The journey that led me to Amy is a story that begins a great many years ago, far back into my adolescence.  There were glimpses of her in my early memories.  The combination of the shape of her face, her eyes, mouth, and eyebrows were the features that together triggered a knowing within me.  I had met her in my dream state many times.  I believe these early encounters were meant to ensure that we kept our energetic connection to one another.  I also believe they were there to ensure that when we met in the physical world that we would recognize each other.  Perhaps it was just Amy and me checking in on each other.  Whatever the reasons were when we met, our connection was immediately recognized and very powerful.  As we have grown our relationship and discussed our energetic pasts, I believe that we have crossed paths with each other many times in past lives.  It was in this life experience that we had decided we would meet and flow into our Union.  Today as I look at her, I recognize her eyes and the shape of her face so clearly.  Her energy is indeed very familiar and incredibly comforting to me.  Our connection is on a different level than any relationship I have ever had.  We have a knowing that what we have is special and very deep, down to our souls.  What follows below in this article is some of the background of my journey to where I met and ultimately married my twin, my Amy, my everything. 

 My Beginning

I was born in a very small town in the northern middle of Montana while my father was away in Vietnam.  He was in the Air Force Medical Service.  He was strongly connected to my mother and my development within my mother.  He was so strongly connected that he was aware when I was born while he was in Vietnam.  He often shares the story of how he knew, and he was corresponding with my mother via reel-to-reel tapes.  He had recorded a session when he asks her about it and even attempted to call home.  No one was available as the extended family was all at the hospital, celebrating my entry into the world.  

My parents have always had a wonderful relationship, almost idyllic in many ways.  I feel very fortunate to have been raised by them, and having them provide me with a great model of a positive and healthy relationship.  Not to mislead you though, they have been married for over fifty years and have like any couple had their trials and growths.

 My father returned from Vietnam a year after I was born.  He did have leave and visited us during those times. We eventually moved to Arkansas, where my sister was born.  A few years later, we moved to Washington when my father transferred to Spokane’s Fairchild Air Force Base.

 It was in Spokane that I have persistent memories. I learned to appreciate nature, and I became involved in Scouting (Cub and later Boy Scouts) and a lot of what the outdoors had to offer, including fishing, hunting, hiking, and camping.  My carefree days of childhood were unburdened by the responsibilities that one accumulates over time.  Some of my memories included foraging for mushrooms and plants and learning what was edible and what was not.  Eastern Washington is a part of the state that offers four seasons of weather and with each of those are a range of outdoor activities and freedoms to enjoy.  It would be far into my adult years when I would return to this region, connect again with nature, and develop my deep appreciation for the spiritual world and begin my shamanistic life.  Looking back at this time explains so much to me as to why this area and the natural aspects of it were so deeply connecting me to it when I first moved here.  This region would drift into my memories and reflections often. I never visited the area nor fully understood why the urge was always within me to return until after I slowed down and spent time grounding myself into the earth to be present within nature here.

 A few years later, my father was transferred again, this time to California and Castle Air Force Base. It was here that my father decided he would retire.  We had predominantly lived in the military base housing, which is very Spartan, modest, and efficient, but nothing luxurious. My life experiences had not led me to believe that we needed anything more than just what we had.  So when it was decided we would move back to Washington and live on the West coast beach in a tow-behind trailer house (think very small), I was super excited.  Living right on the beach in Ocean Shores was exciting!  I loved the beach and all the fun exploring and finding things that would wash up on the beach, and of course, the fires on the beach were for a boy extremely enjoyable.  Ocean Shores, which is west of Aberdeen, Washington, was a nice, sleepy, small community that offered a lot of adventure for me.  I got a job working as a deckhand on board a charter fishing boat taking tourists out fishing for salmon and other bottom fish.  I fell in love with the ocean and eventually had a small sailboat.

We moved to Aberdeen so we could be closer to where my father worked.  Here, I became even more engaged in Scouting, where I enjoyed the thrill of achieving advancement, leadership, and the wonderful myriad of opportunities I learned about.  So many subjects interested me.  I decided I wanted to get a job and started a paper route.  Back in that time, a person could be a paperboy still.  I loved it, and I even took a second paper route, which gave me the means to save money and buy things I wanted.  I learned about stocks and started investing a little.  I was by no means a Warren Buffet; I spent a lot more than I saved!  I bought a used moped, not being old enough to have a license presented a bunch of complications and encounters with our local police department.  But I sure could deliver papers a lot faster while I had it!  I also bought a Tandy Color Computer, which gave me insight into what would later become a lifelong passion and a large part of my career in Information Technology.  

