“I heard them talking about it on the radio and he shared his phone number at the end of the interview, so … I called it!” Liz at Studio Bliss Photography and I have been friends since we met as college freshman, the year of our Lord 2000. We managed to start having weekly meetups at the bar inside the nearest grocery store since our children attended our parish school of religion at the same time. I was facing my 40th birthday and as much as I hated to admit it, the stereotypical midlife review and exsistential questioning was affecting me in a stereotypical way. Maybe that was “motivating” Liz too, but recently she had been sharing all the inner work, reflection, and goal setting she had been doing. It was pretty contagious as she shared about those resolutions. “Want to come look at it with me?” She was talking about the recently sold Benedictine University properties. She was looking to grow her business and knew that I’d been playing with the idea of starting a private counseling practice after I passed my National Clinical Mental Health Counselor Exam the previous summer.
We met up and were given the tours. First the old academy building. It was pretty special what the Ursuline Sisters had started here so long ago. The chapel and music conservatory gave me visions similar to the scenes from Titanic. The present day ruin faded away in my imagination to the setting of how it was in its glory. It was like I could hear the prayers in the chapel; I could hear the practice rooms with various instrumentalists. Sadly, this building had a lot of work ahead of it and was not ready for office rentals. Next we were escorted over to the Brinkerhoff Home.
Wow. This could actually work. I thought, “how special,” to possibly be a part of this property’s future. We parted and sat tight for the owner to decide his room rental prices. It turned out we were so proactive he wasn’t quite just ready. But as we waited and talked about our potential needs for use of the space it became apparant we could share, and that would be the prudent choice for where I was in this venture (the very beginning). Liz asked, “are you sure you’re alright with that?” since it was understood her work would need to be displayed and spread out. “Heck yeah, can you imagine what a great counseling environment that room would be? Surrounded by gorgeous pictures reflecting LIFE and energy? I don’t want a boring counselor’s office with gray walls, couch, coffee table, and kleenexes as the focal point! Let’s do it!” 
The lease was co-signed and the celebratory wine was drunk. Cheers to trusted friendships, dreams, the work accomplished by those in our past, the work to be completed by us, and may all our future clients be blessed by the complementary services, experiences, we want so purely to offer.