I spoke with someone recently that I had not spoken to in almost 20 years. Other than annual Holiday card exchanges we had lost touch—like you can when life is going mach six.
Our conversation quickly revealed we were in the past, “are you still riding horses I asked?” No, my friend had stopped about 18 years ago and my question jolted her memory, “oh, yea I remember that old horse!” she said. I was asked if I finished school, “you mean earth school?” I laughed. “No,” she said, “You had just started getting your doctorate in psychology.” Ooops. It was such a distant memory.
We quickly settled in to conversation, and I was acutely aware—because the voice in my head was loud and clear about it—we were talking ‘about’ us, as opposed to the Authentic us.
It’s a bad habit, the earth school equivalent of the prisoner of war’s “name rank and serial number”: your marriage status, children, job/position/title, location of home(s).
Ultimately, we must admit we only know how to talk about ‘stuff’ and ‘things’: all of them transitory and none of them having to do with the eternal nature of who we are.
I know my best sustaining friendships come from discussing how I am attempting to bridge the gap created by existence on earth school and Who I really Am.
After the preliminary minutes of ‘chit-chat’ I asked my friend if she remembered when we would spend hours contemplating the nature of life and our place in the Universe. She said, “Oh, God, I misses those days.”
“I do too”, I said. And we laughed. In a matter of seconds we were sharing, from the bottom of our hearts about lessons learned, wisdom gained and grace received.
The Synchronicity of our conversation was a great gift from the Universe. She had ended a long relationship that was not blessing her or her partner. And I was in the middle of choices for my work, which road to follow and who to partner with, if anyone.
I, of course had long written the book on ending relationship that was not a blessing. It is familiar ground for me. And she, being the author of several books, in various formats was very familiar with my choices.
So we reminded each other of Who we really Are. How we show-up, with our compassion and intelligent questions of life, and most of all our willingness to try to Love it all anyway.
We had giggles over our monkey mind and it’s cleverness, we gave each other tips on monkey mind conversation, and gave power to our deepening awareness.
What transpired was the rare gift of Rising Above the noise of earth school living by deep conversation consciously sought. Buoyed by this renewal of our hearts and minds we basked in the Peace and Quiet that came from moving beyond what we do, to the reasons why we do what we do: expressing our Authentic Self
Ah, Peaceful Mind and Quiet Heart. Soul smiles, Spirit Soars, thank you God.
knowing about a person is very different from knowing the person. I learned this in my divorce. So many friends have fallen away. Most it was okay, but a few it really hurt. I wanted support and they didn’t know how to give it past the data information.
Thank you for the great reminder
I know I want deeper friendships. I wonder if this is a bigger problem for guys? But I can see women have the problem too, they hide it better.