Baldly Forward

Many years ago when I was but a wee lass, I met one of my spiritual teachers. What I mean by “wee lass” is that I was in my 30s—which is what we 50 year olds consider “wee.”

Anyhow, I was working different jobs to make ends meet while I pursued music and raised my son. This need for a day job led me to Virginia Gann. She was mostly bedridden and her husband James (AKA Boss) had vascular dementia. I was looking for residential cleaning jobs, because it worked with my music and mom schedule. They were hiring (probably from Craigslist), so I called. Virginia cut straight to the job and their needs. When she told me of their situation, I said, “Yes. I’ll take the job.” Funny… as I type this, I don’t recall an interview aside from our phone call. She knew and I knew we were going to do this. Later, I learned why.

What started as a cleaning job turned into a caregiver position. As Boss received a cancer diagnosis and needed more care and my less than stellar cleaning skills manifested, I became their person. In other words, they were my family. I loved them and they loved me.

Instead of cleaning the floors, I took Boss for coffee dates, appointments, cancer treatments, etc. I also spent a lot of time at Virginia’s bedside, talking about spirituality, our life experiences, my sexuality (and sometimes hers). We talked about everything! She was my friend and my teacher. I craved the freedom she had experienced in this life to explore—not only this physical realm… but the spiritual. She traveled extensively during her mobile years and practiced a mystical religion. She read interesting books and entertained the depths of other people’s experiences.

During my time with Virginia and Boss, she also shared literature with me. Among the literature shared was a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer. It’s called Being in Balance. I put the book on my shelf, and then a lot of life happened. I went back to school, Boss passed away, and eventually Virginia and I lost touch.

Fast forward a couple of years—I suddenly had the overwhelming feeling that Virginia had passed. I never received word about her passing, but we didn’t need a funeral or an obituary to connect us. She had passed months before, and I know she was visiting me that day.

Not too long after I had this awareness of her passing, I was experiencing a major transitional period in my life. I had moved to a little studio apartment in East Nashville. There wasn’t much to furnishing it as it didn’t have space for much more than a bed, love seat, a few odds and ends, and a book shelf.

A while after settling in and filling that shelf, I read that Wayne Dyer passed. I felt some emotion around his passing, although I never read the book Virginia had given me. While I had toted it around with me and even put in on the shelf in my new place, I forgot I had it. I only knew of Wayne Dyer because Virginia and another friend named Lesa (also deceased) had mentioned his teachings.

Then later that day I went to my shelf to find some literary inspiration. There it was! That Wayne Dyer book that I had shelved and unshelved through several moves, never giving any thought to it! When I opened it, I not only found exactly what I needed to experience in that moment, but there were words underlined in green by Virginia. Words that mattered to her… emphasized in an imperfect line of green marker.

What a profound gift to experience signs of life beyond this human existence from Virginia, Lesa, and Wayne Dyer! At least that’s how I see it.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed to revisit this message since then:

“Being peaceful is an inner attitude that you can enjoy when you’ve learned to silence your incessant inner dialogue.”