The Jamaican Palm Reader

A few years ago I was in Jamaica on a company incentive reward trip.  After a few Red Stripes, I decided to visit a palm reader named Jana.  I’d seen a palm reader once about a decade prior, and later realized I had been far too open with her, volunteering small bits of info that she picked up on and used.  So I was determined to be as close-lipped as possible, only answering her questions with brevity.

When I first sat down Jana simply took my hand and immediately said, “You a little bit stubborn!”  I laughed, because anyone who knows me knows this to be true.  She asked for my date of birth, the time of day I was born, and my first name.  She told me some amazing things – that I was divorced and had 2 children, for instance.  She touched on some other things that very few people know about me.  She had my attention.

At one point she said, “You a little bit flirt.”  I said, “Maybe, but I’m a harmless flirt.  I’m fiercely loyal.”  She said, “It’s okay.  You not with the right man.  He cannot handle your independence and strength.  You keep flirting.”  She had nailed it.  I was already contemplating ending the relationship I was in, and knew that once I returned to The States, the end would be coming soon.  It was one of the best choices I’ve ever made in my life.

The last thing she told me was that 2011 would be a “big” year for me.  Something life-changing would happen: a marriage, a baby, a move, or a new job.  Since none of the other options seemed likely, I wondered most often about the possibility of marriage.  I found myself in a serious relationship in 2009 and my friends joked that the Jamaican palm reader had missed it by a year or so.  That relationship ended.  Then in December 2010, the man I was dating proposed to me.  We set a date for June 25, 2011.  The Jamaican palm reader had nailed it again.

Tomorrow is November 25, 2011, but it’s not going to be my 5 month wedding anniversary.  We did not marry, and we are no longer together.  It really hasn’t been a good year.  I don’t know that I believe in the power or abilities of palm readers and psychics.  I do find it fascinating and intriguing though.  A few months ago, I did start a new job.  It’s part-time, and in addition to my full-time job, so I didn’t change jobs.  But it is something “big” I did to take control of some things beyond my control that had impacted my finances.  I’m stubborn like that.  I won’t give up, even when the odds are stacked against me and life has dealt me a losing hand.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go flirt.