On Common Ground

by Roldan F. Smith

 

I think I am beginning to feel my age.  I don’t know if it’s because of this “mood” I’m in this week.  I’ve been thinking A LOT this week.  And anyone who knows me knows that that ain’t always a good thing.

 

When I think A LOT, I tend to think in terms of reflection on my life. Past… Present… and Future.  Now, I know it’s not all that unusual for people to reflect on where they’ve been and where they (think) are going.  It’s the natural state of most human beings to assess their progress, or lack thereof, whichever the case may be. 

 

For me it usually signals that a major turn of events is about to happen in whatever it is I am doing.  My ex-partner used to accuse me, and still does from time to time, of being too easily bored with life and things.  It’s generally true too.  Once I’ve accomplished, figured out, or achieved a certain level of accomplishment in what ever task it is I’m currently involved in, I’m pretty much ready to move on.

 

A few weeks ago I sat down for an impromptu “reading”.  No, not the kind of reading offered up by some overly egoic drag queen with one too many vodka-cranberries infiltrating her circulatory system.  More of a spiritual reading.  By a medium.  Yeeeeeeess, a psychic.  Someone I’ve known for a long time.  For a very long time.  I’ve watched her work, and I’ve known others who have had quite impressively accurate readings from her as well.  But not me.  I’ve steered away from the temptation to know the unknown.   Successfully for nearly ten years.  Then one evening a few weeks ago, that still small voice in me said clearly and unequivocally, “It’s time.”

 

So, I sat down for a reading.  Strengthened in confidence by one or two vodka-cranberries in my own system, I sat down in the chair and said simply and without question, “It’s time you did my reading.  I don’t know why, but something tells me it’s just time.”

 

Now, if you’ve never had a reading before or never experienced Kate Blanchette’s character as a backwoods, small-town psychic who figures out who murdered the town trollip (and, no, that’s not a judgment statement; just a character identification) in the movie, “The Gift”,  then let me tell you how it works. 

 

Now, I’m no expert and that’s for sure.  My own mother claims a bit of “the gift” of the basic palm reading kind.  She certainly has shared many a childhood and teenage story involving run-ins with spirits, ghosts, witches and shape-shifters… you know, vampires, werewolves, and the like)… when she was going up in country in the Philippines.  And though I never was really convinced that dear ole mom could really tell anyone’s past, present OR future, in the tiney creases of their hands, she was quite convincing in her summations of my friends who would curiously if not slightly regretfully give up their mandibles.

 

However, palm readings are not the only way our brother and sister (or mother) clairvoyants can peer into the other side.  There’s also hand-laying, body and/or mind merging, chanting, spirit guide evoking and the more common and somewhat less intrusive tarot card reading. 

 

That’s the reading I was going for when I sat down in the empty chair.  After some brief chit-chat, Terri asked permission to read my palms.  I offer them up with timid anticipation and a small serving of fear of what she might tell me they said.

 

“Left hand is the Child.  Right hand is the Man,” is about the first and last thing I really remembered her saying for some time.  But at the time of this writing I played back to recapture some of the observations she shared without much effort or basic hesitation and with full focus on the front, back and sides of my hands.

 

“Oh, you are a thinker.  You carry your emotions very deeply.  You love your friends, and you hold the people close to you VERY close.  But you don’t give your friendship as easily as you used to.  You’ve had three loves but only two really mattered and only one still has your heart.  You are driven by your purpose, but you’re not quite sure what that is.  You are a healer.  A double parent intuitive.  Wow, I don’t meet too many of those.  There’s not that many of us you know.  And a triple crosser.  Hmmmmm…. Hmmhmmmmm… Well… okay.  Breath, honey.  You’re suffocating me…”

 

Well, needless to say, I was a bit taken a back and a little scared by some of the things she said.  I pulled back a bit.  Not sure what to make of it.  “Ohhh, she’s good.  DAMMIT, she’s good. “ I thought to myself.   This is why I didn’t want to sit down and do this all these years.  I knew she’d tell me some things.  Things that I would know were true.  She continued…

 

“You are on a very special journey to share something with the rest of the world.  You are an old soul.  Older than most.  But you aren’t coming back around just to come back around.  You have something special to do.  Some sort of mission to fulfill.  You’ve known this for sometime, but you are just now beginning to understand what that means.  Or at least you are beginning to be open to LEARNING what that means.  Does that make sense?”  she asked.  I just nod knowingly.

 

My mind trembled.  My body was in a slight sweat.  My face revealed my thoughts.  She asked me if I wanted to go on.  I said yes.  She pulled out a deck of cards and asked me to cut them twice and put the stack back together.  She laid my hands on top of the cards with hers on top of mine. 

 

“State your intention. Not aloud, but internally,” she instructed.  I did as she asked. 

 

“This will be VERY interesting,” I said to myself.

 

She turned the cards….