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Togetherness is,
so happens naturally.
A first visit, today, into Bath, Maine, I met two kind ladies. One a banker, one a cashier at a grocery store. I will share of the meetings, then provide some comment.
First, the banker. I met her in a side office. I told her of my wish to open an account. After deliberations on what my plans were for staying or not in the vicinity after the winter, my request was declined. She informed me the bank was for long-term, local accounts. She assisted in finding out a local bank that would better meet my needs. She apologized twice, at different times, "I'm sorry I could not help you." Each time I replied she had helped me. I informed her, if I remained living in the area long-term, I would consider returning. The second time she apologized, I shared how she had helped me. The entire sharing was kindful, and I was treated as more than a customer. I could see and sense the sincerity and authenticity of this dear one. I left the bank after our goodbyes, feeling I had been blessed by this meeting, by this other. I do not think she realized how meaningful, how inspiring, the sharing was, more than can be put into words. Holy encounters are like that, as was the following.
The cashier was a young woman, about mid-twenties. In checking out, I noticed two racks of cards I had missed when moving through the store. I needed two birthday cards. I told her I would be coming back through, she informed me where I could place the groceries just purchased and she would watch over them, humorously informing me so they would not walk off. I got two bright, joyful looking cards. When coming back through her aisle, she and I talked of how lovely the cards were. Then, she began enthusiastically telling me of a mandala box she had been days painting. She had painted a box with a mandala and put gifts inside for a friend. She enjoyed much telling of this, her face aglow. I affirmed how wonderful her doing what she did. She wished me well in my stay in the area, as I, before, informed her of my being new to the area and from whence I had arrived less than a week prior. Again, I left after goodbyes, appreciating the meaningfulness, even holiness, of an apparently chance meeting with someone I had not met before, and how I felt treated, as above, as much more than a customer.
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These meetings reminded me of what I write about, one matter being how by living with openness this receptivity is a welcoming spaciousness. The openness, this spaciousness, is not an inert, merely passive matter. The alert receptivity is alive, imbued with Presence. The ego-sense is present only for necessary functioning and from within Presence itself. So, Presence has its own natural perfume, so to speak, and this attracts persons into a Graceful moment. This is all natural, an organic process without agenda to bring anyone into such a sharing; this is simply happening, for the nature of spaciousness is effortless welcome, natural invitation. And I am not saying the other will see the meeting in the same way as you do. Yet, an imprint is left in such meeting, one senses the perfume of Grace. If not at the moment of meeting, maybe later, the sacredness of the sharing may become clear. Still, within the one living in and from this openness, there is no agenda for the other to see into the nature of the meeting at that moment or later. One leaves the encounter with gratitude for the timeless communion shared, with no residual felt need or hope the other did or would someday appreciate what occurred below the surface details. Enough that in that moment a holy meeting happened.
* * *
Why call this a holy meeting? Simply, it is. All meetings occur in Presence, for nothing can live outside Grace. Yet, some moments of sharing arise from Presence directly, or more so. Most persons mean by meeting another an ego-and-ego event. In sharing arising from Presence, in which the "I" is not in the forefront, one knows a nonaffective, subtle quality to the encounter. This quality is arising within Presence prior to body, not within the body, as does egoic affection, emotion. Likewise, this quality is timeless, while self-and-self encounters are touched with and held within time. Grace is timeless.
One could inquire, "What is this quality you speak of?" You will know it directly, not from past ideas of what this is, when this timeless sharing happens. No one can teach this Feeling, this Gracefulness. Again, most persons meet person-to-person, and such meeting with the banker or the cashier would be then, at best, a positive sharing ego-with-ego. Until one lives from Presence, he or she is likely to interpret from the ego what I speak of: such cannot be done, the ego has no capacity to create or to know this Loving.
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And, last, these encounters will happen naturally from living in and from Presence. One will not feel a need, so neediness, for such encounters. They will arise from the openness one is living in, that openness is Truth, God, Presence, Grace, or as you wish to refer to This. In these momentless encounters, we imbibe the joy of pure Love directly emanating from Presence.
*Copyright 2018, Brian Kenneth Wilcox
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