 High School

High school was a time of change for me as we moved from Aberdeen to Longview, Washington, during my freshman year.  Leaving Aberdeen was a blessing for me.  I found myself discontented with my school and non-school life due in part to some experiences with some of the shadier elements of society there.  I was very active with Boy Scouts, and I loved learning and the experiences I had from being involved with the organization.  I enjoyed and relished the feeling I would get from accomplishing merit badges and rank advancements.  I excelled quickly with my advancements, and by 1995, I had received Eagle recognition.  Through Scouting, I also found the aspects of community service to be particularly engaging.  “Help other people at all times” is a part of the Scout Oath, and within the Scouting community at Aberdeen, we lived it.  A great deal of what Scouting teaches resonated with me and felt like an integral part of my being.  I strongly gravitate in my life toward service to others and find great internal satisfaction doing so.

 After we moved to Longview, Washington, I migrated into Scouting’s Medical Explorer program.  In this program, I would train in aspects of emergency medicine and eventually ride along and assist emergency medical technicians during their workday.  I was provided hands-on experience to help people in need directly.  I developed a strong sense of doing good by helping others, and I felt that I was making a difference in this life.

 College

College began for me with a great deal of hope and possibilities.  The college I chose to attend, The University of Puget Sound, was a small, liberal arts school that focused a great deal on student-to-student and student-to-professor interaction.  During my sophomore year, I had an itch to get out and take an adventure.  I participated in a trek in the Arizona mountains on a vision quest.  I was very excited to embark on this adventure, and the preparation for it was almost as fun for me as the actual quest.  This was my first experience with what I would later come to know as my shamanistic path.  I did not fully appreciate the experiences I had and the visions that came to me during my trip then.  In retrospect, it was a defining moment and was my initiation into the spirit realm.

After College Illness Struck

I completed my college education and readied myself for employment at a local company.  However, as fate would have it, I was destined never to start work.  During my move from college in Puget Sound to Seattle, where I was going to live with a friend, I got sick.  I was playing a game of basketball with my roommate, and a bunch of students from the University of Washington when my roommate was badly injured.  I went to the hospital with him, and it was in the hospital that it is suspected that I contracted my illness. While I was waiting for my roommate to receive treatment for multiple broken bones in his arms and hands, I had a conversation with a sick patient.  I was not aware that this person infected me, and I would soon become very ill.  My roommate decided to stay with his girlfriend while he convalesced, so I stayed at our apartment alone. 

I developed a fever, and I thought it was due to my many hectic hours moving both of us to our apartment.  I rested, but my fever was getting worse.  I thought I had the flu, so I decided to walk to a local store about ten blocks away to buy some food and medicine.  I was not aware of how sick I was becoming and how high my fever was.  The fever was so high that I was delirious, and I ended up walking but never made it to the store. 

I walked around for what was later guessed as hours.  Eventually, I did get back to the apartment. Because I was burning up with fever, I decided to lay down in a bathtub of cold water.  I was lucky I did this as it lowered my fever, and I was able to think a bit more clearly. 

It was at this time that my mother called me to see how the move was going.   I informed her of my fever and how badly I was feeling.  She decided to get in her car and drive from Longview, Washington to Seattle, a three-hour drive away.  She could tell I was not doing well and that I was “off” in a big way.  I had been so hot that the water in the tub was warm, so I emptied the tub and refilled it with cold water and waited for my mother to arrive.  When she got to me, she examined me, discussed my condition with my father, and they decided to take me back to their house in Longview.  

I did not realize it at the time, but I would never stay in that apartment again.   My mother drove me to Longview to their house.  Since my father worked in the medical field, he called some of his colleagues to discuss what was going on.  I had a temperature over 105 degrees Fahrenheit.  They dumped me into a bathtub with a ton of ice in it.  Oh, it was cold, but it felt so good! The ice that touched my skin would snap, crackle, and pop; I was so hot!  After a little time, it was decided that I needed to go to the emergency room in town.  I was a mess. I was barely aware of this time, things would come and go, and I struggled with consciousness. 

