Everybody was talking about it. Death, rebirth, veil between the worlds thin, ask for your big wishes because the others on the far side of the veil are waiting to help you.

When I was sick – I mean, out-of-the-hospital sick, and for those next years – I mean, like, eight, ten years – I was not fit to work any normal, 40-hour per week job. Sometimes I had to isolate because of social anxiety and debilitating depression. I had to leave places early, without saying goodbye. I whittled my activities down so I could hang out with myself, in my head, undisturbed, for as long as possible.

Today, my life is blessed with activities and friends, self-help and mysticism. I am charged by the feeling I get when I serve, and helping those who want to participate or receive.

I stopped and talked to this homeless guy after dropping of my computer for repair downtown at the Apple store. Calm, quiet, blonde, blue-eyed, Rasta hat hiding dreadlocks. I asked if I could ask him a question. He was cheered and said, “Yes.” I told him I was a psychiatric survivor. He said, “Oh, cool.” Not exactly the response I expected, but I had his attention.

I asked him what his life was like and what he needed – showers? No, he can get that. Laundry? No, he can find that. Food? No, CalFresh takes care of that. What’s that? Food stamps. Oh, yeah. It’d been so long since I’d been on food stamps, I forgot what they called it. So, what did he need? A job.

Something meaningful. A purpose.

People experiencing spiritual emergence and emergency can’t work like we think of work. Lots of rest is needed, lots of breaks. Lots of contemplation, lots of snacks, lots of enjoyment. How do we bring folks like this, like I was, into the circle? They’re part of the chain, though invisible. They’re kind, if you are, usually. We all want to be heard and respected.

When I asked his name, he sat up tall, stuck out his hand and said his first, middle and last names. I shook his hand and told him mine. He said, “I’ve heard of you.”

I could see the magic in his eyes, the knowing. It gave me energy. I left him on his bench by Barnes and Noble, cheered.

Twenty minutes later, the chakra in my right hand, where we had exchanged energy, was open, a clear wheel of pure light energy. It felt like a portal to the stars.