Through the Woods to the Sea A Journey of Becoming Me

People come and go through our life, passing through our life or we are passing through their life. Sometimes we barely touch the externals of each other’s life. Sometimes not only do we cross paths but our hearts touch each other or our souls connect, touching us ever so softly or extremely deep. Sometimes we meet a person who in another place and another time we may have never spoken to. This person becomes a friend only because we have been thrust into a situation or circumstance together.

Living at a retreat center, many people have been passing through my life touching me on different levels-ever so gently and softly or reaching down into the depths of my heart and soul. It triggers memories of others who have passed through, those I have left behind or who have just turned to travel down a different road.

It doesn’t matter if the encounter is brief or long. It depends on how I was touched and how I carry the memories of them with me. Sometimes when and where we meet, the time and place in relation to where we are on our path affect the kind of relationship that develops and how it touches us. Circumstances sometimes dictate if it is a casual acquaintance, a friend, a permanent or temporary relationship, or an intimate relationship. Relationships change over time as each person shifts, grows, develops and proceeds on their own path. With the passing of time or circumstances relationships often drift in and out becoming stronger or fading out.

Each relationship no matter how limited and brief or long and intimate can affect our own growth, sometimes deeply, sometimes subtly. Often we dismiss encounters and relationships not opening too them and allowing the possibilities to touch us or become enriched by them. Deepening in a relationship isn’t always in the amount of time we spend with someone or the kind of relationship or interactions but in the spiritual and emotional intimacy we allow to transpire in that encounter. A simple smile from a stranger when our heart desperately needs it can have a deep emotional impact on us.

Sometimes you know immediately when an encounter will remain deeply with you or has affected you profoundly. Other times it is much later when we realize that-that moment was pivotal in our journey becoming a decisive moment of profound change, insight or wisdom. Whether the experience is positive or negative depends on how you perceive it more than the experience itself.

Any experience or encounter can shift something within you. It affects you in proportion to how much you need to heal or be moved to becoming whole. People, place, events, circumstances, and experiences of all kinds move us into healing and wholeness. They shift and move you along your personal journey addressing issues within your soul. All these experiences reach inside you if you let them and help you discover something about yourself.