meeting: "an act or process of coming together"
Years ago on Valentine's Day, I stopped by a roadside flower stand next to El Camino Real in Palo Alto to buy roses for my date that night. After the roses for my date were wrapped, I found myself saying to the young woman running the stand, "I need one more rose. It has to be just right. I'd like you to pick it out for me."
I rejected the first two roses she presented rather gruffly, telling her they were not quite right. I was amazed and pleased that rather than being put off by my gruffness she seemed to focus on and appreciate my determination to get just the right rose. When the single yellow rose was finally selected and wrapped and everything paid for, I turned to her and handed her the rose. She took the rose and smiled at me. In that moment I felt totally connected with her and totally loved. That was a meeting I shall never forget.
Meetings of this type bring me to life. They can occur in a single moment of eye contact or in the touching of two hands, or they can last longer. There can be words spoken, or not. While there is no magic formula for having such meetings, openness to them and the willingness to follow one's deepest impulses is a start.
When these meetings occur, we are full of life. When these meetings occur with a dance partner through dancing, I call that dance magic.
© Copyright 1998 George Woolley
For a more extensive exploration of Meeting, see the first chapter of Irene Claremont de Castillejo's "Knowing Woman, A Feminine Psychology".
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