A serendipitous haven on the hill
By Lisa M. Cuzydlo-Donohue
Don’t we all need something more to believe in, maybe even magical/mystical these days? The Olympics seemed to have showed up precisely at the right time to inspire us all. So might this story, which still heartens and influences even after four years.
We arrived home on Dec. 31, 2017 at 10:45 p.m., after an eight-hour ride from western New York, to find a frozen home — close to 50 pipes blew — so we were on the move again. By Martin Luther King day of 2018, we had moved five times offering us just a “teeny tiny” glimpse, into jumbling one’s life around, displacement and homelessness.
While at the Hampton Inn, I was reflecting on the recent loss of a dear friend (George S.) on Dec. 9 and called his beloved widow Delma S., who was residing back on Long Island since early fall. After learning that their house on Haven Hill in Wallingford was still on the market – decidedly needing to be sold — she offered us the opportunity to live at their house in the meantime. So we did so through mid-February, when we were able to move back home.
I asked our energy company (which we still utilize to this day and remain the best of friends), if they would be open to us doing so, to create a win-win-win. Willingly the idea was supported.
It is very clear to me, in no small way, given the various happenings and the manner in which they came; that we were destined to be there. Fate indeed has a way of putting us where we need to be, to fill significant roles. We’re learning day by day that.
“The most foreign country is within. We are our dark continent….We are our own savage frontier. Many marvels await discovery as we continue on the path to authenticity,” wrote Alice Walker in “Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy.”
Some magic was certainly in the air. From having the home lived in again to setting intentions to ratchet up marketing interest in their home, which I helped eventually sell … to intercepting extremely important documents that were left unexpectedly on their front porch and driveway, the latter being our deceased friend’s life insurance check that was supposed to be delivered to Long Island! That check would have blown away had I not been right there and able to stop it with my foot after repeated attempts, mind you! It was a total cartoon scene!
As yet another example of magical seredipity, I kept focusing on the three little dormer windows on the top floor of the house, saying to myself, “three little windows… three little beds… three little kids watching the weather come in.”
And, as it turned out, the family that purchased their home had three children. Some kismet was in the air. What d’ya think?
There were also challenging, long-stay reminders via photos, artifacts, a personal gym area, uniforms, and most of all motivational plaques and framed quotes that seemed to speak directly to our souls. All were constant reminders given the love that this couple had for each other.
While they were now apart, we still had each other. Sometimes it felt like survivor’s guilt, as if we were given the days they wished for and should be more appreciative of one another. It’s true, aren’t we all often better behaved around company? Since then…given our love for skiing “GS” has a new meaning.
As Dr. Wayne Dyer articulated so well in his book “I Can See Clearly Now:” “I am in awe of the synchronicities that came together, without clever intellectual explanations. I am bewildered by it all. Yet I know something much more powerful was at play than a series of mere coincidences. From a clearer perspective looking back at it all, I know that God’s fingerprints are all over this scenario. The right words were there, the right people began to show up, and the circumstances magically appeared, all scarcity dissolved, health returned, energy was reignited, and our lives became flooded with abundance.”
While it was a rigorous time back then, my family and I truly grateful for the experience. May we all continue to believe that there is much more unseen at work in our daily lives “always and in ALL ways,” than seen.
Lisa M. Cuzydlo-Donohue is the co-owner of Thrive Center of the Green Mountains, Inc.
