Over some watermelon this evening, Magic Friend and I were talking about our first dates.  Hers was a day-long trek she made to another town with her 7-year-old first love when she was only 5.  They ran away from their respective families and were only found later in the evening, holding one another’s hands on a bridge, looking out over the water as they watched the fish.

My first date, at age 9, was trick-or-treating.  I distinctly remember that the man in question was dressed as a hippie.  Tie-dyed t-shirt; blue, circular lenses in his oversized sunglasses; a crocheted hat… yeah, very alluring.

Magic Friend laughed at this.  She told me that her first date “was actually very romantic.”  Yeah, it sounds like that.  How many people, of any age, find themselves after a day-long stroll holding hands and watching fish from a bridge?  That’s pretty damn amazing.

And then there’s trick-or-treating.  Which is more my style.  Still.

So when Magic Friend pointed out how romantic she still is, I realized that, much as I appreciate romance, I actually go more for something a little less serious.  In a word, I suppose my bent is… “laughter.”

The kinds of things I’m most likely to remember are usually not the tender caresses, the lingering gazes, or the love songs.  For example, I think back to my most recent date, and the “highlights” — as far as my heart catalogs its memories — were moments like:

• dancing around like goofballs in our blue (yes, we were both wearing blue) underwear to “Yakkety Yak,” and…
• sitting at the foot of the bed with my partner while he demanded a game of chess and I looked up at him, observing that the mustard from his sandwich was smeared all over his chin (thus rendering it totally impossible for me to take him seriously, despite the serious-sounding opera music gracing the background)

I like nonsense.  Romance is sweet, but I like the moments that are totally uncontrived, the moments that couldn’t be planned or even imagined by the softest of hearts.  And those moments usually involve absurdities, incongruities of dialogue, setting, and background music (best if ALL those elements are TOTALLY mismatched).

But I guess I just like laughing with my partners.  The moments that make you laugh are the priceless kind that could never be replicated.  Or, hence, forgotten.

Not much else to say.  Just grateful to have experiences like those and the kind of mind and heart that can appreciate them.  Romance isn’t overrated.  But its antithesis — hapless and carefree folly — certainly deserves a more appreciative nod than it tends to receive.

Enough from me.  Peace, love, and laughter.  :)

Tagged by knight-of-cups  :)

• Rule 1: Post the rules.
• Rule 2: Answer the questions the tagger has set for you in their posts, then make 11 new ones.
• Rule 3: Tag 11 people and link them in your post.
• Rule 4: Let them know you’ve tagged them.

Questions for me to answer:

1.)  Have you ever had any kind of supernatural experience?
Wow, um, I feel like my entire life is full of this kind of thing.  Lately (as in, for the past few years), it mostly just involves trippy synchronicities that make me feel like this world isn’t real.  But when I was a kid, there was more involving seeing ghost energies and stuff.  I’m not one to chase supernatural experiences down; I’d much prefer the pervasive sense of peace and joy that gives me my spiritual “fix” now instead of the adrenaline rush of the scarily-unexplained.  But the other kinds of experiences had their purpose; they served to convince me that there IS more to existence than physical reality, which is a blessing to understand, because it reassures you that you are a part of something much bigger and more enduring than this life.

2.)  What pisses you off?
Not one to get angry often.  It doesn’t mean I’m a saint; I guess I’ve just created a life wherein I’m not surrounded by the kinds of negative influences that would get to me.  One thing I still recognize about myself though is that I get bitter when I feel like someone has attacked anybody I love.  I find it’s much harder for me to get upset about insults directed at me, but attacks on the ones I love?  These make me really upset.

3.)  What is guaranteed to make you laugh?
Nothing in particular, but cosmic jokes and sex comedy usually do it.

4.)  What are your spiritual beliefs? (If you have none, why is that?)
Love drives the whole production.  Even though we are all one being, we are also never alone.  Earth is like a dream.  When you’re awake to it, you get to create the dream consciously.  Nobody’s out to punish you.  Judging “others” is senseless.  Judging yourself is toxic.  Unconditional love doesn’t judge at all.  Just keep loving, unconditionally, and eventually all of creation catches on.

