I believe in reincarnation, life after "death" and fate. I believe that we choose our parents, our time of arrival and our time of death and I don't believe in accidents. I believe that people cross our paths when they do to help us grow and learn lessons, some of them difficult and some... easy. When we think about it, most of us know someone who "died", and somehow they prepared us for his or her departure, even an "accidental" one. Jim drowned very unexpectedly at a young age, 39, yet after he died I recalled dozens of things he had said or done prior (at the time they were very odd or out of character) that helped me after he was gone. My grandfather died the day my sister and I left England after visiting him and only two days before, while sightseeing, he told us he wouldn't be back to visit us in Canada. His health, though not great, was no different than it had been for several years past and he died in his sleep.

Rick entered my life in 1987 when a good friend of ours brought him by to meet Jim and I on their way back home. Jim and Rick became close friends and the rest is history. We are like two peas in a pod: we were born only 31 days apart, we're often thinking the same thoughts at the same time, we like the same things and we sometimes finish each others sentences. Though our paths crossed dozens of times in our youth, we didn't meet each other until we were ready to. Rosanne and I are the same way. We know people in common, have been to places at the same time, our kids have known each other for several years, yet we didn't meet until two years ago and we have been close friends ever since. We even have Rosanne (zoomed in) on a video tape that Rick recorded years earlier, in 1998, when we attended a Pow Wow in Rama at Thanksgiving.

Two weeks ago while I was poking around on the Internet, somehow I came across the web site of Liane Gallant, an old friend I hadn't seen since 1993. I got her voice mail and ironically she called me back a week later while Rosanne was here and we were discussing how on the weekend, I had met some friends I hadn't seen in years. I made arrangements to get together with Liane at Rosanne's house today because I thought they just might hit it off, having much in common regarding their spiritual journeys. Well, we had a truly amazing evening (which I will get into at a later date)! But I have to say that the timing of Liane's phone call and our subsequent get-together with Rosanne has merely strengthened my beliefs.