Strangers Risking the Shift

The shift began with a simple and profound conversation I had with a man sitting alone in a hotel chair, poolside. He was cordial as I approached, and sitting near each other, we were soon engaged in small talk. Stimulated, the conversation expanded. He shared with me the loss of  his sister to cancer some years ago. She was thirty three.

"She was my best friend." he mused, looking sadly at the concrete beneath his feet.

 He was in the midst of a reminder, sitting in the warmth of the Arizona sun, that life can be stolen from you in a moment with no notice.

""She got the cancer and six months later she was dead."

In the divine moment of meeting this man, I found myself in a tizzy, displaced with recent travels and medical tribulations. Before I made the decision to be grounded in love and light, I found myself saddened by my circumstances; caught in an aura of discontent..

In providence we were in the same place at the same time pondering life issues that I felt no one else seemed to care about or understand. I choose in this moment to take a risk, and I found a new friend by allowing myself to be in a place of harmony with this fellow traveler. I was free to be myself, as certainly this man knew not my past or my future. Sometimes a person will tell a total stranger things they wouldn't ordinarily expose.

In light of this young mans dilemma, my situation seemed to pale like the last trace of a powerful sunset. He was in the midst of a determination himself, recently out of a long term relationship he deemed toxic.

"I'm approaching fifty." he said.

He had all the trappings a man could want. Boy toys that included a new Harley Davidson motorcycle and a cigar boat.

"But I still have not reached my goal of sailing around the world." I'm caught in a booby trap. I feel valued and irreplaceable as Vice president of my company, and at the same time I'm the fall guy," he smiled sadly.

We bounced ideas off each other, determined to soothe our wounds and teach each other through feedback. I didn't know him; he didn't know me, and yet our spirits were kindred, as so many are once they stop and listen without judgment of what is.

"We only have the moment", I offered, " to decide if we want to feel good or bad. I think this is where we start."

We do get to choose to risk the shift in our thinking. Do I want to feel good? Or do I want to feel bad?

 Ah ha...