It was on Christmas Day when I spent the evening wishing harder for the universe that I could speak better English. I probably overdid it with my wishing, feeling, seeing and believing that I would speak better English. In any case, I had several great opportunities to do so the next day.

In the morning I met my favorite Swedish neighbor, who had a friendly chat with me in English. Then I took my little dog for a walk through the forest and met the German Shepherd Dog Man, a Swedish man with a German shepherd dog, with whom I had another chat in English. Afterwards, I did some work and thought about the beautiful weather. It was so lovely, we'd better go for another walk before it rained again.

So my little dog and I went on the big forest-lake loop, which you could either walk backwards through the forest and along the lake or the other way round and covered several kilometers. Because of the muddy ground, I decided to take the forest path first and walk backwards along the lake.

That's what I wanted to do anyway, but when I got to the end of the outward path and was about to go down to the lake to walk back to the house, two people came towards me. The woman waved her hands and said something in Swedish, he joined in. They both pointed at her shoes and mine. As we approached, I asked: “English or German?” And they both said “English” almost simultaneously and smiled at me in a friendly manner. They explained to me in English that I shouldn't go down there to avoid getting my shoes dirty, as it was very muddy. I thought, why shouldn't I go down there, shoes can be cleaned again. But I soon realized how well they spoke English, better than anyone I had ever met in Sweden. Their expressions were so confident and clear that I understood them perfectly. I immediately thought of my wishes and the nudges that the universe sends out and offered to walk with them back to the village, the upper path.

We immediately hit it off and I told them about my desire to learn English better. They slowed down their pace and talked to me about God and the world as if it were a matter of course. It took us 1.5 hours to cover a distance that would normally take 30 minutes. They talked so much about themselves, their German friends, who sometimes came to visit and they spoke English, about their parties together and about the current situation in Sweden, about their jobs, in other words all sorts of things, that I was really happy about how much they challenged me.

When we said goodbye, there was a photo and a warm hug. I was so shaken up that I first had to digest what had just happened. What a wonderful experience!

Sleep was out of the question that evening. I was still thinking about what they had said that night. Had I really understood everything correctly? Was I able to express myself properly? I went through the whole conversation again and again, my body was literally shaking from all the information in English, my head was spinning. I was so happy to have received so much input.