When it's meant to be: Recognizing the signs in your life

I've been looking for signs all of my life. Signs about what the heck I should and shouldn't pursue. What I might be good at or what my calling is, my purpose in this life.

I recently lost touch with my intuition and my purpose while finishing grad school. Let's just say that the linguistics grad program didn't really give me a lot of free time to focus on my inner promptings. Now that I graduated, I'm trying to open up to my inner voice and recognize all the signs in my life.

Finally, some signs came that were as clear as daylight. I decided to start teaching dance classes. I've been studying belly dance since the start of 2005 and now I feel ready to teach. I know that nothing helps us grow more than teaching. When you actually have to articulate what you know, you learn it much better. You also begin to research and document information - which only makes you more knowledgeable.

Then I came across the problem: how do I get a teaching position if I don't have experience teaching dance? Well, that's easy. I decided to teach classes to my friends (and friends of friends) for free. That way I would get experience and references. Without space, wooden floors, and large mirrors in my apartment I came across my next problem. Where will I teach?

That's when the signs started flooding in:

My friend who just bought a new home was interested and she has a large empty living room with wood floors, lots of light, and big mirrors!

Then everyone I told was interested in class - but I didn't want to burden my friend with too many strangers in her home. That's when another friend with hardwood floors and a larger mirror opened up her home for a second class. She said she also had friends who wanted to learn.

I already have several choreographies to teach. I worked on them during grad school, in hopes that I could put them to use when I had more time.

This is what I call serendipity. Sometimes things are meant to be and you can just go with the flow. That's not to say we don't work hard in life. I've been working hard learning dance for 4 1/2 years. And when I didn't have time for class anymore, I still rehearsed and choreographed whenever I got the opportunity. And now that I've put my hard work in, I'm finally reaping the benefits - and the SIGNS - that this is something I'm meant to do.

What signs have repeated themselves in your life? Where do things just flow? Do you recognize and respond to these signs? Please share your experiences with me.