Hi everyone, it's Keisunga.
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Hi friends, it's Rosie here.
Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Wednesday.
As y 'all know, I'm an Angelino through and through.
And if you know anything about Los Angeles, or I guess California in general, you know that we need rain.
It's a land of perennial drought.
But recently we've been getting lots.
I dare say, too much.
These things called atmospheric rivers come in and they just trench the city.
And Angelinos are nothing if not melodramatic.
So this has thrown everyone off.
Now on the surface level, this is great right?
The state has needed water so badly.
But it's too much at once.
And most of all, for a long time, our infrastructure couldn't actually capture the water.
We're actively getting what we desperately need.
And we aren't set up to receive it.
It makes me think about how so often in life we get sent things that we desperately need, but don't have the practice or life experience to receive it.
Like love, or kindness, or even compliments.
And while a lot of this happens because of our upbringing, I do think we can build an infrastructure to receive the good stuff.
Because oftentimes it's a lot harder than you think.
When I was in my 20s, I was pretty lonely.
And one night at a concert, I met someone incredible.
They were so cool and good looking and funny.
And sort of beyond what I ever thought I'd find in a relationship.
Basically, he was out of my league, but he liked me back and it worked.
And as you can imagine, I was ecstatic.
Birds were chirping.
I was skipping to work.
Life was good. A key thing here though, is that he was a bit older and had a better idea of what he wanted out of life.
And this was being communicated to me pretty clearly, but I wasn't catching on.
I was truly in love for the first time, and I just didn't have the maturity to navigate a serious relationship.
And eventually, I got dumped.
Which by the way, fair enough, it's what he wanted.
But obviously, I was crushed.
Some much needed rainfall had come my way and I couldn't capture it.
So it pulled. It grew some grass on the hills like it does in LA.
And it dried up. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
It sucked. I was genuinely heartbroken.
But it did prompt some serious analysis or self -reflection.
And the conclusion was, as I said before, I simply wasn't ready for that.
And honestly, that was one of the only things that made me feel better.
Because it was genuinely out of my control.
But once I realized that, then came the work of figuring out what I wanted and how to build that.
So that the next time I met someone amazing, I'd know what I needed and how to deal with all of that love.
How to receive it. How to return it.
And how to communicate it.
And everything else you need for a successful relationship.
And listen, y 'all, I'm good now so don't go trying to play cupid.
I'm in a relationship and it's fantastic.
Would it have happened without getting my heart absolutely blown up when I was younger?
Probably not. Same goes for LA.
The state and city started to realize that we need water and if we're occasionally getting dumped on, we got to figure out a way to capture it.
But then, we got to know what we want to do with it.
But that's not easy.
It takes time, lots of smart people, and genuine effort and thought.
I think the same goes for love.
Take that how you will.
That's it for me today.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share your thoughts with me on Instagram at Rosie Acosta.
Thank you so much for listening.
I'll see you back here really soon.
