A SYNCHRONOUS MEETING
 

    
Life presented her with great challenge. Many years of emptiness and solitude enveloped her.  Losing much of her past through many years of illness, her form broke down to bare foundation. She was empty of all she strived to be, and the things she thought that would make her whole.  Thinking there was no other choice through the darkness, she wandered pathless and heartfelt, through the essence of nature, space, and the sky,
when at last the fog opened up a small dirt covered road on which to finally place her feet.

    
The fog made it difficult for the Jewish girl to see ahead of each footstep.  She stood bravely with the pebbled pieces cutting through her shoes.  Each step was seasoned with discomfort spurring her feet forward.  After a while, her head raised up in a new position.  Eyes that were facing the ground moved upward toward the sky.  Tense muscles in her lips changed from frown into smile.  Each step forward brought her closer, illuminating her eyes to brighten in the sun.

    
As the fog dissolved with each new step onward there was born a rhythm in her movement.  Open skies revealed brighter light from the sun.  She felt the light touch her head, her back behind her and in front of her.  Her inner knowing of nurturing and healing quickened her pace.  A heart awakening to the feeling of love.  Her feet continued to move forward on the path to a destination unknown.

    
Breezes moving toward her as she traveled lightly.  The pebbled pathway no longer bothered her feet.  The moving air signifying change in her life enticing with fragrances both new and familiar.  Feeling called, the pace of the Jewish girl quickened and with each new step she felt a parallel heartbeat.  She had found her heart’s path, although to her mind, it remained unknown.

     
The Catholic girl was 17 when she joined the convent.  Feeling surrounded by a life of judgment and indifference, it appeared to her as if she did not matter to anyone. Unknowingly, she moved toward a purpose that was bigger than she was. She felt loneliness at home doing mundane tasks for uncertain purposes.  Solitude and the Sacred called her, but her heart was muffled in cotton, while deeply she yearned for a day when she might do something of substance, something of purpose; a reason to be.

    
Though inviting in an unknown way, the Convent was another place of rules, have to’s and hard work, forcing her to function without the love that was so needed by her heart.  She moved closer to this love one day when she realized that there was something bigger, something more powerful in her life calling her to the church.  The feelings of Sacredness and peace came to her heart as she sat quietly in the pews, following the rituals of the Catholic faith.  Soon she was asked to participate in grander ways, while very silently, her heart began its life-long devotion to God.

    
The 17-year-old girl in the Convent soon became a Sister, a Nun and working in the way that her congregation had established.  Her education had been elaborate as she learned of theology and later was released to begin teaching young ones. She went where she was needed, living a professional life and as a Nun, gathering with the sisters and creating friendships based upon her desire to help others and most of all, her innate love of God.

    
Yet far below the surface of her mind there grew a deeper yearning.  A heart wishing for more space to feel, to be free to explore an open pasture; a seed planted inside her before she even knew of her heart.  The seed had sprouted with the hope of true meaning as her heart’s desire incited her onward to an empty place to grow.  But this world had different ideas for her, and her life soon was cluttered in heaps of confusion.  All that was meaningful scattered to the winds of change and the whims of her congregation.  A trapped heart in the chaos of a demanding world that viewed purpose through outcome.

    
Breezes moving toward her as she traveled lightly. While needing to move forward down her path to this greatness, to this Entity bigger than she was, she found the rules and structure imprisoning her at every opening.  Like a rat in a maze she sat there, unfulfilled and enveloped in shell and silence.  Life for her was becoming fast- paced and cloaked in collective egos.  Finding the heart of others was deep work, and there was not enough time to do it. 
Finding her heart, even more elusive.

    
With obstacles on her path each step upward climbing toward the sun quickened her heart.  The Jewish girl learned to listen to its familiar beat through every step taken.  And when it quickened, she learned to know this feeling as urgency and excitement.  Wherever she was headed, called her, pulling her toward it. Soon she wondered of the origin of the call.  Was it within her?  Was it outside of her? 
And she rested in the knowing the answer was correct no matter how her mind thought of it.

    
Sometimes there were boulders that blocked the way when the Jewish girl was heading forward, and as her heart spoke she learned about the choices she had in order to continue. She could walk around them in a detour, or climb them outright, and always the knowing that she had the choice to turn backward. Most of the time the boulders were easiest when she took a moment to remove her shoes and rest her feet.  A deep breath before climbing never hurt to give her the inner peace to continue.  Soon she learned not to anticipate these blockades from afar, letting go of the fear of future struggle. She dealt with challenge when and only if it appeared to her in a present moment and rested her feet before climbing. The climbing was made easier that way.

         
Looking back, many years passed of suffering and tribulation before the Jewish girl was taken into the empty place.  But with each struggle she ensued came a memory of that twinkle in the Rabbi’s eye and as she walked on the rocky pebbled path, with the sun warming her back and her eyes toward the sky - she once again, had vision of it.

          The call became more present and more urgent for the Jewish girl.  Her heart felt at peace knowing exactly where to go.  It was as if a beacon had been placed inside of her and a force was beckoning and pulling ever harder while making it easier with each step forward on the pebbly path.

