Love and Rheum rhaponticum

"Though we can't always see it at the time, if we look upon events with some perspective, we see things always happen for our best interests. We are always being guided in a way better than we know ourselves." -Swami Satchidananda

There's something astir. I feel it and can't figure out if it should scare me or relax me in a crazy mix of tumultuous waves and cumulative emotions. That feeling...

Love is giving when you have nothing to give. On my dresser mirror, tucked into the lower left corner, are several $2 bills. The bills have a special meaning to me. Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. Not that we knew it, because we never missed meals or went without necessities, but there were not many restaurant outings or extended vacations. I don't know when it started, but on birthdays, I would receive a card from my grandmother with a $2 bill stuck inside. It wasn't much, but because I didn't expect anything and I knew she didn't have much, it might as well have been $200 tucked inside those cards. I knew she did it out of love. She carried this over to my kids as well. I don't know what happened to most of those bills; I'm sure most of them were spent in a pinch, but those displayed on my mirror aren't going anywhere. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that she had lots of $2 bills set aside for grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In the selfless act of giving when there was nothing really to give, she showed love, and that was as biggest gift she could ever give.

Synchronicity is having things come into your life when you need them most. We were camping on the banks of the Little Pigeon River, surrounded by like-minded people enjoying a like-minded weekend. There were people I knew and loved there, and people I didn't know too. People would flit from campsite to campsite, so the chance of making new friends was only a gifted beer away. One of the unknown folks pointed at the lights reflected on the water.

"Ripple in still water, when there is no pebble tossed, nor wind to blow."

He said this as if all should know what he was talking about. I had no clue what he was referring to. In fact, one of my friends was irritated by this unknown dude and wrote him off, perhaps a bit rudely. I wasn't irritated, but I was clueless. I had skipped Grateful Dead and was deep into Phish at the time. I didn't know it was The Dead, I just knew that it was a quote, but didn't know that it would mean something to me years later. It was a low time of my life and, in the weird way that fate works, the same friend who was irritated by that dude that night told me to listen to this song. I listened, and the words jumped out at me. They jumped out and spoke, no...screamed and whispered at the same time.

We all do the same thing. We all take what is going on in our lives and apply something we see as relevant to what situation we may be in at the time. I took this song and applied what I felt it was saying to my then-current situation. There were words pointing to a higher power than myself, and yet pointing to myself at the same time. Anything can be taken the same way. Anything. A chance meeting of someone so freaking incredible that surely it couldn't be mere coincidence, right? Things that keep occurring that sync with each other so that to ignore or dismiss them as something other than signs from the Universe would be folly and total ignorance of what you know and feel to be truth. Anything.

Love is helping others without expecting anything in return. I can't count how many times I've given people bottles of water; those people standing on the side of the road needing help, holding up signs with whatever story they have to tell. I don't care if they're professional beggars making more money than I make working an honest job. They're human with human needs and if I'm not going to give them money, and I most likely won't, I will fill a need at the most basic level. And role reversal: I've been on the needing side and have had friends and family come to my aid with help bigger than a 16.9 oz. bottle of water.

Synchronicity is a word of encouragement just when you need it most. Last week, I got an email from a guy who, as a kid, lived next door to me. He said I had to be the "coolest person on my friends list...and I don't even know you...I think you have some awesome ways of looking at life and you are hilarious with your posts and replies...I just thought you should know...and maybe you needed to hear that...your posts really brighten my day." That in itself is a boost to the ego; a real confidence asseveration; a head sweller. But there's more. This writing has taken longer than usual. Time and thoughts just haven't been jiving in a productive manner, so, I was writing on this when I got the email. I was in a place where I was thinking that nobody listened or paid attention to not just what I had to say, but what other entities or forces were trying to subtly or bluntly tell them. I let him know that he partially proved me wrong. The synchronicity of receiving his email when I needed it went along with these words flowing from me; it proved what I already believed as truth, and his attentiveness to what I had to say proved that people do pay attention and listen.

