@T: ALWAYS THE TWAIN

I’m currently making arrangements to catch-up with someone I haven’t seen or thought about much in many many years. She’s the person for whom I wrote the poem, When, and was Master of Ceremonies for at her wedding ceremony. The poem was my insight on how people from completely different worlds can collide, discover that what they share in common matters more than differences, fall in love and have hope for their family’s futures.

A lot has changed between us since then…………….

===============================================================

WHEN (© Twain, 08/2000)

When we first met you were a stranger,

A danger,

A possibility unknown,

Alien to my senses,

A million miles from home.

—

When our eyes first met,

A thought revolution,

A friend or foe,

A million questions manifold,

An open invitation to explore.

—

When we first spoke,

A free fluent tongue,

A question, an answer flowing to and fro,

A whisper of insignificant differences,

A stepping stone to new sensations.

—

When we first laughed,

An infectious explosion,

An expansion of warm friendship,

A bridge between life’s wonders,

A reminder of shared similarities.

—

When we first fell in love,

A moment continuous eternal,

A collection of experiences and conversations,

A promise of sharing life,

A synchronicity of separate souls.

—

When we first imagine,

A marriage everlasting,

A happy future for our family,

A circle of contentment unconditional,

A memory of today.

ADDENDUM

When we are no longer as One,
Away,
Apart,
Afar,
Alone will — forever — be a stranger.

Feel free towards the forces of love,
That shine through and show the way once more.

===============================================================

I added the addendum because recently I had a dream. In the dream, her husband appeared to me for the second time in a year.

Readers should be aware of — but not spooked out by — the fact that her husband passed away several years ago. The circumstances I don’t know and I didn’t ask; if she wants to tell me when we meet she can. Although at some period in our histories we were close, by the time he passed away, we were no longer in touch and I discovered purely by accident that she’d been widowed; the photographer at their wedding told me.

They were a well-suited, intelligent and glamorous couple: both doctors, both from “good families”, both professionally driven. Now, she’s a widow at a young age — too young.

Naturally, I sent my condolences but I have to be honest and say I had no particular desire to see her again and to be reminded of memories which were upsetting for me. The last time I saw them both I demanded to be let out of their car at a busy roundabout because I didn’t want to listen to them any more and I walked to the nearest metro in the pouring rain.

Her husband had spent some time trying to get me to leave my job in the big bank to do something for them. I refused, sense prevailed and we broke off contact.

Anyway, her husband has appeared in my dreams in what I interpret as seeking my forgiveness and my help to enable his wife to overcome her grief and to move forward in Life. He knows well that I have the ability to transform situations and people, to make things good and whole again — not in some supernatural / religious / mumbo jumbo way but simply with my humanity, my humor and my smart sense.

The reason they asked me to be Master of Ceremonies was because as he said, “You’re the only person we trust to make sure everything runs smoothly on the day, to give everyone a great time and be the person who ensures war doesn’t break out amongst our families and friends.” In fact, her parents and most of her other friends disapproved of their union and I was the only one who was steadfastly there for them throughout their courtship.

As it turned out, their wedding day was simply………..BRILLIANT and beautiful and a triumph of love. My MC-ing and coordinating of the guests, the caterers, the band, the photographers, etc. went well. Luckily, the sun also contributed a lot to the success of the day.

I am “different” and I’ve always had some awareness of this. My friend herself has commented on my uniqueness and how special I am — like others whose life paths have crossed mine. My brother says that I’m the “driver of our family”; that is, when I’m at the driving wheel of anything, we all journey and get to the right destinations on time. When I’m not, things don’t get done with the same effect. My dearest friend GC noted that it took me 8 hours to produce a strategy for Project ART which would have taken him 8 years to (and he’s got 50+ years of professional experience, lol).

None of this means that my ego shoots off for Pluto. Instead, I’m conscious of my responsibilities, my relative position in our colony of billions of ants, bees, ladybirds, locusts, spiders and butterflies, my Life’s purpose and what really matters.

So I will see her to be that connection, that conduit, that channel from loss to love again.

What recent events reminded me of is that our lives and we are constantly evolving and moving forward, but sometimes we need to reach a hand out to the past too. That hand that may help someone get back up onto their feet and be ready to walk the path(s) of their own Life and discover its wonders once more.

For them to become conscious and to love instead of going through Life as sheep, robots or sleepwalkers. To actually…………LIVE and not simply exist.

Viva la consciousness.