Thursday, November 25, 2010

Traveling Together Cross Country and Time

It was the second day on the road traveling across the US with Vaughn that the memories started to surface from prior lives. First some background...When I first met Vaughn he looked very familiar to me. We were introduced one morning at the farmers' market by the man who runs the Agriculture Department in Polk County, NC. "We've already met." Vaughn said matter of factly. Though I knew logistically that we'd not crossed paths before, at least not in this lifetime. Vaughn is very into Anastasia and the Ringing Cedars series, has drawn out the plans for the domain community he hopes to co-create. In his late 30's, he's married with two kids entering school age. Among other things, Vaughn runs the four farmers' markets in the county, and is working to build their prominence in the community. He's written a couple of spiritually focused children's books he'd like to get published. We saw each other briefly on a few occasions since. He's a calm, honest, gentle spirit. Other than that, I didn't know much about him prior to our trek cross country. One thing though puzzled me about him, I couldn't read him at all.

Our early morning departure was delayed as the two guys from the moving company finished packing the truck and I took my car in to have the window repaired. Vaughn came and picked me up at the car repair shop when I called him, drove me to the post office and bank, then back at the house, helped me with the last packing and some cleaning up. Not everything fit on the truck so he arranged for pick up of another load of donations to the Ag Center. He took me to pick up my car when it was ready, then stopped to check my tire pressure, which turned out to be very low. As we were packing the car, there were three boxes of photos and special documents, like my daughter's school report cards, that didn't fit in anywhere. Vaughn offered to send them to me and called his wife to pick them up. He was just right there the whole time offering exactly what was needed.

We started out at dinner time, taking Interstate 40 pass through the Appalachian Mountains and on to Nashville, Tennessee that first night. He carried my bags into my hotel room for me. Such a small luxury after always managing by myself the past ten years. In the morning he checked my car's lights and replaced a headlight bulb I didn't realize was out. We headed out towards the Mississippi River and the Great Plains. I lead, Vaughn followed in the truck. I felt very safe with Vaughn, protected and watch over in my journey to a new, and relatively unknown place.

During the day as the hours passed along the road, the feelings of being protected and watched over grew. A sense of trust with Vaughn emerged that surpassed anything that could have developed between us in the time we'd known each other. The feelings intensified. The trust I felt was of a depth and steadfastness beyond anything I'd felt in this present lifetime. The details of the emotions became clearer and clearer, until images came forward. Images of traveling together, the Queen traveling, incognito, through a volatile countryside accompanied by the person she trusted most in her life. Between them, a bond of allegiance and of honor, that they would give their life in service and protection of the other, though it was his duty and honor to escort his Queen, ensuring her safe passage.

I do not know which of us was the queen and which her trusted escort in this past life we shared. Yet I've not a single doubt that Vaughn and I made such a journey together once before. It was with joy, not karma, that we came together to relive this experience in the present time and circumstance. No debt, no amends to be made, simply a choice to relive the connection.

When I shared my awareness and described the images over dinner, Vaughn said, "when you said you were planning to drive alone, I knew I had to go with you. There was no question about it." He didn't see any similar images come from inside him, yet he said they felt comfortable. Taking this journey, he knew, held great meaning for him too. That he knew in the process he would come to understand who he was in a larger sense. I thought this was likely true for me as well.

The powerfully strong feelings of allegiance, honor and absolutely unshakable trust and the image of the covertly traveling pair stayed with me throughout the second day as we drove through Iowa, Nebraska and into Wyoming. I came to see that this is how past memory comes through to me, first as feelings. Then the feelings become more and more defined until the images that fit these feelings take form. Being clairsentient, this makes sense now, but I'd not understood this before. Most of all I feel.

I also clarified what it was about Vaughn that had puzzled me. I can't read his feelings. Nothing comes through. Reading people's feelings in how I read their mind. Not that I've ever thought of myself as a mind reader, yet in all honesty, I've always read people's minds by reading their feelings. It's come so naturally I never realized I was doing it, or that others might have more limited abilities. Vaughn, however, comes across to me as a blank slate. "I've been told before by psychics that they can't read for me. I guess that's why." "You carry a strong level of protection." I said.

In reliving the memory of traveling unrecognized with an escort and protector, a deeper sense of who I am began to come forward for me. Just as the calling to move to the upper NW came so intuitively. "I need to be there now." And at each step, exactly who I needed to make this big move possible, stepped forward, the lovely young men who packed my truck, the man whose house I'm renting who has such strong heart energy, my daughter driving up to help me pack, Vaughn showing up and offering to drive the truck. At other times I've felt the universe supporting me as I take on a new venture, yet this time the feeling of support was much stronger than I'd ever felt before. As if this was the first outward, true recognition of who I am. Someone who's safe passage must be ensured, someone who's presence on this planet is important. For those of us Light Beings who've so often been dismissed, belittled, ignored, and put down, it's a really big turn of events to have even total strangers show up at each turn to ensure your safety and protection along the path.

On the third day, driving across southern Wyoming and into the Rockies through Utah and Idaho, a different set of feelings came forth. Feelings of a strong brotherly love, a deep trust gained through experience, then the images of being initiates together and sharing a lifelong bond of brotherhood. And here we were reliving that lifetime as well. Neither of us had driven cross country before and for each of us it felt like a rite of passage, an initiation into something larger. Over meals and phone calls while driving we'd gotten to know each other and I found Vaughn to be a really special person in so many ways. Our conversations centered on deeper topics, our dreams, feelings and what truly mattered to us. A brotherhood bond forming as we passed through the initiation rites of this journey.

