Fear is the cheapest room in the house

I would like to see you living

In better conditions,

For your mother and my mother

Were friends.

I know the Innkeeper

In this part of the universe.

Get some rest tonight

Come to my verse again tomorrow.

We’ll go speak to the Friend together.

I should not make any promises right now,

But I know if you pray

Somewhere in this world-

Something good will happen.

God wants us to see

More love and playfulness in your eyes

For that is your greatest witness to Him.

Your soul and my soul

Once sat together in the Beloved’s womb

Playing footsie. Your heart and my heart

Are very, very old friends.

– Hafez (Poem’s Title is ”Your Mother and My Mother”)

As I read this poem, I was touched by its intimacy and the ways in which it honors soul connection. I am ever so blessed to have many ‘anam cara’ (Gaelic for soul friend) and ‘water brothers’ (if you are not familiar with that term, read Robert Heinlein’s classic novel, Stranger in A Strange Land) among the overlapping soul circles that so enrapture me. Both of them speak to the sense of at-home-ness with the people I draw into my life. I marvel periodically that those for whom I feel a loving connection were once-upon-a-time, not even on my radar; didn’t even know they existed until…ta-da!  One day they just arrived on the doorstep of my heart, ringing the bell, asking to be invited in. With them, there was a recognition….”Oh, there you are, old/eternally ageless friend. Welcome back. Don’t stay away so long next time.” and we sit and sip tea and eat chocolate and share memories from eons and lifetimes ago. (metaphorically speaking sometimes and literally at others).

This past weekend brought together a bunch of folks who shared deeply personal and powerful experiences. My heart and theirs’ feel linked in ways I can’t even explain at the moment. As I gaze backward at the timeline of my life, I could probably count thousands who fit into that category. I feel sorry when I hear that people are lonely, believing that they have no one who loves them and no one to love. I am an abundantly wealthy woman with a treasure trove of friends. One thing that was really cool about this weekend was that so many of the folks there knew others who are dear to me and the thread that makes up the tapestry of my life becomes longer, sturdier and more elegant as a result. Sometimes when people have a transcendent experience at a retreat, they ‘come down’ from the high, especially when it was as body-mind-spirit nurturing as this one was. There was a time when my worlds were so separate that those to whom I returned in my ‘outside’ life wouldn’t have understood my experiences and would have looked at me like I was from another planet. (psssst…..I really am, by the way:) These days, I make sure that my worlds are blended, so that my descriptions of what transpired don’t seem weird to them. I have noticed today, that even though there is a bit of a pang for being outside that comfy nest we created, it is portable. I found myself extending it to my work place, to the roads on which I travelled to and from my job and also to the 7-11 I entered to buy a lottery ticket tonight. I had mentioned that my sister told me that my father passed a message from the beyond to tell me “Edie should buy a lottery ticket tonight.” Ok, I’m game for a win! The woman at the counter next to me mentioned that both her parents had also passed, but just like me, truly sense that they are together too. I told her my Mom Miracle stories that are contained in my Bliss Mistress book. She smiled and then told me a story about asking for an indication that her parents were doing well. A short while later, she saw two vines interwoven with beautiful flowers on them. Keep in mind that these flowers were not there the last time she had looked. A sure sign.  We hugged goodbye with a wistful tear reflected in both of our eyes, these two ‘strangers’ brought together by chance.

Imagine what it be like if all of my friends and all of your friends and all of their friends got together for the most amazing reunion conceivable….what a love fest THAT would be.

Wishing you hearts touched by such magnificence.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGbnua2kSa8 That’s What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick