My life has been so very blessed by having several people in it that I call my best friends. One of them died a year and a half ago. This article is to let them know that I love them and feel very blessed to have them in my life. Thanks to all of you. All of my gratitude articles have been inspired by Damian Carr whose blog you will find at http://soulterminal.com/ . Check out his site. It is called Be The Change. Damian very much lives and writes from that standpoint.
Carol died a little after midnight in the early morning hours of December 1, 2005. I miss her still. Some days I feel her presence close by. Some days, I still want her physical presence to talk to, to cry with, to be angry with. Sometimes, I hear her voice in my head or I hear her talking to me through a song on the radio or TV. She loved music. She had a beautiful singing voice. She believed that her angels spoke to her through the words of songs. The week after she died of a heart attack, I heard her talking to me so clearly through the words of a song in a TV commercial. I knew it was Carol. I had to laugh out loud because it was so surprising and so clear of a message that I couldn't be mistaken. The message was from her. One of her favorite song was You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings. It is one of my favorites too. Carol was my best friend and spiritual mentor and teacher. I love you, Carol.
Pamela and I met Carol at the same time when we attended a class on spirituality that she was teaching at Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. Pamela had attended a Unity church in Tucson, Arizona before moving to Hot Springs. This was my first experience of a New Thought church. Pamela and I took several more of Carol's classes before we started attending church on Sundays. Carol taught me about Unity teachings, about angels and about myself. Carol had regular conversations with her angels. She did an angel reading and told me that I had 8 of them helping me at that time. Several years later, she told me that I had just gotten a whole other crew of 8 new angels to help guide me on my path. I would imagine that I could wear out more than one team with my spiritual growth spurts. Carol has been one of my favorite teachers. Through Spirit, she still teaches me today.
Pamela and I have been best friends almost from the first day we met over 10 years ago. She is the friend that told me that we were twins in a past life. I was just beginning to explore the possibility of re-incarnation when I met Pamela. Pamela and I went for a psychic reading once and we were told that we were triplets with another person in one lifetime. I shocked Pamela when I told her that we were con-joined twins in a past life. During a meditation, Pamela and I were sitting side by side. I suddenly felt our energy entwining on my left side. I suddenly saw a vision of us as con-joined twins. I can't tell you when we lived. I know that we were literally joined at the hip and that the family that we were born into loved and cared for us until we died sometime in our teens. I can't tell you how I know this. I just do. I sometimes get images and sometimes just a knowing about things. With this lifetime information, I got both. Pamela and I have had many lifetimes together. All I know for certain is that I have never felt an instant connection to another person like I did with Pamela when we first met.
Pamela used to get so angry with the people at our small church because, for the first few years, we were often called Pam and Pam. I used to laugh. Pamela would get angry and tell them we were Pam and Pat. Pamela left Hot Springs for 2 years and moved to New Mexico. It was a time of learning for both of us. Pamela needed to leave Hot Springs to realize that it truly had become her home. For me, it was a time of connecting with who I was without Pamela around. People began to call me Pat instead of Pam. Then when Pamela moved back to Hot Springs, we became Pat and Pat. Again, I had to laugh. People still seem to have trouble telling us apart. We really don't look that much alike. I think people have this problem because of our connection to each other. People just seem to feel that twin energy.
Until recently, we were such close friends that we did everything together. That has begun to change in the past year. Pamela seems to be gathering her energy close to herself as I am going through another growing spurt with my spirituality. When I am growing, I am sometimes difficult to keep up with. It is nobody's fault. It is simply a trait that I recognize in myself. I am like a sponge absorbing every bit of knowledge that comes my way until I am so full. Then I become a hermit and begin the processing stage where I turn inward to decide what to do with the information that I have absorbed. What fits becomes a part of my belief system. What doesn't fit gets discarded. To some, during this stage, I seem to not be growing. The reality is that this is the most important stage of my development. I am quiet until the next growing spurt starts. Then the race through life starts all over again.
Where this growing spurt will take me, only the Universe knows. I don't. At this time, I just have to go with the flow of the Universe.
Sherryl is also my best friend. She and I have grown together spiritually for over 10 years. We have been to India together twice and we are going again sometime this year. Sherryl was with me when we were both told to look inward for our spiritual teacher. She is a massage therapist and one of the most talented healers that I have been priviledged to know. I hope that if I tell her that often enough that she will begin to see herself as I see her. I have a lot to learn from Sherryl. She is my Reiki teacher. Sherryl is the friend that I travel the world with. Our first India trip in 1998 was the first time that I had ever been on an airplane. Our flight from Little Rock, Arkansas to Bangalore, India was 22 hours long. My husband told me that I could change my mind anytime before I got on the airplane in New York. Sherryl is a good traveling buddy. On the other hand, the suitcase that she took to India with us on that first trip was not. Sherryl's suitcase got lost. We shared what we could of my clothes and toiletries until Sherryl got her suitcase the fourth day that we were in Bangalore. Our next trip to India in 1999, that suitcase stayed at home. Our trips to India will be a future article. The friendship between Sherryl and I grew very strong in India. It has continued to grow stronger over the years since that last trip.
I love you, Carol, Pamela and Sherryl. You have all 3 blessed my life with your knowledge and your love.
I have 2 more friends to tell you about before I close this article. Both of them are people that I also consider my best friends. I told you that I have been very blessed when it comes to my friends. Both of these friends, Mary and Chris, come and go in my life. When we touch base with each other, sometimes after long absenses, it is as if we have never been apart. Our paths wind and circle and come back together for awhile before they separate again for a period of time.
Mary and I have known each other since around 1990 or 1991. We met through our mutual friend Kathy. We became best friends through our grieving together when Kathy was murdered in 1992. We were all living in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the time that we met. When Kathy was murdered, her family and friends had a memorial service for Kathy here in Hot Springs. When the family took Kathy's body back to Minneapolis, Minnesota to be buried, Mary and I asked if we could go with the family. Mary and I were roommates during this whole experience. We gave support to the family members and each other during that week of travel and mourning. By the time that we returned to Hot Springs after the funeral, Mary and I were best friends. Several years later, Mary and I both found God and religion again. Mary found Him before I did. I almost followed her but something about her church just didn't fit me. I know and like some of the people that Mary goes to church with. I will forever be thankful to Mary's church for giving her the peace and direction and love that she has found with them. They are good to Mary. They suit her need for God.
Soon after, I met Pamela and she and I started attending Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. I found my church home and a relationship with the God of my understanding. I found a home just as Mary did with her Baptist church. Both of us have grown in our relationship with God. Mary and I will go for months without talking. When one of us reaches out to the other, it is like we haven't spent any time apart. We both still love each other. We just individually tend to get caught up in our lives with our families and churches. We occasionally get together for lunch to catch up on each others lives.
Chris is my last friend that I want to add to this list. He is my only close male friend. Chris and I are buddies on a soul level. He and I have had many past lives together in which we were soldiers togethers. We have a deep friendship. When I first met Chris, I started dreaming that I was fighting in battles each night, sometimes as many as 3 different dreams in one night. I never remembered details. I would wake up tired and know that I had spent the night fighting for my life. I didn't tell any body about my dreams until another friend and teacher told Chris and I both that we were soldiers together in many past lives. It made perfect sense to both of us and explained our connection. Chris has since told me that he felt that in my dreams, we were both fighting to save his life in this lifetime. When I first met him, he was just beginning to come out of post-traumatic stress syndrone from being in Vietnam years before. All I know for sure is that those dreams went on for month after month before they finally stopped and I could sleep peacefully through the night again.
Chris and I will go for months without seeing each other. When we do, it is like we are traveling parallel paths, each doing the same spiritual practices with slight differences. Recently, when we reconnected, we found out that we are both writing. Chris is writing a book on helping young soldiers returning from war to recover from post-traumatic stress syndrone. Since he is experienced with it himself, he understands where these young soldiers are. Chris is excited that I am writing articles for this blog.
Don't let anybody tell you that a man and woman cannot have a platonic friendship without sex involved. They don't know what they are talking about or they are just jealous.
My friendship with Chris, like my friendships with Carol, Pamela, Sherryl and Mary have all enriched my life so very much. I could not ask for a better support group than I have with these friends. They know who I really am and love me any way, just as I love them. Thanks, guys or should I say, Thanks, ya'll, since we are in the deep South.
Carol died a little after midnight in the early morning hours of December 1, 2005. I miss her still. Some days I feel her presence close by. Some days, I still want her physical presence to talk to, to cry with, to be angry with. Sometimes, I hear her voice in my head or I hear her talking to me through a song on the radio or TV. She loved music. She had a beautiful singing voice. She believed that her angels spoke to her through the words of songs. The week after she died of a heart attack, I heard her talking to me so clearly through the words of a song in a TV commercial. I knew it was Carol. I had to laugh out loud because it was so surprising and so clear of a message that I couldn't be mistaken. The message was from her. One of her favorite song was You Are The Wind Beneath My Wings. It is one of my favorites too. Carol was my best friend and spiritual mentor and teacher. I love you, Carol.
Pamela and I met Carol at the same time when we attended a class on spirituality that she was teaching at Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. Pamela had attended a Unity church in Tucson, Arizona before moving to Hot Springs. This was my first experience of a New Thought church. Pamela and I took several more of Carol's classes before we started attending church on Sundays. Carol taught me about Unity teachings, about angels and about myself. Carol had regular conversations with her angels. She did an angel reading and told me that I had 8 of them helping me at that time. Several years later, she told me that I had just gotten a whole other crew of 8 new angels to help guide me on my path. I would imagine that I could wear out more than one team with my spiritual growth spurts. Carol has been one of my favorite teachers. Through Spirit, she still teaches me today.
Pamela and I have been best friends almost from the first day we met over 10 years ago. She is the friend that told me that we were twins in a past life. I was just beginning to explore the possibility of re-incarnation when I met Pamela. Pamela and I went for a psychic reading once and we were told that we were triplets with another person in one lifetime. I shocked Pamela when I told her that we were con-joined twins in a past life. During a meditation, Pamela and I were sitting side by side. I suddenly felt our energy entwining on my left side. I suddenly saw a vision of us as con-joined twins. I can't tell you when we lived. I know that we were literally joined at the hip and that the family that we were born into loved and cared for us until we died sometime in our teens. I can't tell you how I know this. I just do. I sometimes get images and sometimes just a knowing about things. With this lifetime information, I got both. Pamela and I have had many lifetimes together. All I know for certain is that I have never felt an instant connection to another person like I did with Pamela when we first met.
Pamela used to get so angry with the people at our small church because, for the first few years, we were often called Pam and Pam. I used to laugh. Pamela would get angry and tell them we were Pam and Pat. Pamela left Hot Springs for 2 years and moved to New Mexico. It was a time of learning for both of us. Pamela needed to leave Hot Springs to realize that it truly had become her home. For me, it was a time of connecting with who I was without Pamela around. People began to call me Pat instead of Pam. Then when Pamela moved back to Hot Springs, we became Pat and Pat. Again, I had to laugh. People still seem to have trouble telling us apart. We really don't look that much alike. I think people have this problem because of our connection to each other. People just seem to feel that twin energy.
Until recently, we were such close friends that we did everything together. That has begun to change in the past year. Pamela seems to be gathering her energy close to herself as I am going through another growing spurt with my spirituality. When I am growing, I am sometimes difficult to keep up with. It is nobody's fault. It is simply a trait that I recognize in myself. I am like a sponge absorbing every bit of knowledge that comes my way until I am so full. Then I become a hermit and begin the processing stage where I turn inward to decide what to do with the information that I have absorbed. What fits becomes a part of my belief system. What doesn't fit gets discarded. To some, during this stage, I seem to not be growing. The reality is that this is the most important stage of my development. I am quiet until the next growing spurt starts. Then the race through life starts all over again.
Where this growing spurt will take me, only the Universe knows. I don't. At this time, I just have to go with the flow of the Universe.
Sherryl is also my best friend. She and I have grown together spiritually for over 10 years. We have been to India together twice and we are going again sometime this year. Sherryl was with me when we were both told to look inward for our spiritual teacher. She is a massage therapist and one of the most talented healers that I have been priviledged to know. I hope that if I tell her that often enough that she will begin to see herself as I see her. I have a lot to learn from Sherryl. She is my Reiki teacher. Sherryl is the friend that I travel the world with. Our first India trip in 1998 was the first time that I had ever been on an airplane. Our flight from Little Rock, Arkansas to Bangalore, India was 22 hours long. My husband told me that I could change my mind anytime before I got on the airplane in New York. Sherryl is a good traveling buddy. On the other hand, the suitcase that she took to India with us on that first trip was not. Sherryl's suitcase got lost. We shared what we could of my clothes and toiletries until Sherryl got her suitcase the fourth day that we were in Bangalore. Our next trip to India in 1999, that suitcase stayed at home. Our trips to India will be a future article. The friendship between Sherryl and I grew very strong in India. It has continued to grow stronger over the years since that last trip.
I love you, Carol, Pamela and Sherryl. You have all 3 blessed my life with your knowledge and your love.
I have 2 more friends to tell you about before I close this article. Both of them are people that I also consider my best friends. I told you that I have been very blessed when it comes to my friends. Both of these friends, Mary and Chris, come and go in my life. When we touch base with each other, sometimes after long absenses, it is as if we have never been apart. Our paths wind and circle and come back together for awhile before they separate again for a period of time.
Mary and I have known each other since around 1990 or 1991. We met through our mutual friend Kathy. We became best friends through our grieving together when Kathy was murdered in 1992. We were all living in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the time that we met. When Kathy was murdered, her family and friends had a memorial service for Kathy here in Hot Springs. When the family took Kathy's body back to Minneapolis, Minnesota to be buried, Mary and I asked if we could go with the family. Mary and I were roommates during this whole experience. We gave support to the family members and each other during that week of travel and mourning. By the time that we returned to Hot Springs after the funeral, Mary and I were best friends. Several years later, Mary and I both found God and religion again. Mary found Him before I did. I almost followed her but something about her church just didn't fit me. I know and like some of the people that Mary goes to church with. I will forever be thankful to Mary's church for giving her the peace and direction and love that she has found with them. They are good to Mary. They suit her need for God.
Soon after, I met Pamela and she and I started attending Christway Unity Church in Hot Springs. I found my church home and a relationship with the God of my understanding. I found a home just as Mary did with her Baptist church. Both of us have grown in our relationship with God. Mary and I will go for months without talking. When one of us reaches out to the other, it is like we haven't spent any time apart. We both still love each other. We just individually tend to get caught up in our lives with our families and churches. We occasionally get together for lunch to catch up on each others lives.
Chris is my last friend that I want to add to this list. He is my only close male friend. Chris and I are buddies on a soul level. He and I have had many past lives together in which we were soldiers togethers. We have a deep friendship. When I first met Chris, I started dreaming that I was fighting in battles each night, sometimes as many as 3 different dreams in one night. I never remembered details. I would wake up tired and know that I had spent the night fighting for my life. I didn't tell any body about my dreams until another friend and teacher told Chris and I both that we were soldiers together in many past lives. It made perfect sense to both of us and explained our connection. Chris has since told me that he felt that in my dreams, we were both fighting to save his life in this lifetime. When I first met him, he was just beginning to come out of post-traumatic stress syndrone from being in Vietnam years before. All I know for sure is that those dreams went on for month after month before they finally stopped and I could sleep peacefully through the night again.
Chris and I will go for months without seeing each other. When we do, it is like we are traveling parallel paths, each doing the same spiritual practices with slight differences. Recently, when we reconnected, we found out that we are both writing. Chris is writing a book on helping young soldiers returning from war to recover from post-traumatic stress syndrone. Since he is experienced with it himself, he understands where these young soldiers are. Chris is excited that I am writing articles for this blog.
Don't let anybody tell you that a man and woman cannot have a platonic friendship without sex involved. They don't know what they are talking about or they are just jealous.
My friendship with Chris, like my friendships with Carol, Pamela, Sherryl and Mary have all enriched my life so very much. I could not ask for a better support group than I have with these friends. They know who I really am and love me any way, just as I love them. Thanks, guys or should I say, Thanks, ya'll, since we are in the deep South.
6 comments:
I submitted this article to the All Women Blogging Carnival #8 at http://jaycee.typepad.com/semantics/2007/07/all-women-blogg.html .
Check out the posts by the other women in the Carnival.
Hi Patricia! You are blessed to have so many close friends you connect with well. I enjoyed reading about all five of them. What a loving way to remember the people you're closest to.
Linda, thanks, I do know how truly blessed I have been by my friends. Damian Carr is my inspiration for doing this whole series of articles. I have really enjoyed doing them.
Jaycee, thanks for inviting me to participate in the All Women Blogging Carnival #8. I am getting excited about my next trip to India. Now, if my passport will get here soon, we can get our airline tickets.
One of the most important things we can do is tell people that we love them -- and to do it often. This is a lovely tribute.
Dawn,I agree with you 100%. My friend Kathy and also Carol taught me that. Thanks for coming by.
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