The doctors took some blood samples and sent them off to get tested.  They stuck me full of IV’s and pushed a bunch of fluids into me.  I started to get better, and they decided to send me home. They would let us know in the morning what the results of the tests were. 

So, we went home, my fever decreased, and they put me in bed, and I slept.  Early the next morning, the hospital called and informed us that they thought that the samples had become contaminated and that they would like me to come back in for more tests.  My fever was starting to rise again, so my parents rushed me down to the hospital again.  They took more blood samples. During this time, I struck my leg on my wheelchair, and a massive purple bruise formed.  The thing kept growing, and it got as large as a small Nerf football in size and shape.  There was blood pooling in my bruise, a major indicator that something was not right.  It was a significant clue as to what was happening inside me. Things were getting serious. They decided to take a sample of my spinal fluid.  The sample was taken and analyzed and came back positive for Meningitis. 

Meningitis

In 1995, Meningitis was deadlier than it is today.  So, the news was bad.  My parents were freaked out but tried their best not to show it.  It was incredibly obvious to me how much this was affecting them.  My father is a tough man, and he grew up in a hard way.  He raised himself up from it all.  He is extremely strong and streetwise, but with a soft heart of gold.  He was visibly shaken from this ordeal. The doctors informed us that I was in a very dire condition, but they were going to work hard to get me better.  They started treating me with antibiotics.  My immune system was compromised, and I had a secondary infection of Staphylococcus Aureus.  These bacteria are nasty, and they essentially consume a person’s organs.  To make matters worse, my hearing started to fail, and I became completely deaf. 

I was placed in isolation due to the contagious nature of what I had.  For me, up until this time, I was very disconnected from what was happening.  I thought I just needed to get better; I would just get better.  Right?!  

The Last Rites

Everything changed one afternoon when a priest and some sisters appeared around my bed.  They prayed for me, and I prayed with them. As they continued to talk with me, it became apparent to me that this was not easy for them.  I was caught off guard.  I heard the doctors and nurses telling me that I was going to get better and to fight through this time.  I had heard and seen my parents wrestling with my illness, but it was not until the priest started reading me last rights that I fully grasped that I may not survive.  The doctors informed me that I was not getting better.  They were going to have to treat me with more aggressive antibiotics.  As these new drugs were introduced intravenously, they would produce an extreme burning sensation as they would flow into and around inside of me.  When the drugs were flowing into me, it was like having hot lava poured into my veins, and the experience was incredibly painful.  It was the last lifeline for me, and I was drifting away or more correctly, I was wasting away.  

 It was during this time that I had my first near-death experience.  I was gone.  I drifted into the void and saw what many talk about as the light.  I saw my life pass before me. I saw my happy times and some less happy times.  But I wasn’t done, there was a visitor in my void.  He talked to me and gave me a lot of peace.  He told me that I wasn’t done yet.  I had more living to do. I had more experiences to have, but I needed to fight and stay strong to live.  So, I came back from the void.  I emerged and renewed my resolve to survive.  It was not easy, and I was not safely out of my dire situation.  Over the next several weeks, I did get stronger, and I was able to beat the disease within me.  My hearing returned to my left ear.  But the toll on my body was significant.  My heart was severely damaged.  I had developed a heart murmur as my aortic valve was not functioning well.  Over the next two months, we monitored my heart, and things were getting worse.  I ended up having to have heart valve replacement surgery.

Wow, so there you have it, my near-death experience.  There is a lot more to it than I have shared here, but perhaps I will be sharing more details in the future. 

I spend a year getting myself well.  I ended up going to school to further my career path, and this time it was in computer technology.  I ended up working in data processing and computer science. Through my alumni contacts, I was able to get a job at Microsoft when it was in its early growth phase in the late 1990s. This began the germination of my technology career and one that I have loved and feel incredibly grateful for all the many wonderful experiences I have had in it.

