Meaning Something to Someone, and the Greater Unconsciousness

So, there is an old friend I lost touch with about five years ago (not sure exactly when, but it was some time before I got with Dayn). This is someone with whom I just click. Not someone I ever spent oodles of time with. But the kind of person who really understands me so well that when I'm confused, he knows where I stand. NO ISSUES - even when one of us says something the other one doesn't completely understand, we just ask the other and get an explanation. This friend is one of people I always felt completely and totally myself around.

So, I've thought of him over the years. Wondered what he was doing, where he ended up. How his son was doing. But I didn't know how to get in touch with him. He never has been a computer/email person. He lived with his mother, and I couldn't remember her last name (she had remarried). So, the years passed, and I would think of him. I missed him.

About two or three weeks ago, when I finished unpacking, I found an old day planner. Lo and behold, inside it was his name, and not a phone number, but an address which I knew to be his mom's. So I wrote him a letter, basically just saying hi and that I would love to hear from him, and my contact info. To get in touch if he was so inclined, and if not, that I hope he was healthy, happy and doing well in the world. I signed it, sealed it, addressed the envelope, and sat it on my printer where it remained untouched (until today - but I never sent it). Several times I thought that I should send it, but never did. I figured I would sometime, but as usual, I over-analyzed the situation - I didn't know where he was or what he was doing. No reason to even think the letter would even reach him. But I thought about him, and how I wished we hadn't lost touch.

Last week, a mutual friend found me on Facebook. I was excited to hear from her, she called, and we talked about how we need to get together. I was fairly certain that she was no longer in touch with this other friend, but in the back of my head I made a mental note to ask her sometime. Just in case.

Tonight, I am relaxing, waiting for a replacement washer to be delivered (my other one sprung a leak - with about 10 days left on the warranty). The phone rang; caller ID said "cell phone", so I assumed it was the guys who were delivering the appliance. A male voice said, "Is Joan there?" I said I was she, and he asked, "Joan? Joan Hutchings?" I confirmed that it was me, and he identified himself. I could not have been more shocked. And of course, I immediately thought that he must have found me through our mutual friend, the one who I reconnected with on Facebook last week. But that wasn't the case at all. He has been trying to find me for years, and just happened to call information tonight.

I usually am unlisted. I haven't had a home phone for years, so I didn't really think about it when I got the new service. As an afterthought, maybe a month ago, I thought that I should call and get the number unlisted, then realized there was no real reason to do so, so I let it go.

I have this incredibly memory for faces and names. I often see people from my childhood. But I always think they won't remember me. I think it would be awkward to approach them and not be remembered. I never doubted he would remember me, but I never dreamed that he would miss me and search for me.

I'm in this weird place in life, on the precipice of wanting to withdraw from the world, and lamenting the loss of friendships past. But also a place of remembering who I am. I'm in a place of wanting to be authentic and genuine, and feeling like no one really gets me. I don't fit it, and I never have, but I have had people around that got me to some degree. I haven't felt that lately. It's been lonely. But he gets me. He just understands and relates and we are a lot alike. Of anyone that might find me, there is no one I can think of that I would rather have find me. And he really tried. He even asked his nephew to show him how to use social networking sites to try to find me - and he does not use computers! He put time and effort into finding me! I meant something to someone who meant something to me.

I can't tell you how amazing it feels to know that someone thought about me as much as I thought about them. To know that he put in as much effort to locate me as I did to locate him. To know that all this time, someone out there thought of me, wondered about me, and remembered ME - the me that I am, not the me that has been muddled. I feel so NOT alone - just to be thought of.

So I'm struck by the connections that happened here, and by the fact that although I do not believe in fate, per se, how my belief system seems to be in play here. My ideas of the "greater power" in the universe is not that of a single omnipotent being, but rather of a connection of energy, and of not a greater consciousness, but a greater UNconsciousness. This instance makes me ponder. I realize it could be just a great coincidence, but I put the energy out there. I wrote a letter to him, not three weeks ago. I connected to a mutual friend and thought about him. And there he was, calling me. It is powerful to me. It is important. It feels so good that I am not alone - which I know, but this feels significant.

I'm still in shock. So surprised. And so, so happy to have reconnected to this dear, dear friend. It was amazing to see myself reflected in the things he KNOWS about me. He was so shocked to learn I had married (but not that I had divorced). He knew after hearing just a few details about the relationship leading up to the nuptials that it wasn't right for me. He could tell me why he thought I had made some of the life choices I had made in recent years, and he was dead on. He knows me, and it feels so amazing to be known, and to know that I cannot hide. But it is not scary to me. It is comforting. Our friendship was that which is so unusual - it was (is) truly easy. No front, no pretense. Just two people who can be themselves and good, bad, ugly and awesome, we just are who we are. We get each other and have love and respect for those qualities in one another.

Anyway, I am processing this all. I needed to write it out. I'm listening to music. I'm reconnecting to myself, because this person is connected and tuned in to me, and he searched me out. I know people love and care about me, but relationships are hard for me; they frighten me. So much pain and fear. But not now. I am just me, and someone remembered, and cared in the way I most need. Just by reaching out. And making the effort to connect with me.