Shortly after we headed out from Boise, Idaho on the last day of the drive, Vaughn sent me a text message, "Thank you for being such a brave soul Helen" Tears welled up when I read it. What spoke so much to me was the Thank you. To me this said not only was he recognizing my courage in venture so far to a new place, but that my doing so made a difference to others, it made a difference to him.

Over the last two days of driving I'd gotten a strong message that it was important for Vaughn to see a little of town before he flew back to North Carolina. The timing worked perfectly, of course. The trip took longer than planned and my new landlord called to say he needed two more days to get himself moved out, so I pushed everything back, including Vaughn's plane flight. After staying the first night in a hotel, we went to the farmers' market, a big thriving well attended market, very fun. We checked out the park overlooking the Puget Sound, drove around downtown and by the harbor, stopping here and there. "It's an amazing place," Vaughn said. "You and your family are welcome any time, either to visit or to live." He knows how to get here now. Perhaps one day he'll move here with his family. Perhaps.

I will always hold deep gratitude to Vaughn, my traveling companion who saw me safely through to my new home, and who shared this amazing journey across the lands and across time.

Thankfulness for the Journey

Thankfulness. It's snowing this Thanksgiving morning, the second snow since we arrived. I'm sitting in the kitchen of my new home, most of the way unpacked, and feeling so deeply grateful. It was an amazing journey driving cross country. Amazing in so many ways.

I had to check the last couple of posts because so much has happened and I didn't remember where I left off.

In the last few days before the scheduled departure date of Monday, Nov. 8th, everything seemed to come together with such synchronicity. Vaughn, a young man I know slightly from town came by to pick up some office furniture I was donating to the county's new Agricultural and Community Development Center. He made two trips, the second time accompanied by a man I'd not met before. In conversation it turned out this man had lived most of his life in Bellingham, the city I've moved to. Coincidence? Never. He gave me a list of names and numbers of people to contact who could connect me with anything I might possibly need. The conversation turned to driving across country towing a car. Not good news about the gas mileage there. Then Vaughn said, "I'd be willing to drive the truck for you." Music of the Angels to my ears!

Vaughn was such a gift, a wonderful traveling companion. He looked after me, checking tire pressure, walking the dogs, carrying my bags into each hotel. I felt very safe and protected throughout the journey. There's more much more that emerged in sharing this adventure across the country, which I'll share in a separate post immediately following this one. It's a story I want to record.

We got off much later than planned because it took longer to get the truck packed and all the odds and ends taken care of, like last minute car repair because my driver's side window went down and wouldn't come up. Our first stop was to get dinner at the Burger King three miles from my old house. (I never eat junk like this except when moving and traveling somewhere long-distance by car. It's hard to avoid fast food in these situations.) We stayed overnight in Nashville, Kansas City, Cheyenne, Boise, and then Bellingham. Four and a half long days of driving. The truck did not go over 72 mph, even on the flat lands of Wyoming with a 75 mph speed limit. Max speed up the steep mountain passes was about 35 miles per hour. We stayed together along the way.

The terrain and vistas from Cheyenne, WY onward were so striking. It snowed about four inches overnight in Cheyenne. I wished I could have just stopped along the road to photograph all that inspired me, but ti would have added about two weeks to the journey. I'll try to hold those scenes in my mind's eye, and perhaps someday travel that route again with a really good camera and no time constraints.

My energy stayed high the whole trip, which surprised me because with packing, the long days on the road, and all the time changes, I didn't get more than four or five hours sleep a night. We were able to spend the first night in the house on air mattresses. This was Saturday, November 14th. That evening Vaughn made a wonderful potato, celery root soup with chanterelle and lobster mushrooms and blue kale that we'd picked up in the farmers' market that day. We had to wing everything with a sauce pan, knife, and plastic silverware I'd bought that afternoon, as everything was still on the truck. It was a perfect meal for the first night in my new home, however temporary. The next morning I drove Vaughn to the airport in Seattle and on the way home, the exhaustion finally hit. I slept a lot the first week here. Unpacked, slept, drove to the hardware store, the usual just moved in routine.

I so love it here. The people everywhere I go are so welcoming and friendly. Very down to earth with none of the east coast pretension I've so outgrown. The predominant culture here is Locavor. They support their local businesses and local farms. They recycle all numbers of plastic, as well as food scraps for those not wanting to do their own composting. The forests are filled with huge Madrona pines and enormous ferns. The forests hold such deep, old wisdom. You can't miss it, it's so powerful. I'm looking forward to spending time in the forests, I sense the interaction will have a profound effect within me. And sitting on the rocks at the edge of the Puget Sound. It's about 5 minutes from my house to the state park with paths down to the water's edge. Vaughn and I took the dogs there that first Saturday. There is something so powerful about the energy of the sound. Water of such depth and the wooded islands, a view so breathtaking. I feel a steadiness, a grounded, immensely powerful Earth energy I've never felt anywhere else before, that's the best I can describe it at this point. I will come to understand it's intricacies over time, that my intent.

It's Thanksgiving Day. Actually, I try to make all my days days of thanks giving. On this day I am immensely thankful for the opportunity to make this journey to this wonderful new hometown. I'm grateful for all the people who showed up to assist when I needed them. Grateful for the support and encouragement I received from my daughter, step-daughter, sisters, close friends and on-line friends to make this big transition. Grateful for my intuition which led me here to this wonderful place at this perfect time. Grateful, deeply grateful, for all that led me to be who I am now and grateful for all that awaits me.