 Forward to 2016

At the beginning of 2016, I was working as a consultant for a very large, well known charitable foundation in Seattle.  I found the work interesting, and I relished the idea that I was helping the people that were out in the world and making a difference in the lives of a great many people.  My work spanned much of the foundation, and I engaged with a large segment of the senior leadership.  I was finding fulfillment in the knowledge that the work I was doing was assisting the foundation, but there was something out of balance within me.  I was not able to identify the source of the imbalance, which made me even more aware of it.

 It was during this time that a friend of mine came back into my daily life.  She is a strong psychic and a twin flame.  We had met through our professional technology career paths, but we were both unaware of each other’s talents/gifts outside of this setting.  However, we were both in a place within our lives where a sense of restlessness had settled in.  We discovered our mutual interest in the spiritual world over happy hour one evening, and we decided that we should create a company together.  We had many ideas about what we would do within this company, but we decided to focus our ideas around an application that would lift the vibrational energy of the user.  This was a subject that my partner had many thoughts about, and she already had a wealth of information and research concerning how we could do this.  It was during this time that my friend introduced me to the concept of twin flames.  She, being a twin flame, had a lot of information to share with me, and I, being an eager learner, dug into the concept.  

I accepted her beliefs that she was a twin flame and that many others could be twin flames as well.  It is not a part of who I am to disagree with the beliefs of another person.  However, I was not certain if the concept was a delusional fantasy or if it was something more.  Regardless of what this subject would end up being, I began to absorb the information so that I could better understand it.

 A year earlier, I had decided that I would complete my training in Reiki.  I had a Reiki Master, and I completed my initial teachings.  I was guided to take a longer pathway to focus on mastering the fundamentals for several years before I proceeded in my Reiki knowledge and attunements.  I was instinctively drawn to learn this ancient healing technique. My Reiki master is incredibly gifted psychically and a powerful healer.  As I completed my training and received my final energetic attunements, I could sense the start of energetic stirrings within myself.  My master picking up on these changes presented to me the concept of Kundalini.  I’d heard of Kundalini, and the yoga practices which profess to engage it, but I did not believe that it was something I was going to experience or something that I wanted to experience.

 The project work I was doing at the charitable foundation in Seattle shifted to a new project that was having a difficult start.  There was a great deal of negative energy surrounding the teams involved in the effort, and I was part of the change designed to get the project back on track.  This type of work has been very common in my professional background, so it was something I have grown accustomed to.  However, now I had my Kundalini kicking in, and I was finding myself hypersensitive to the negative energies in my daily life.  

One instance was particularly unsettling for me.  I was at work, and I saw a green glowing energy bubble around myself and a myriad of other colors dancing in front of my face.  I was doing my best to appear casual as I walked to my cubical area, but every individual in the area looked up from their desks and stared at me.  Individuals I associated with caustic energy were glaring, almost snarling at me.  I was shocked by this behavior.  To balance this out, those people with highly positive energies were also drawn to me in a very positive way.  I have several humorous stories, including one incidence at Costco, where some people just walked up to me and started hugging and dancing around me.  Sadly, almost all the positive energy encounters were outside of my work setting.  It was becoming increasingly obvious to me that I was facing a crossroads in my life.  I was going to need to shift and quite possibly abandon my technology career in favor of my spiritual path.

Shamanism

 In the late Spring, I had made another decision concerning my spiritual learning and growing.  I had been drawn to aspects of Shamanism many times in my past, but I had never given much attention to formalizing my understanding.  I was aware of some of my spirit guides as my Reiki master had shared aspects of them with me on several occasions.  My master’s intent was not to push me in a direction, but rather to provide me awareness of them.  It was increasingly pulled toward Shamanism, and I began to seek out information.  Like many areas of the spiritual landscape, there are an incredible number of avenues to learn and experience the subject of Shamanism.  I knew that I wanted to learn from a trusted source, and then I discovered the Foundation for Shamanic Studies.  I liked the premise of the founder Michael Harner. He was an advocate of a non-drug induced method of connecting with the spirit realms.  He provided a pathway to develop shamanic skills unencumbered by culture-specific variations.  I did not want to impinge upon another culture’s methods when I was not raised in those cultures.  I did not want to, in effect, become an imposter or inadvertently degrade anyone’s practices.  Thus, I began my association with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and my lifelong membership within this community.

