*Martin Buber. I and Thou. Trans. Walter Kaufmann.
* * *
She, some 20 to 25 years my senior and whom I had never met before, we met in the aisle at the grocery store. She looked familiar, I do not know why. Possibly, a recognition not of the body. I consider it weird how people think we were not before and just showed up here. Like, "Hello, who are you?" "Oh, I'm something called An-Egg-and-a-Sperm. Kinda weird I know, but too complicated to go into just now." Anyway, she and I had a good conversation. I initiated it, for some reason ~ who knows?
Somehow, the conversation turned to aging and death. She told me how she is weary, thinks about death as a way to move on out of her exhausted body. She remarked, "You know, when you get this way, it's like, 'What is there to live for?'." We spoke of the journey continuing after the body drops, but we did not share any details on that, only affirming that death is not an end and is as natural as birth.
I shared I worked with hospice. I related how so many persons I saw had a more meaningful life when their body was not able to support the busy life they had prior. I moved my hands back and forth, to indicate how people run around hurriedly here and there all the time. I talked of how persons I worked with were usually ready to die before the time came and of how many get enthused about it, that the families are the ones that are not enthused about it. She listened intently to me, I to her. She began smiling. Wonderful.
We said our goodbyes, she saying with that lovely smile, "Thank you, so much, you've encouraged me." I smiled and wished her a blessed day. She, too, had encouraged me.
See, you never know where you may have a meaningful encounter with yourself, a you you have no memory of meeting before.
* * *
When we awaken from the I-am-a-person(ality) delusion, the falsehood that I am essentially the decorations, the attributes life wears, we see we meet ourselves everywhere. This, then, opens to being more at-home in this world, more naturally compassionate.
* * *
Ego is always alone, even when among others; I - which is we - is never alone. We discover we never meet a stranger. Communion is always already. When prepared, we experience it spontaneously.
knock knock who's there? you are how's that possible? good question
*Brian K. Wilcox, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
