The Gestalt Effect

Sometimes we meet people that touch our lives, arriving at moments we need them most, and forever changing our perspective of the world. The Gestalt prayer states that we encounter people purely by accident, and at times, such people make a memorable impression on our lives. It also states that we are not here to fulfill others needs, and neither are other people here to fulfill our needs. The people we meet and touch our lives, are there by the accident of time and nothing more - so it is a miracle indeed if by such encounter, they not only change our lives but we change their lives too.

Time they say waits for no one, carpe diem so the ancient Romans say, "seize the day" when opportunities come our way. For once they pass, they pass never to come our way. The great Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said that we never pass on the same river twice. Yes, the amazing people we meet in life may never come, to live those moments and savor them, is the best that we can do. For after such events pass, only memories are left behind. Residues in the face of eternity.

And as the hands of time caress the cheeks of eternity, we are but a grain of sand thrown about in the vicissitudes of existence. To meet just but one person that completes us, enlivens us, emboldens us, inspires us, holds us to touch the expanse of forever is nothing but pure bliss, eternal joy and the sweet nectar of survival. It takes no special talent, no special skill, no special knowledge to recognize when those moments have finally arrived, just the openness of the mind and the serenity of the heart to grasp in the mind that look of eternal connectedness, that sigh of togetherness, that longing for each other presence, each others touch.

But distance corrodes bonds, loosens ties, disturbs the peace of the mind unless there is that stubborn longing to reach for the others memory, extending oneself to the inescapable threat of rejection and betrayal, to fall into the biting bitterness of pain and what-ifs. No matter what the outcome, no matter how harsh the milieu, that soul mate alienated from one's being clings like a shellfish to the hardened exterior of monolithic denials.

And when finally that moment comes when we meet again, the silent hues of quivering stares and unsaid gestures beckons with a burning fire that the flames have never become embers but a roaring inferno of unclenched love gasping for the oxygen of that disemboweling stare and that skinning breath so close yet so unsatisfying for the desperate longing for moments gone and past. Just a touch and a look and death is a welcome relief to another separation from you.