 My partner and I had been working on developing our company, and we were now actively engaged in discussions concerning how we were going to bring our venture into the world. We decided that we would embrace YouTube and develop a video channel to engage with the twin flame global community.  We set aside our energetic application, and we began to produce videos on YouTube and to offer our energetic services.

 Several times my psychic partner told me that I was a twin flame and that I would find my twin soon and that I would quickly go into union with her.  While I had my doubts, I was passively wondering if this person would indeed be someone I would meet.  I wanted to believe but I really did not believe that I was a twin flame.  When my girlfriend at the time questioned me at the time about it, I was certain that I was not one. But I was deeply interested in assisting people in the twin flame community, and we were showing wonderful progress for many people.

 Video Chat, Meeting Eye-to-Eye

Amy had been working primarily with my business partner regarding her twin flame situation.  I did not know much about her other than she was struggling with her journey.  My perspective at the time was that Amy was a client for our company, and as such, I had a very clinical and professional attitude about her.  My background in medical environments reinforced this attitude. I wanted to focus on helping her more than any other motivating factor – especially the question: “Is this someone I could be romantically interested in?”

 Amy was interested in helping us grow our YouTube channel viewership, and we were eager to have the help.  Amy’s work was dramatically lifting our YouTube views and subscribers, and we wanted to give Amy a gift of both my partner’s psychic gifts and the work I do with shamanism.  The meeting was scheduled and before we were to meet, I commonly do some spiritual groundwork.  I received permission from Amy to do the pre-session work and set aside some time in my schedule for this.  During my pre-meeting spiritual session, which I refer to as shamanic journeying, I try to understand the landscape of the person’s energetic environment.  I seek guidance from my spirit guides.  If the client’s spirit guides, higher self, or other energetic entities are present, I also engage with them.  While these sessions have some commonality to them, they are often unique, and I approach each with an open mind and treat them almost like a wide-eyed adventure. You never know where these sessions will go, and I want to allow them to evolve naturally.  My intent going into the pre-meeting session was to understand Amy’s situation and determine if my guides or Amy’s team (guides, etc.) had information that they wanted to share.  The journey was relatively uneventful — nothing from any of the participants about what was to unfold for us during our meeting that afternoon.  In retrospect, my guides were keenly interested in my reactions to questions I posed, but I did not read into any of their messages, nor did I ask them about her.  However, later, when I would query them about this, they were humored, and they wanted to see how things unfolded for me, so they kept quiet.  I jotted down some notes in my notebook to share and remember and proceeded about my day.

 One of the biggest hurdles we face when meeting with clients over video chat services is finding a service that is easy for our clients to use and is reliable.  Difficulties can arise due to the software needed, the device the client is using, the internet connection, etc.  As the scheduled time arrived for the three-way video chat to begin, there were some issues.  While Amy and my business partner worked out their connections and where they wanted to sit for the session, I watched and waited.  I pulled out my notes, thought about the agenda for the session, and how it would progress.  I found myself watching Amy’s video as she moved her laptop around, and the video feed from it.  She briefly showed herself in the video and then was working on the positioning of her video camera.  The video was angled upward, so it was showing me her living room and a ceiling fan circulating in the adjoining kitchen.  The visual of briefly seeing her sent a jolt through me.  Not a shocking jolt but more along the lines of “Hey, who is this person?!”  I remember Amy had her hair pulled back, but I couldn’t connect with her eyes.  I was becoming nervous, and I could not understand why.  My heart was uncontrollably pounding in my chest and I was a bit short of breath.  My mind started racing and I could not put a logical thought together.  I started fidgeting and tried to make small talk, but I was not listening to any of the answers from either of the two of them.  

