Well, what the heck ...

... before I go snuggle back to bed, I want to write a little bit about someone I "met" several years ago.

She had heard from me through some forum and wanted to coach with me for a few sessions. 

Fifteen minutes into our first call, I was no longer sure of who was coaching whom. 

The wisdom and humor that came across the telephone made me want to take notes. 

As she spoke of the man she had been loving for the past 50 years, of the many science fiction books she had birthed into the world (under a man's name), of the workshops she was leading and of her 14 adopted and handicapped children, I felt a cocoon of calm and energized warmth wrap itself around me. 

There were talks of newly planted bulbs, freshly baked cakes, scripts in the works, the joy of having raised her children and now helping them raise their own... there were plans excitedly hatched and memories lovingly celebrated. There was so much darn goodness all around. 

Our calls always left me in a better place and she was kind enough to tell me the same.

One day, as we began one of our calls, she laughingly mentioned to me something about a wheelchair getting stuck. Knowing that a couple of her grandkids were handicapped, I asked her what had happened. 

This is when I understood, barely able to believe it, that she was talking about her own wheelchair. The wheelchair she had been living in for many, many years. 

I was quiet, trying to take in this new piece of information (and the web of thoughts that was growing from it).

Never, ever had she mentioned her own wheelchair to me. When answering the usual "tell-me-about-your-life-as-it-is-today" question on her intake questionnaire, she had only spoken of her blessings and of her dreams. 

She had never identified with being handicapped.

Saying more and pontifying about the many meanings and implications of this would take away from its beauty. So I will simply leave it with you, pregnant and rich with gifts that we can all open as we wish.

That's it. I am going back to bed, now. 

Oh ... and in case you are curious ... here is some of her work. No, really.