“… the touch of your hand can change a life in a way that no other individual, alive or dead, could change that life. You act upon those that you know and those that you do not know in ways that no other individual can ever act. In each of you resides a uniqueness that is never recaptured…. The self that you are now is unique and therefore it is highly important that you honor the self that you are, through which the vitality of the universe shines.” Seth Audio CD 11-1

This post has nothing to do with food, gardening, nutrition or animals. I had an insight this week that felt so profound I had to write about.

As a background to what prompted my thoughts, I’m a big fan of Jane Roberts’s Seth Books. Written over a period of 25 years, the only thing I can say what they’re about is “the nature of reality.” After decades of school, science, religion and the official line of consciousness (generally accepted “truths” of our society), the Seth books’ explanation of reality makes more sense than anything I’ve ever been exposed to. One of my favorite quotes is above, and that’s just a small part of it.

1995: About 8 months along & looking a little tired.

So, backtrack about 20 years. I was newly married to my husband, living in a nice house not far from the foothills and in school to learn graphic design. Not even a year into my classes I became happily pregnant. At some point towards the end of my pregnancy, I think in Photoshop class, I started chatting with another woman, Kathleen, who was about as far along in pregnancy as I was. She was really nice and I enjoyed our exchanges. Then we parted ways to have our babies, thereby postponing our educations.

A visit to California.

A couple of years later I was back in school, taking one or two classes at a time to try to make some progress in my training. I ran into Kathleen again. She had her baby (a girl) two months after I had my son. Again we started chatting, and even brought our babies to class a couple of times. Our husbands both traveled and we had to get creative with child care. She mentioned that she was in a “play group” in Highlands Ranch, a part of south Denver that I’d heard of but avoided because of it’s reputation for being a massive cookie-cutter development. She asked if I was interested in joining the group since they had an opening. Of course she had to run it by the rest of the group first, LOL. I felt like I was being invited to join the Illuminati.

I made the cut and once a week we’d rotate having get-togethers at each other’s house. All of the women lived in Highlands Ranch. So I was spending a lot of time driving to Highlands Ranch with my 2 year old son. At some point I started thinking it would be nice to actually live in Highlands Ranch. The suburb was attractive, well maintained, had covenants to prevent people from mulching old cars and major appliances on their front lawns and was conveniently located. I distinctly remember seeing a garden center being built along the road I drove to get to playgroup and thinking “if I move to HR, this is where I want to be.” LOL, what else would you expect?

My son is the one who’s dressed up as a gumball machine.

Next thing I know we’re looking at model homes in that neighborhood near the garden center. The location was perfect and we bought a home. Sixteen years later we’re still here and it has been a great experience. We continued to get together with playgroup until the kids started school. We’ve loosely kept in touch throughout the years.

Last week we got together under the ruse of a jewelry-making night. It had been a good long time since we’d all been together. We were all so excited to be together again that we nixed the crafts and spent hours talking, eating and drinking good wine. Chocolate made its appearance. It was an amazing, heartwarming evening full of energy, laughter and love. I hope we don’t wait so long next time.

Playgroup moms, together again!

After everyone went home, I realized how my friendship with Kathleen literally changed my life. I texted her briefly mentioning that, but I don’t think she understood where I was coming from. But I couldn’t help but think about Seth’s quote, how we don’t realize how we touch others’ lives, sometimes the lives of people that we don’t necessarily even know. But if it wasn’t for her, I doubt I would ever have moved to where I am now. It certainly affected our son’s life as well. I see a flow chart in my mind of all the things that have touched our lives simply because of our move here: schools, teachers, friends, activities and events, relationships with neighbors, work… I can’t even fathom the extent.

Life in Highlands Ranch has been very, very good for us. I’m sure life would have turned out great for us anyway, but I love the path that making a friend influenced. I still love where we live and what it evolved into. Just from an act of kindness and friendship. Wow.