My partner asked me how we would like to start.  I remember thinking wildly and blurted out the first thing that came to my mind – “Read some Tarot cards and see what they say.”  Tarot is not something we had ever done before a session.  Certainly not during a session!  My partner quizzically looked at me and shot me a snarky response.  The conversation was very friendly and open, so my partner changed the subject and got us out of that odd moment.  However, I was so nervous that I started to look around and pace around my office space.  My desk is a sit/stand desk, and it was raised, and I was standing.  This set up allows me to be expressive with my hands, but I typically remain in front of the desk.  However, I was discombobulated, and I could not focus.  I reached for some of the crystals I kept on my desk and started to fidget with them.  All while trying to articulate words, but my words were all nonsensical.  I distinctly remember walking into the closet in my office and messing around with items in there.  I had hanging clothes and office supplies in there, and I pushed my body in the closet.  I remember the thought skittering across my mind, “What the heck are you doing?!”  I realized I was rapidly going from odd behavior to outright weird behavior.  We stumbled through the session, Amy sharing where she was with her relationship and what she was thinking.  Okay, good, I had an opening something to focus on.  My mind and body were not cooperating, and my consciousness was aware of this disjointedness, but I was hopelessly confused.  I reached out to my guides in my mind and asked for assistance.  A voice came to me, and it said, “Look into your video camera or you will regret it forever.”  That voice brought me back to myself.  I thought to myself forever, not “the rest of your life”?  

I have a great deal of background on the concept of regrets and doing things before you regret them.  Essentially my attitude is you regret the things you don’t do, not the things you do.  There are a ton of caveats to this, but for right now to keep this simple, that is the way that I think about this.   It was a thought I had to act on.  I then walked up to my desk and got right up into the camera.  So close that all the two people looking at my video would see is my eyes.  I got so close that I could not see what was on the monitor screen of my computer. I pulled back and made sure Amy could see my eyes, and I looked at the camera with passion and intent.  I was thinking, “See me?”  followed quickly by “Remember me?”  These two thoughts were foreign to me, but they came to me, nonetheless.  I stepped back to see what effect this had.  I searched for Amy’s video feed and tried to look at her response.  My mind was still not fully engaged, and my focus was all over the place.  I could not tell if she had any reaction to me other than she giggled, which she was doing a great deal during the entire conversation.  

We then concluded the session, and my partner called me on my mobile phone.  She asked me about what the heck just happened, and I had no answer for her.  I was dumbfounded, and I had no answers.  I had no idea, but I knew something significant had just happened.  I felt a bit ashamed and offered my apologies.  I asked my partner if she could talk with Amy and get her feedback about the session.  I wanted to reschedule the session as it was a disaster.  I also wanted my partner to ask Amy if she had any thoughts about what just happened and if she experienced anything during the session.  I hung up the phone, and my partner called Amy immediately.

 I subsequently learned that Amy had also experienced something she was not expecting.  She was intrigued by me, and there was something there between her and I, and we needed to figure out what it was.  The realization that Amy had the same experience and the same response gobsmacked me.  It was decided that Amy and I would exchange emails, and we began a conversation between us.  Amy was reeling from this encounter, just as I was.  She initially pulled back a bit, but I was fortified by the knowledge she had experienced what I had.  What we both experienced with each other was not something we could avoid.  We had to face it and see what it was.  My emotions were shifting, and my thoughts were constantly pulled toward Amy.  I knew her; I had known her for a long time.  She was familiar to me. Our emails and phone calls were quickly progressing towards what we both knew but had not yet communicated – we needed to meet in person.

 Amy was wrestling with the concept that she already had a twin flame connection with another person.  What the heck was this new thing about?  Was what we had the real connection, or was it something less or different?  She could feel our connection, and it was familiar to her too.  Yet, she was torn by what she had been developing and experiencing with another person.  She needed space to figure out what was happening and what she wanted to do.  This gave me more conviction to try even harder, but I also realized that I needed to provide her with time and space to determine what she wanted to do.  I was hoping she would choose me, but I had to allow for the possibility that she may not.  I had a conversation with myself about the possibility that she may not want to be with me.  I decided that whatever she chooses, I would accept it.  I would not disconnect from her because I could not do that.  Perhaps we would just be friends.  The dreaded “Let’s just be friends” zone.  I was hopeful that she would come to me. I pushed my business partner to give me her inside information.  But she honored her friendship with Amy and assured me to be patient, which was her way of giving me a positive sign but not revealing anything.

 I can remember the event clearly.  I was in Redmond, WA taking a walk across a park, and I received a notification on my phone. It was the subject of an email from Amy, and it said, “It’s you.”  I was so excited I took a screenshot of the notification on my phone.  I felt like a person in a commercial.  I jumped so high in the air and yelled out in excitement.  I was so loud I remember several people walking in the park being frightened by my exaltation.  My being exploded in joy.  This was real and it was actually happening.

