’t believe it and it was all I could do to not do cartwheels around the conference room. But I kept my cool and tried to figure out when or if tickets had already gone on sale. By the way, tickets for Wilco shows in Austin sell out in about five minutes. For real.Tickets went on sale at 10:00 AM, THAT MORNING. I panicked for a split second and probably stopped breathing as I looked at the clock on my computer. It was 9:58 AM. I quickly navigated to the page where the tickets were sold. I hit refresh on my computer twice. Bam. I bought tickets to both shows.Call me crazy, but I believe with all my heart that God wanted me to get those Wilco tickets and one of my spirit guides whispered to me that I should check out the tour dates that morning. No doubt. The super cool thing is that a) I got to see my favorite band two nights in a row, b) I got to pay face value for the tickets rather than at an escalated price off Craigslist, which is what I usually do, and c) most importantly, because I had tickets for both nights, I got to take my husband one night and my oldest son to his first rock concert ever on the second night! How beautiful is that?! My son’s first show was his mom’s favorite band! And I think he actually even enjoyed himself but he’s almost 13 so it’s hard to know for sure.
