It took me approximately two weeks to find an apartment. My boxes will be shipped out the beginning of December. My new apartment is in a very nice, brand new building, convenient to nearly anything one could want, and not too far from downtown Vancouver.
Everything is, of course, pretty easily accessible using the transit system here. Besides, it is rare that you are waiting for a bus on a street corner in -20 degree weather, as you might have been in Ontario!
Those details aside, I have found that the search for a new place to live is as much a logically planned strategic undertaking as it is an intuitive process of listening to your heart!
Naturally, I asked lots of questions of the locals. The answers were about 75% prejudice and rumour and 25% fact, I think. I trotted about in the neighborhoods of Vancouver to get a sense of the places in person. And I answered some craigslist ads (more on that later) as well as viewed some places that were in the classifieds of the local paper.
Besides several really crummy places, I did see some that on the surface of it, looked great. All the ducks were in a row; the facts fit my parameters. But still, I had nightmares about one apartment that was high on my list of potential places. It ticked all the boxes, but it gave me nightmares! I realized that again, I must follow my intuition. That place is not the one for me, even though I can't give you a rational reason for my decision!
I have heard real-estate agents laughing about the "thing" that sells a house to a prospective buyer. It may seem to be something rather unimportant, as far as houses go, vs the important things like location, structural soundness, etc. But in balance, it may be that just those intangibles, or things that seem illogical to a practical, objective mind, are what are most important.
It may seem "logical" that a view of the sea or access to the beach sells. But that desire to have a view of the sea or access to the beach is based on a largely inexplicable desire many people have to feel connected to the natural world. And then to others, that view of the sea or the beach may be anathema!
And so, here's one craigslist experience I had. The ad lacked all the basic facts an apartment hunter would want to know: the general location of the suite, the main intersections nearby, what is included in the rent. I asked. The answer was a very long and detailed story about how his daughter had posted the ad, wasn't she smart. How they had moved to Utah. How they needed to put the place up for rent, even though his father didn't want to...on and on and on. Then came the request for my personal information, so that they could send me the application form and pictures of the unit....Still no mention of the actual location of the suite or what was covered in the rent. Too much detail, and none of it relevant to what I needed or wanted to know. Raised all my hackles anyway.
In the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell describes how people often have to make snap judgments, and good ones, and also, how often seemingly less information is better than more.
Of course, somebody who is very knowledgeable in her field is going to have better instincts. For example, it is a very foolish doctor who ignores the call from an experienced nurse saying she has a "bad feeling" about her patient. The nurse will wisely try to have some facts about her patient's status, but sometimes the facts do not seem to correspond with the "bad feeling", the other subtle things the experienced nurse is picking up that are not easily defined in objective terms, eg. a slight pallor, a slip in level of consciousness, uncharacteristic anxiety. You know what I'm talking about here.
I wonder how often, if pressed to describe the route they took to their decision, people would describe a serious, totally fact-based process. Certainly, I freely admit that the instances where I have ignored my intuition in the face of the "facts", I have soon regretted it! I think that is because we are not actually consciously aware of all the different facts and impressions we have gathered with all our senses as well as our intuition in any situation. A snap decision may truly be nothing of the sort. Making decisions based only on the objective, measurable facts we are able to marshall into some logical order may actually be a way of crippling our full decision-making capabilities!
Sometimes, the things that nourish the soul, the places that are the "calm waters and green pastures" where a soul can be refreshed, and the things that inspire a soul to create, are those intangible unmeasurables. In my attempt to live "on purpose", I need to respect the soul side of my personality. I would like to make of my life "a work of art in progress" and to an artist, the work must have meaning. Because I think the meaning comes from my soul's intentions I need to create a place to live where my soul will flourish. So if thinking about a possible place to live makes me have nightmares, I need to pay attention!
I've been thinking a lot lately in terms of the soft-eyed approach to life. It goes against the grain of the way I was raised and the way the world operates. But it's always there, in the back of my mind, nudging me in one direction or another whenever there's a crossroads moment. I've been meaning to stop by here and say hi and thanks for "following." I hope you're feeling more settled and at home now in your new surroundings.
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