Hey lovebug, 

About 15 years ago, I became OBSESSED with learning to spin wool.

My partner at the time bought me spinning (wool, not Soul Cycle) classes at a local community center.

I went into the class full of excitement and wonder, but knowing LITERALLY nothing.

On day one of class, I found myself sitting in a circle of skilled knitters, crocheters, and quilters. You know—people who KNEW wool and KNEW fiber and probably had their own sheep at home in their backyard.

While we sat there waiting for the instructor, they were talking shop about all the yarn and felted things they’d made over the years.

They were chatting about the different kinds of spinning wheels they'd researched and types of wool they knew about.

Meanwhile, yours truly was just sitting there, hands on my knees, staring blankly at them like Homer Simpson mentally inquiring about donuts.

But then the teacher came in and we started to learn to spin wool on a REAL spinning wool.

And well, I was kind of a savant.

And my classmates were agog.

Hell, I was agog.

SOMEHOW the Universe had made me this cosmic ringer for spinning.

HOW did I know how to spin like I’d been doing it my whole life even though I’d never sat down at a spinning wheel before?

WHY did it come so easily to me? And WHY had I been so obsessed with trying it?

It is NOT because I am exceptionally gifted at fiber arts.

Quite truthfully, I am not even moderately gifted at fiber arts. Infinity scarves unravel on their own when they see me coming.

But I swear, when I sat down at that spinning wheel, everything in me said “I’ve done this before …”

I haven’t just done this once, I’ve done this many, many times before.

I know how to do this.

I know you've had this experience in your life. 

That familiar KNOWING how to do something can be with anything: volleyball, riding a unicycle, cooking, drawing, singing, juggling, chopping wood, training dogs, building a fire, surfing, gardening, baking, dancing, crossstitch, guitar, metalwork …

You obsess about it, then you try it, and you just GET it.

Like right off the bat. You have this knack. And it’s kind of surprising. Even to you. Or maybe ESPECIALLY to you.

HOW do we know how to do these things? And WHY do we feel called to them?

Is it an ancestral memory? They say our ancestors' DNA is IN our cells so... is that cellular familiarity coming out in real time? Or is it a memory from another life? Or a parallel life in another dimension?

Either way, these “random” obsessions are clues to who we used to be. They’re breadcrumbs on the path to the complex, whole truth of who we are.

When we follow those breadcrumbs we're able to forge a deep connection to our souls.

To the part of us that has been around a long, long, long, LONG time.

Why do I find these connections important?

Because I think we can become disconnected from the wisest part of ourselves. Anything we can do to connect to that wisdom - to our souls - will make our lives better and more meaningful.

When things feel crazy and hard, it’s my soul that helps me calm down.

When life feels like it’s gotten a little too heavy and serious, it’s my soul that lightens things up.

When I get into the story that the world is most definitely a dumpster fire teetering precariously on the cliffs of disaster, it’s connecting with my soul that reminds me to look at the sky and look at the trees and maybe go buy some honey from a farmer’s market... and to breathe.

Soul connections are sanity connections. They're a direct line to our calm, all-knowing Higher Self.

Soul connections remind us that we existed before this time and that we will exist again. They take us out of the spin and into the present moment. They make us joyful — for no reason other than because we LIKE doing this (random) thing. They encourage us to PLAY.

These random obsessions may not make sense in our daily lives, but they exist to bring us back home to ourselves.

Soul connections are important on so many levels.

So tell me… what random obsessions bring you joy?

Rebecca*

PS: I talk to people all the time who are feeling lost right now, but I can't reach all of them on my own. Would you do me a favor and be an ambassador of this blog? Share it with someone you think could use it. Thank you. I appreciate you with my whole heart.