"Old friends yet who have not met."

If you've been following my blog, you know I had a near death experience (NDE) and it rocked my world. This blog's all about the crazy stuff that has happened since then. I recently attended the Annual Afterlife Awareness Conference, held right here in Saint Louis. I was asked to write a guest blog-post on my experience as a first-timer at this conference. I'm anxious for that to be published but in the meantime, I have to share one crazy story that happened along the way.

So, here ya' go!

I became a certified life coach in December last year. My purpose is to help people navigate some of the crap I've been through, with less pain and suffering. Early this year, I was asked to give a public presentation of "my story;" the good, the bad, the ugly and the stuff some people just won't believe. I agreed to the engagement and scheduled my first presentation of Mystical Experiences of a Former Skeptic for May 14th.

Less than a week after booking my presentation, I realized the Annual Afterlife Awareness Conference would be held in St. Louis the same weekend as my presentation. I was disappointed to think I would be completely overshadowed by this nationally recognized organization yet it seemed like a great opportunity for me to attend since it would be in my own back yard. I checked into buying a ticket but it was more than I was willing to pay since I'd miss a large portion of the events due to my own presentation. I figured it just wasn't meant to be.

On Monday, May 9th, while waiting in child’s pose for my hot yoga class to begin, I heard, in my mind, “Old friends yet who have not met.”  I wondered what this meant and promptly forgot about it. I went on about my week, anxiously scurrying and preparing for my presentation.

On May 11th, incredibly, I was notified that I WON a ticket to the conference! NO. WAY. OMG!!! Really??? I did a little happy dance in the salon where I was getting a pedicure and thought…...I guess I am SUPPOSED to be there!  I gave the technician a HUGE tip and suddenly panicked with the realization that my schedule had just changed drastically and I would have to put myself into hyper-drive to complete preparations for my own presentation.  I am a methodical introvert and this provided some challenges.  Not only did I need to release the need to control every minute detail with my presentation, but I had willingly chosen to eliminate the possibility of any “alone time” for the next several days.  In other words, this was all WAAAAY outside my comfort zone but somehow, but I believed good things were to come!

At the conference luncheon on Friday, a woman named Gina asked to sit next to me. Gina’s from Dutch Harbor, Alaska (You know Deadliest Catch?! Yeah, there.) What are the odds our paths would ever cross if not for this event?  Talking with Gina, it was abundantly clear that we had some crazy connection even though we’d not known each other before this event.  It was bizarre, almost scary, all the “Oh my gosh, ME TOOs!!” we shared.  It seemed as if we are living parallel lives in different parts of the world.  We struck up a fast friendship and started making plans, even a little dreaming and scheming about working together in the future.  It made me sad to think that I would miss so much time with my new dear friend due to my speaking engagement, so we agreed to meet early, before the conference started on Sunday morning, to squeeze in just a few more minutes together.

Driving to meet Gina before the conference on Sunday morning, the phrase that came to me on Monday returned….”Old friends yet who have not met.”  OHMYGOSH!!  This phrase foreshadowed Gina and my special friendship!  That HAS to be it!  Then the Universe told me in no uncertain terms that "I got it."  

Gina was wearing a blouse that showed a tattoo I hadn’t noticed before.  The tattoo was the Japanese kanji for “family,” with a monkey hanging by its tail from the bottom of this Japanese symbol.  How does this relate to me?  My husband travels extensively to Japan and I’ve been fortunate enough to travel with him on occasion.  We love the country, culture and people of Japan quite dearly.  What about the monkey?  Gina said she calls her kids “monkey.”  Guess what?  ME TOO!!!

Gina and I remain in contact. There's no question our meeting was orchestrated from above. It is my hope to visit Gina in Alaska. If the Universe went through that much trouble to bring us together, that's the least I can do!

Please forgive typos and grammatical errors.  This writing comes in a flow from the heart and I admit, I am not perfect!