Deepening

Day 3 with friends
The weather was not particularly kind [and I'm a fair-weather everything] but the house was comfortable, we were well-provisioned and the truck had been towed away for possible repair, possible being the key word.  Uncertainty prevailed and we strategised alternative arrangements for getting us all home at the end of the week with or without the truck.  

When what could be done was done we fell to reflecting on 'adversity' [degrees of], reactions and resilience.  How ostensibly similar circumstances could produce Bruno Bettelheim, Viktor Frankl, Roman Polanski and Primo Levi; how we construe meaning; perception and the familiar observation that even siblings growing up in the same household often recount vastly different experiences, reach different conclusions about life, people, themselves.  How, what, where, why.  Fascinating and imponderable.

What I remember most is the extraordinarily high quality of M's attention.  Recently married to one of my oldest friends, both in their mid-sixties, this was my first extended opportunity to be in the presence of M's deep heart listening.  What a pleasure.

My holiday reading included My Lover, Myself, a description from that book catches M perfectly.  They gently probe and listen carefully, offering compassion as if it were an open door to a pleasant little cottage in one's soul.  "Rest, have some tea.  Tell me how you're doing," is the message in their tone, even when the words are merely "How's it going?"  Such a rare and precious gift.


Being in the company of such a person invites everyone to delve deeper into truth, their own and each others.  Intense and soul-satisfying.  I stepped out into the rain to take a few pics.  This one's for M and her golden heart, J. is a very lucky man.