.... sigh .... why today?

I was called Praise when this thread began a year ago... but when I changed my name to WYSIWYG all the post tags in the old threads were changed retroactively too.

Amos and I did practice with each other as we had agreed in this thread to do. I think we bounced all over the universe in the process. And deep into each other's hearts, for the universe lies there as well.

It was wonderful, it was hard, it was many-faceted, and it was enormously time-consuming. It was complex like the structures of the universe; and it was simple, as truth ultimately is. It resulted in a friendship, complete with some of the very warts I think we'd meant to transcend in the honesty! Oh well, human beans!

One outcome for me was that I am much more honest and much more relaxed about it, in all of my relationships. This is not, however, because we "practiced." It's because the practice was allowed (by us both) to push past comfort. Many, many blowout sessions (RC-style, co-counseling, see www.rc.org) resulted. To pracice with one individual meant to do the session work necessary to keep the agreement and keep the communication flowing. Without that-- there would have been no progress at all, for me.

We were talking about this the other day, this thread, this "experiment" to practice. I said, as I recall, that we had ended up flunking in favor of friendship. He said, yeah, but we scored way higher than anyone else! Then he said-- and I laughed for what seemed like hours-- that we had totally broken the curve.

So yeah, this was a real interesting thread. For me, though, only because it was APPLIED.

So if we are going to a Part Two, can we please PLEASE talk about what is real, what we actually DO, or what we'd like to DO and can commit to TRYING?

Can we please NOT just fling opinions like a wet dog shakes off swampwater?

~Susan