5.)  Has anyone you loved ever died?
Yes, several loved ones have transitioned.  And I still talk to them.  :)

6.)  If you could teleport anywhere right now, where would it be?
At this very moment?  I’m content with sitting right here, in my friend’s apartment, at her desk, in front of the gentle breeze at this window and the bouquet of roses she bought me two nights ago.  Here and now are mighty good.  But I do want to see the whole world someday.  Whenever the money is there.  :)

7.)  What’s the farthest away from home you have ever been?
Thailand was probably the farthest in miles.

8.)  What did you want to be when you grew up?
Travel agent, figure skater, biochemist, or exotic foreign lady (not exactly a job, I just liked the idea of having a mystique and living overseas).

9.)  Do you get along well with your family?
Yeah.  I feel like an alien a lot of the time when I try to interact with them, truth be told.  But we all love each other enough for that to work.

10.) What’s your ideal romantic partner like?
Himself.  I don’t really care about specific qualities or a specific history here.  Whatever his are, I am sure I will be fascinated with them and think he is the most amazing man in the world.  I’m not looking for a “type” of guy though (I learned this lesson the hard way; I once found EXACTLY the “type” of guy I thought I wanted, and I realized how empty I felt around him.).  I’m holding out for a certain kind of dynamic.  A person who feels completely comfortable and at-home with me.  The person who — effortlessly — makes my own soul feel at home.  My romantic partner NEEDS to make my soul feel at home.  And he will do this without trying.  That’s the idea.  And the ideal.  I will commit my life to no one who does not do this.

11.) What are you passionate about?
Honestly, the stuff that gets me the most pumped-up is little stuff, like sunny days, birds chirping, the shimmer of the leaves on the branches of a tree (and the way they whisper as they dance), the taste of pu’er tea, etc.  This isn’t to say that I don’t have intellectual interests or life goals or dreams or preferred pastimes.  I have plenty.  But I’m generally content with the kicks I get in daily life.

— actually… a thought here…   If I could sum up my passion?  It’s people.  Yes.  I am passionate about people.  Learning their histories, exploring their hearts, observing how they create their realities, delving in deeply enough to feel the universal thread that connects us all.  Maybe that’s why I’m cool with daily life; people are all over it.

Questions for you to answer:

1.)  The one thing your heart really longs to do that you still haven’t done:  you don’t have to say what it is.  Just explain what’s stopping you.
2.)  Anything you want to share about your last experience with nature?
3.)  Describe the occasion on which you felt the deepest sense of peace in your life.
4.)  Is there anything you wish you could shake?  What?
5.)  What place away from “home” feels most like home to you?
6.)  Name three characteristics of your ideal job.  You don’t have to have a specific job in mind.  Just think of your ideal work life and what that would entail.  :)
7.)  What does breakfast usually look like?
8.)  Since you started dating, what’s the longest you’ve spent out of a relationship?
9.)  Would you ever consider settling when it came to love?  If so, why, and under what circumstances?
10.)  Recurring nightmare(s) from childhood?
11.)  Turn your attention to your heart now, and ask it to give you a word.  What is that word?  (You can totally imagine this, and it doesn’t have to make sense.  Just for fun!)

Fascinating… After all the Mary-related synchronicities culminated in this two nights ago… my daily calls from Marysville seem to have ceased.  Didn’t get a single one yesterday.

Coincidence?  ;)

Maybe I just got the message.

I think it’s going to be a day for reading New Age books and tarot cards in the grass.  Maybe some feeding of squirrels.  Visa application is finally in.  This week was intense.  I deserve a day off.  :)

When I was a Catholic child, I LOOOOOOOVED Mother Mary.  I still do.  I see Mother Mary more as a representation of the Divine Feminine energy now than as the Catholic tradition’s “ever-virgin” (or even, simply, virgin) mother of Jesus.  Mary, to me, is kind of like a Western Guan Yin, but with more of a human face.  That is, Mother Mary is a divine energy, independently of whether or not we presume her to be the soul of a once-incarnate woman, but the fact that she IS associated with a human who lived about 2,000 years ago also sort of makes of her a figure of solidarity; her story echoes the experiences (including hardships) that many women have faced for thousands of years.  She’s a composite of beautiful archetypes of the goddess energy.

I’ve always felt confident that Mary hears and listens and assists, no matter what the issue.  I’ve been blessed to have some pretty astonishing experiences with praying to her, and I’m grateful to feel so connected to her energy.  Lately, I’ve been talking to her a LOT and feeling her around, and on occasion I hope for some kind of sign that she’s listening.  So here’s a story of multi-layered synchronicities!

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