 The First In-Person Meeting

The day had finally arrived when I was going to be getting on a plane to meet Amy.  I could tell from our emails and our voices on the phone that both of us were a bit nervous and excited.  Amy was asking me about what food I wanted to have and things that I might want to do while I was in town.  I could not think of much else other than meeting her and keeping my composure.  Amy informed me that she would not be able to pick me up at the airport and that I would be meeting her sister, Carrie.  I already knew Carrie from previous phone conversations, so I felt reasonably comfortable.  Meeting Carrie before Amy would give me some time to center and settle myself down.

 I can usually sleep in an airplane, and while the flight takes a few hours, I was so excited that I could not sleep on the plane.  I was awake most of the previous night, thinking about meeting Amy and how this meeting would unfold.  

 I had never been to Austin, Texas, but I had been interested in the area for many years for the festivals and events that were held annually there.  The technology startup community and the number of companies that were within Austin also appealed to me as I periodically would think about moving to a different climate than Seattle.  Many future possibilities floated across my mind during this flight – all of them positive.  Would we feel the same about each other after meeting?  If things were good, how would we manage a long-distance relationship, or would I move to Austin and find a job there?  On and on I went with thinking of the possible timelines.  Being a believer in the manifestation process, I focused on the outcome: we would be together, and we would be happy.  Ah, the wonders of the imagination and so I played with the ideas and possibilities of the future.  Consequently, the time went very quickly, and I found myself feeling rested despite not being able to rest.

 As the pilot made his announcements on our final approach to the airport, a sense of calm settled over me. I knew I was ready to meet Amy’s sister and soon, meet Amy herself.  As we prepared to disembark the plane, I sent Carrie and Amy text messages that I had landed safely.  We arranged our meeting location at the airport, and while I gathered my bags and waited for Carrie, I connected with my spirit guides.  My spirit guides, who are with me most of the time, started to dialog with me and expressed a great deal of excitement.  I made a few inquiries about how I should act and if they had any words of advice for me.  It was a very lighthearted series of conversations and filled with a great deal of joy that Amy and I were finally meeting in person.  One guide, in particular, was reassuring that I was “good-to-go” and that Amy was more nervous than I was.  I had not given much thought about how nervous Amy must be in meeting me, and a smile crept across my face as I thought about the surprise I had planned for her.  It led me to reflect on exactly when the moment would come for me to surprise her.  I knew it was not going to be on this day as just our meeting was a cascade of energy and emotion, but it would be very soon.  The energy field surrounding me was thick; it was almost like a static charge was going to cut loose with a small bolt of lightning at any moment.  I could tell that this was going to be an interesting meeting.

 I found Carrie, and we loaded up her vehicle with my baggage and proceeded to the restaurant where we would meet Amy.  At this point, my mind was racing a bit, and I was flooded with emotions and excitement.  I had to focus very hard to stay present with Carrie and engage in conversation with her.  She did not notice my racing thoughts, and I kept the conservation light and calm despite my inner chaos.  We arrived at the restaurant and made our way to the back of the lounge area, where we settled in with some drinks and appetizers to wait for Amy to arrive.  This time was good for me as it gave me some much-needed time to relax and settle into the atmosphere of the restaurant.  The room was dark, and the tables were lighted with small candles, which added a slight romantic ambiance to the room.

 My spirit guides were present, and they were informing me that Amy was on her way.  Suddenly I could sense Amy’s energy.  I could tell that she was close and at the restaurant.  Shortly after, Carrie let me know that Amy had messaged her that she was parking her vehicle.  Carrie left to meet Amy and bring her back to our table.  Carrie was very aware of Amy and my twin flame connection, and she was excited to see what would unfold in this meeting.  I could sense Amy at the front of the restaurant, and I stood up from our table and prepared to say hello.  My vision became blurry, and my vision narrowed down to a tunnel.  I was nervous, excited, and flooded with a myriad of thoughts again, but I quickly regained my senses just in time to see Amy as she approached wearing a wonderful flowing summer dress and a warm, beautiful smile.   Her hair was bouncing off her shoulders as she briskly walked into the room, and then our eyes met.  It was then that the energy that was in the room noticeably intensified, and smiling even more broadly, we strode toward each other and embraced.  We quickly sat down and held hands and looked at each other and hugged again.  I could tell that we were both nervous, but we felt comfortable together, and our nervousness quickly melted away.  We ordered some drinks, and Carrie asked us if she could take some pictures.  We obliged, and in one of the pictures (it can be found on our website), you could see how the light from the little candle we held up split it’s flame into two lights.  We did not see the light splitting effect in the picture until the next day.  It felt like we received confirmation from the universe that the twin flames had finally met and that the start of something wonderful was in motion.  Throughout the rest of the evening we talked and became more and more comfortable with each other and the fact that this was indeed happening for us.  I truly felt that I had met the One person I was supposed to meet.  It felt and still feels in so many ways like a dream state, a non-reality, yet here we were, and this was happening.