Hot Tub Time Machine. Just the title alone is a clue to the Oscar-worthy performances of the cast. I sort of kid you/kid you not. A group of friends go back to 1986 in a malfunctioning hot tub and have to relive the night they had at a ski resort, the same ski resort they traveled from in 2010. The movie is asinine, crude, juvenile, almost pointless, but I love it. And it is full of some good ideas and memorable quotes. One of my favorite quotes in the entire movie is not a funny one or words of brilliance, but it gives me a good, good feeling every time I hear it. Adam, played by John Cusack, meets April, played by the lovely Lizzy Caplan. She is a music journalist, and is there for the Poison concert at the resort. Of course, they are interested in each other, and spend the night together, but April has to move on to the next venue, while Adam had to stay and replay that evening in order to get back to the future. As she's getting on the media bus, she asks Adam to come with her and he just can't. They give each other a hug and she whispers in his ear my favorite line in the whole movie: "Maybe the Universe will bring us together again..." I absolutely love it.

Timing and synchronicity. If you've seen the movie, you know how they mesh together and how things end up. But it's a movie, and in a movie, things usually work out for the best, but not always, because screenwriting's that way. In life, it can be the same, but usually not. It's a crazy production, where the screenwriting is done on the fly in the first-person perspective, and the directing is done by life itself. Sometimes the Universe throws beautiful people into your life, people meant to be there, and there's a connection that is honest and true, people who give you the feeling as if you've known each other for years. I don't know why we're brought together; maybe as lovers, maybe as lifelong friends, maybe for someone who is THERE for the rest of your lives. When it happens, you wonder why you hadn't met them earlier. Someone who, if the Universe would allow, you'd jump into a wacked-out hot tub and go back to meet them earlier so you can love them longer.

Love is knowing what love is. I had someone exclaim that they always fall in love with the wrong person. I had to tell them that I didn't believe that for one damn minute. You never fall in love with the wrong person. You fall in love with the right person for that time, for that purpose, for that lesson. You don't choose who to fall in love with. You do choose who you allow into your life enough to love them; the falling is not up to you. You may think you have control over this greatest gift the Universe has to offer, but it isn't up to you. And if the falling doesn't last, then that season is past. The sooner we realize that, well...the better our life of love will be.

I pulled into the parking lot at work and there she was; sleek, sexy, and a rare jewel. She was sitting right in front of my boss' truck, and man, was she beautiful. I'd never seen anything like her. I didn't even know a Mazda 6 Station Wagon existed. I was bound to find out who owned her, but there were many people there and I didn't have time for a stakeout. I had a feeling that I'd find out anyway. In my course of work, I had to replace some fluorescent bulbs in the stairwell, and the stairwell had a perfect view of that beauty. Perfect. As I put the last bulb in on the 2nd floor landing, I glanced out the window and saw the shadow of someone I couldn't see yet, but I could see that it was headed in the right direction. I was down the stairs and out the door in seconds. I waved the guy down.

"Is that your wagon? "
"Yes. And before you go any further, just the fact you're asking about my car says you're a good person."

I guess we each have our own criteria for what a good person is. My criterion is patience, kindness, empathy, a good heart full of love, and a visible soul where all good qualities can't help but be exposed. His was an affinity to station wagons. Go figure. During the conversation, I found out it was a 2006 model with 206,000 miles, and only about 6,000 were imported to America. I also discovered that this guy and I had the love of station wagons and Volkswagens in common. I also learned that he had only been at the church for an hour in a meeting with the head pastor. It took me about an hour to start at the 10th floor and go through both stairwells replacing blown out bulbs and end up between the 1st and 2nd floors with a perfect view of my desire.

Synchronicity. Fate. Karma. Destiny. Blessing. Miracle. Whatever word you use, it all is really the same. They all work the same, together with you and all those you love. It really does have your best interest in mind.

And just like love, I love that.