    
On the highest hill of boulders, the ears of this Jewish girl awakened to the sound of love.  Questions arose from within her that her heart began to ask.  Within her head of lost thoughts and emptiness came forward faint answers.  Each word spoken, stirred her heart to react.  Her thoughts tried to come back and she wondered what she had heard.  Trying to be rational, the Jewish girl approached the greatest blockade so far:  The crisis of faith in her Self.

     The Voice got louder with its wisdom using words her mind knew nothing of.  Again a wounded mind with its rationalities and intellect, attempted to push this eternal voice beneath her heart,
forcing it back to sleep for a short while.

    
But hearts can be relentless when they need to be free. The Voice she heard refused to stop for long enough to find from her mind a reason, or a cause as minds are always asking the questions of why, and how and will it ever happen again. She learned that these questions would never have answers, as the element of Grace is ever present.  And so it was her heart continued to brighten and beat in a quick and urgent way. 
The path beneath her feet became a magnet, calling to her soul.

    
The Nun was called to move on to a place by the mountains and she lived there with the feeling of the breezes of change on her skin.  She began to feel the sunshine on her face and her back, and she had a sense of knowing that this was the place to settle and be of service.  The mountains were fair reminders of the strength of a God she wished to know and to love.  But her life continued at a busy pace and with no time to pursue what this heart was crying for.  Becoming an executive for a large organization, it was hard for her to hear her heart through the thickness of the shell she had to wear.

    
One day the path led the Jewish girl to a door in a big structure, with pictures on the wall of Jesus holding his hand out to others - a place to care for the sick and to help the needy.  In front of her a busy office with a secretary and a long wooden conference table.  She entered this place cautiously, familiar yet unfamiliar as it was masked in a place she had been before, only as a patient who was sick.  Her heart was jumping when she met her -
the Nun who had been walking down a familiar path but caught in the boulders for all those years.

    
The Nun stood strongly in the room with the long table. It had been a busy day with heavy responsibilities and little time for her heart.  Her mind questioned the reason for the girls visit; her heart in awe of the girl’s honesty.  The Jewish girl saw her face, weathered as if she had been walking right beside her on her journey.  Her skin was worn and pale from many years and lack of sunshine. Yet in her eyes, was the same brightness that she had remembered from the Rabbi so long ago.  And there they sat two strangers, yet fellow travelers down the path of peace. 

    
She soon became aware of the hole in her heart as the Jewish girl spoke with her deep brown eyes all aflame. The passion in her voice, catching the Nun’s mind off guard, as her heart quickly leapt into the forefront.  The Jewish girl spoke of God and a Voice.  The Nun listened intently.  And after careful conversation, the Jewish girl gently asked:  “Have you ever heard God speak to you?”
    
She spoke to her of the Voice, as the Nun listened quite attentively.  And when the Nun finally parted her mouth to speak, gates opened wide and out came a flood of warm torrential rains. The hopes and the dreams of One, became the beacon that guided them both on their path together.

    
The Nun sat down quickly, trying to think of a good answer.  But her heart spoke before her mind could attempt to find the words.  “Sadly I have not, sweet girl.” She said quietly.  A heart longing for peace at last in the comfort of a God, she spoke of – a God she thought she knew.  The Jewish girl looked deeply into the brightness of this Nun’s blue eyes asking a final question:  “Would you wish me to show you how to hear the Voice of God?”

    
A synchronous meeting between a Jewish girl and a Nun became one of teacher and student, as the Nun began a journey that only a heart could speak of.  The Jewish girl seeking a companion on her path, found a dedicated heart looking for a teacher. Once a sleeping beauty, a simple twinkle led the Jewish girl to her heart’s path,
and with the deep kiss of God on her lips - she was gently awakened.

    
And from this meeting the Nun and the Jew became lifetime companions on a mystic journey that only God could speak of.  The Voice that was heard became ever present, slowly conditioning and purifying two lives that had lost their way.  Long talks and questions led them both to where the Voice was sailing their ships
to places that their hearts yearned for, creating peace and love for all. 

    
Hearts are funny when they are set free to roam the path that was chosen for them.  They prefer to set sail on an open sea, with the Unknown to guide them.  Their beacon is the One, who has been pulling them all along from the time the seeds that were gently planted in their souls began sprouting. 
If one feels ever closely, one will know the heart is tugging gently every moment that it beats on one’s path.

    
The Jewish Girl and the Nun no longer wandered aimlessly - as the mind is the only believer in being lost.
Their hearts felt the gentle pull of God, and slowly they released desires for the temptations from the outside.  -
As each heartbeat paralleled each step on the path, a certain joy and love began growing inside them.  This unique friendship of spirit blossomed fragrantly between them, as they honored the path that the other walked.  A feeling of wholeness with each step they took together, they were headed toward their hearts’ yearning, to find their home in God.

    
No longer guided by a crooked path to nowhere, an open pasture to somewhere emerged.  Sailing ships now had the presence of a Captain, and the crew of Hearts felt the depth of faith for the very first time,
as they soon learned that faith, hope and charity are made by the heart.
Slowly over time, they were molded into a new connection, a connection of One -
between the Jewish Girl, the Nun and God.

 -Frannie Rose