Last month, during my time in the Bay Area, I had one day to spend wandering in the city.  After I wandered the mission taking photos of the most beautiful murals (you can check out that post here) I headed to Chinatown.

You see, when I was staying here a few years ago, I found the most beautiful pink shoes.

Ones that captured the spirit of my time here, that reminded me of the inner pages of a Sabrina Ward Harrison Book.

The ones that would keep me smiling back in the Pacific Northwest rain or shine, the ones that would remind me of the tightly closed bud that turned into a bloom during my time there.  I found them and bought two pairs to assure me that I would be able to remember all those things.

I wore them everywhere.  These slipper like shoes soon were too dirty and too worn out to wear anymore.  Well loved.

Last year when I came to town I was on a mission to find a new pair.  My lovely friend Valerie joined me on my search for a new pair of my beloved pink flats.  It happened to be Chinese New Year the day we went searching and the streets were packed.  My search was fruitless.  I had also lost the business card (or rather it was in a wallet that was stolen).  I had no street names etched in my mind, only a memory of it being on the left side of a street going uphill (which could be any street in that area).

I hadn’t intended to try again this trip, but something led me there again.  Before I knew it, I was back on a mission to find those pink shoes again.

Half an hour of walking up and down the streets, peeking in every store that remotely looked like it. Wasn’t this day supposed to be fun?

So I let go of that plan, let go of trying to find them just as Chinatown turned into North Beach and the streets changed direction.  I kept walking and within a few blocks nothing was familiar any more.  The change of the street direction had me with no clue where I was and which direction I should be heading in.

Rather than feeling fearful or lost, I found myself feeling free.

Sometimes we simply need to get lost to get out of our head.

To get reatuned to the feeling of intuition, of wonder, of not being in charge but to following what we know in our hearts.

So I kept walking, with a smile on my face.  Knowing I would find my way back even if I had to wander a bit more.

I soon came across something familiar but that I had forgotten about.  Another GORGEOUS alley of murals.  I paused and put down my camera and stepped in front of it.

Feeling free from my search for something from the past and present in that which is part of the discovery of this moment.

The time came to head back to meet up with Valerie, I wandered back, content with the beauty of the city that I came across and feeling free from my obsessive search for the same pair of shoes 3 years later.

Then, mere blocks away I walked past a store I had never noticed before, on a street in a different direction than the one I was looking for and there they were.

The shoes.

Not the exact pink ones, but a radiant red pair.

A new variation.

I didn’t need to replace the past.  I needed to look in a new direction for the future.

A new variation a woman in bloom and still blooming.