e.m.claytor

I wish that I had kept a more consistent journal of the strange happenings, the synchronicities, the bizarre “call”, that came over my husband and me in October 2018.  So many other strange occurrences arose during this time that it was nearly impossible to keep up with them all.  This is the abbreviated version of what I consider our “call to New Mexico”.

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In late September 2018, Daniel and I began watching Breaking Bad.  I had never seen it before, and Daniel has been insistent for years that I watch it.  I resisted because I felt that it would be too bloody or violent, but in a real sense, it also never felt like quite the right time.  We have often joked that we end up watching something at just the time when we need to receive the message.  Whether it’s a movie that we wanted to see at the theater but had been unable to spare time to go see it or TV shows that we wanted to watch but never got around to, it has often seemed that we receive something from it that we would have never gotten out of it had we watched it when we wanted to. 

So, this last time when Daniel asked if I wanted to start Breaking Bad, I still felt that resistance and fear, but I caved and said “No, let’s do it. Let’s watch it.”  After one episode, I was obviously hooked.  It’s a phenomenal work of art.  Throughout the first few episodes, I remember asking him where they were – and realizing it was set in Albuquerque, NM.  This is not a place I’ve ever been to, desired to go or even given much thought to.  However, as the show continued, I could certainly see the beauty surrounding the city, and I remember thinking I would like to visit ABQ at some point in my life. 

Soon after, we began experiencing what we call “synchronicities” – strange occurrences that feel divinely ordered. So many things came to us that pointed us to New Mexico.  Daniel received an ebay order in the mail that was marked Albuquerque, NM.  He had a customer that recently moved to our town from New Mexico.  We were given a CD of some original songs that said “Recorded in Albuquerque, NM.”  I met a new colleague who had just moved from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.  I met someone in passing who said he would be moving to New Mexico in a few months (and that was another amazing story all on its own).  Keep in mind — New Mexico was not something we were actively thinking about. We live in the Southeast — it’s extremely rare to hear anything at all about New Mexico.  But it just kept showing up.

I always have a stack of books I’m trying to find time to read, and one weekend I sat down and felt drawn to read the book The Purpose of Your Life which talks extensively about synchronicities and intuition, and in the first few pages, the author begins to talk about feeling drawn toward New Mexico and moving there simply out of intuition.  She moves to Santa Fe and says that that move altered the course of her life.  Once her purpose there was completed, she moved back to California.  At this point, it was beginning to get beyond weird, and these were certainly not all of the strange synchronicities – they are just the ones that stand out the most. 

At some point, I felt so drawn to going to New Mexico, it was just a feeling of “We have to go out there… soon.”  I realized that our 10 year wedding anniversary was coming up, and I would be off of work for two weeks at Christmas time, so I proposed that we go to Albuquerque during Christmas.  We have a few problems – money is not exactly pouring in at the moment.  Daniel is starting a business, and we’re living on my salary.  We’re making it month to month.  So I knew that we realistically didn’t have the cash to drive 17 hours one way across the country.  But I still couldn’t shake this feeling that we needed to go. 

I called my mom on my lunch break one day and asked her to pray about the situation. She said she would be praying that if it’s God’s will for us to go that I would know. The very moment she said those words, I pulled into a parking spot, and the car right next to me said “SANTE FE”.  It was like being slapped in the face.  I had chills up my arms and exclaimed to my mom, “Oh my goodness! This car says Santa Fe!”.  It was as if God shouted, “GO”. 

Obviously, I felt fairly strongly we need to make this trip, but rational brain always kicks in and tries to talk me out of things.  As the day wore on, I began questioning myself again – Am I crazy?  I’m insane. This is not normal.   On my way home from work, I prayed. I told God I released the details to Him – the financial path – all the details if we were to take this trip.  And as I pulled in the driveway, I said out loud (and I don’t know where these words came from — they just came out), “I pray this will be a spiritual awakening like we’ve never experienced in our lives”.  The moment those words came out of my mouth, I was completely overtaken physically by a heaviness – as if the words activated something spiritually.  I felt anchored to my seat as if I was just being held in a spiritual state. I had a realization that this was important. 

This was a call. 

And we had to go. 

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