Life gives you second chances, and human hearts ache for revelations to be the way life used to be when you were young – barefoot and rosy-cheeked, life new and full of glory when you made leaps and bounds, and a surprise dawns, calling to you, a new twist, a delightful upturn, an accelerated brightening, a stirring, a reconnoiter, a love for life as it arises on the horizon. As it happens, two twists unexpectedly came your way today – sort of two Universes – can they be called Parallel Universes?

A long-ago acquaintance wearing a big smile, her arms full of a big hug, rushed up to greet you in the supermarket this morning. She, whose name you can’t remember, was overjoyed to see you. She made seeing you an event! She walked out of the mist happy to see you.

“Can this be true?” your heart wept. “Does this someone from the past have any idea how happy she made you?

Then you hear yourself say to yourself: “My sense of Oneness, come back to me. Come back, and stay.”

Later, something like this experience in reverse hits you like a ton of bricks.

Years ago, an on-and-off friend had loaned you an instructional CD. You stumbled onto this CD today stashed in an out of the way place, this CD loaned to you by a friend who was often irritating. Taped to the CD, How to Rewrite a Screenplay in 30 Days, this note attached, this note so weird:

“This CD is probably the most valuable one in the set to watch first.”

This is the only one you found.

Life is not always how it appears. This occasional friend used to drive you up the wall. Once you saw her refuse to loan a limping old lady her cell phone on the table to make a quick call from the café. Your friend proudly, victoriously, turned up her nose at the old lady's request because your erstwhile friend was too good to say Yes.

This woman who loaned you the CD, on the contrary, could also on occasion be the most splendid person in the world. One day, over thirty years ago, when you were called away on an emergency, who but this unsatisfactory friend ran right over to your house to start taking care of your two beloved dogs while you had to be away? This friend, when she was good, she was very good.

Since then, this friend died without saying goodbye. Looks like the CD is yours to keep now. Who but you would want to claim it anyway?

Suddenly, you are stricken with a loss bigger than you can bear. Nothing will ever be concluded now. This woman had a granddaughter who raised her two children with only Yes and never No. The granddaughter and her young children lived on a continent far away. Now who will ever catch you up in the lives of your friend’s grandchildren? All of a sudden, it is this woman you want to talk to more than anyone else in the world.

You had no clue that this person, of all people, would ever mean so much to you. You just have to hear about what strange situations your friend’s grandchildren will get themselves into and out of again.

If today someone could come back to life, this is the one friend you would run up to in the supermarket to give a big hug to today.

Beloved, you learned two big lessons in life today. These are everyone’s lessons.

The first two are:

1. Kindness and generosity win the day.

2. Love whom you love before it’s too late.

Plus, you had three more lessons, which are:

1. You are loved.

2. You love.

3. The main reason not to judge any other is so you can spare yourself from the heartache of judging yourself later as you are doing now and, alas, finding yourself wanting.