“I’ve never seen anything like it. They normally take 4 or 5 days to get back to me and they always want proof of income. With your application I submitted it on Saturday and they approved it by Monday; without any proof of income. It’s very strange” – My leasing agent as she signed my lease

Once upon a time I was stuck in a bad roommate situation. I was in Montreal, Quebec and I’d found a cheap place to live on Craigslist. No sooner had I paid for the place then the whole deal took a turn for the unbearably awkward. I couldn’t have any pinpointed what it was but both me and my roommate were clear, we wanted shut of each other.  I was happy to go and she was happy to refund me my money but now I had an emergency: Where was I going to live, with no notice, on little cash, in Montreal?

So I took to the Internet. I scanned Craigslist reading each post in detail, jotting down a few notes and running off to check places out. It was grueling and a lot of the places were holes in the wall. One place had no windows and a hole in the wall opened into a neighbors unit ‘pay this no mind.’ The man told me in a thick Quebec accent. I was in trouble. Something had to be done.

I went back to my places and breathed. And then I exhaled and I breathed some more. Then I got back on Craigslist. I took a piece of paper and started making notes on the places that I liked. Then I started underlining what those places had in common. Then I just stared at the list. $800 a month was way out of my price range. It had to be utilities included because getting utilities in Canada was simply out of the question. It had to have low or no deposit. It had to be a sublease or “a for rent by owner” because I wasn’t going through international background checks. It had to be close to public trans or at least close to downtown. This narrowed my search and narrowed my search until There were only a few candidates left. I went back to Craigslist armed with my new criteria and tried again. A place popped right up.

It was a 2 month sublet (all I needed was 2 months), it was in the Plateau (the nicest part of Montreal), the renter was going on an amazing vacation and desperately needed someone to help close out his lease. After we shook hands I paid him $250 Canadian (at that time about $174USD) for the entire summer. Me and my next door neighbor Julian made fast friends and the summer was epic; Legendary. I still have that piece of paper with my notes on it.

This may not seem like a spell to you. It required a goal, an effort and lots of focused intent. I did everything that I could think to do on a mundane level to accomplish my goal. Once I was able to refine my desire to something finite and specific then, suddenly and unexpectedly the magic happened. I was at the right place at the right time. Maybe the moral of the moving spell is this: Fortune favors the prepared.

Give Thanks!,
Raja Afrika