Seven Years Later, I Found the Thread

From Madam C.J. Walker to Mary Kay: How a random 7/7 discovery revealed the unbroken lineage behind my business.

I didn't expect a random Tuesday to become a pilgrimage.

This morning I realized that today is 7/7.

Then I acknowledged that 1977 is my birth year.

Curious, I asked myself: what was I doing seven years ago?

So I opened YouTube.

There it was.

Seven years ago, I published an interview with a living descendant of Madam C.J. Walker.

Then I opened Google Photos and looked at the pictures from 2019.

As I started scrolling another pattern emerged.

That year I attended Chalene Johnson's Marketing Impact Academy (MIA) Live event. I sobbed when I saw Bo Eason on stage!

I followed Marie Forleo's Everything Is Figureoutable book tour, flying to multiple cities across the United States!

I attended another event, which was held on April 5, 2019, at the Eileen Fisher Learning Lab in Irvington, New York, hosted Gloria Steinem! I remember thinking how incredible it was that the studio was just down the road from Villa Lewaro, the extraordinary estate built by Madam C.J. Walker.

At the time, I thought I was simply visiting interesting places, listening and taking notes as I watched entrepreneurs do what I didn’t have the courage to say I wanted to do.

Now I realize I was following breadcrumbs.

Not to one woman.

To a lineage.

Women who built companies. Women who built movements. Women who built on their own terms.

Back then I didn't have The Quantum Mermaid. I wasn't creating music with ai. I wasn't designing products. Back then my boys were little. Evidence that even back then my resilience was speaking to me.

The thread was already there!

I've spent the last seven years thinking I was changing directions.

Maybe I wasn't.

Maybe I was spiraling deeper into the same calling.

Today, another sentence arrived that stopped me in my tracks:

Documenting and teaching how unconventional women create wealth through authentic expression.

I immediately changed my Substack bio. Because for the first time, it didn't feel like a marketing statement. It felt like recognition.

Suddenly, everything connected.

Madam C.J. Walker. Gloria Steinem. Brownie Wise. Carmen Miranda. Mary Kay Ash.

And now, this weekend, I'm flying to Texas.

I'm attending a magical workshop given by my magical friend, Faye Lane, on Saturday.

I extended my trip till Monday the 13th, in order to be able to walk through Mary Kay Ash's museum! Thirteen became Mary Kay Ash’s favorite number. Not only was it the day she started her Beauty By Mary Kay Business, her office is also on the 13th floor! When I realized the date I took it as an invitation to visit.

Now it feels like something else.

Not destiny.

Not coincidence.

A pattern that has been quietly revealing itself over seven years.

Looking backward has given me a kind of confidence I wasn't expecting.

Sometimes we think we're lost because we're looking for a straight line. But lives rarely unfold that way.

Sometimes they spiral. Returning to the same themes, the same questions, the same fascinations and each time with a little more wisdom, a little more courage, and a little more capacity to carry them.

Maybe that's what growth looks like.

Not becoming someone else.

But finally recognizing the person you've been becoming all along.

Right now, the universe is handing us the ultimate rearview mirror as a major seven-year astrological cycle comes to an end. It is inviting us to look back to 2019—not to dwell, but to witness the pattern of our own liberation. Because completion creates safety, acknowledging how far you've come locks your growth into place.

Over to You...

Have you ever looked back through old journals, photos, or projects and realized you've been following the same thread for years without knowing it?

I'd love to hear about the pattern you discovered in the comments below.

Best Wishes ✨✨✨

Alexa Fernandes | The Quantum Mermaid 🦋