 Amy had been discussing several of the locations that she wanted to take me to that were important to her in Austin.  One location was Barton Springs, which is a spring-fed natural water pool, found in the center of Austin.  There is a large park surrounding the area, and Amy enjoys walking and running on the trail there.  We planned to go swimming and walk on the trail.  However, when we arrived, the pool was closed due to maintenance work that was happening within the pool.  We had planned on walking around the trail in the park after swimming, so we started our walk.  I grabbed Amy’s hand as we strolled on the gravel walking trail, which meandered along the edge of the water in the park.  It was 10 AM, and there was still a briskness to the mid-morning air as the sun was climbing in the clear blue sky.

 The Surprise

I have shared with you how special I knew the connection that Amy and I had is, our twin flame connection is real, and I knew it deeply.  Before I left Seattle, I had decided that I was going to be all in on this relationship.  We all have our relationship experiences that form throughout our lives.  Often some of these experiences are negative, and we are hesitant to open ourselves fully.  We are often taught by others to have restraint and to “make sure” before we are fully present in our relationships.  I have had a wealth of negative experiences in relationships, and I have had to work through them.  Fortunately, I have been able to find the lessons about myself in each experience.  The journey through these experiences has spanned decades of my life, and I often was not able to address them until much later after they had concluded.  When I decided that I was going to be fully in my relationship with Amy, I was aware of some of the negative consequences of this decision.  I often joke with friends about the fact that I purchased a ring and put it on my right-hand ring finger to remind myself that I was never going to marry again.  I have been married two times previously.  I met Amy on a video chat and had an awakening during that event that was far too powerful to ignore.  I saw the person I was seeking all my life.  I was prepared to embrace what I had seen and felt completely, and I was going to hold on with all that I am.  It was incredibly powerful, and I recognized this.  The way Amy talked with me was engaging something in me, and my inner self was screaming to me: “WOW! She is the ONE!”.  I changed everything in my life from that moment onward.  

Before I met Amy, I had decided that I was going to propose marriage to her during this first trip.  I went to a local jeweler and selected a ring for her before I left.  The ring selection was an event all on its own.  When I was trying to pick which ring I wanted to give her, I reached out to my spirit guides, and I also found Amy’s higher self there.  The other Amy was quite helpful as she provided me thoughts about which ring Amy would want and why.  These points were later confirmed by Amy to be true.

 Amy and I are walking on the trail around Barton Springs, and I have her engagement ring in my pocket.  As we are moving through the park, I am looking for a location that feels right.  I wanted the location to be secluded and memorable.  The moment had to feel natural.  I had stopped Amy several times to kiss her, and on one such moment, I saw the location just ahead of us.  It was just past a bridge, and the sun was now bright in the clear sky.  I stopped Amy, stated that I had something to ask her, and got down on one knee.  She had a wonderful surprised look on her face.  She put her hands up to her face and with a huge smile on her face said “Yes! I cannot believe you are doing this, you crazy man.”  Yes, I am crazy in love with this lady and more so today than I ever knew was possible.  The reality of the first meeting, as I have stated, seems like a dream even today.  But the best part is that I feel completed and whole in many aspects.  We have our highs and lows, but we know we are together forever.  Approximately two years later, we were married.  And now we are here on this website together trying to help others out on their journeys, while listening to our hearts and providing what advice and wisdom that we can.  We are humans with all our faults and problems, but fortunate to have done most of our internal work and found each other on our twin flame pathway.