You find love and knowledge in the strangest places.

Just recently my friend Dana was having a clear out of her old books and this is one she gave me.   She said it was a good and fast read.

I started reading it on the way to New York.  As we were landing, I looked up and there was a woman being interviewed on the overhead TV.  Her name was there: “Miss Mamie Von Doren”.  She appears on page 7 of the the book.  (This is a bit of a strange coincidence, since the book is 12 years old!)  Life is funny like that.  I actually flicked back to the first chapter to make sure I wasn’t just imagining it!

I was having early drinks with a friend when I got to NY, and then a late dinner with another.  When they showed up, they knew each other.  Of course.  None of us live in NY.  We all decided to eat together.  Thor bet me $1000 on the definition of a word.  I begged him not to, but he did it anyway and then looked it up and proved himself wrong.  Strip Clubs were obviously in my head and I let him off with $100 in singles.  It was a fun night, for all 3 of us :).  A week later I was recounting this crazy night to a work-friend in Dallas, and THAT is how I ended up meeting… we’ll call her Lily.  (Stargazer lilies are my favourite flower.  Lily had one tattooed on her hip.  She sent me that picture.  It is for me alone.)

Lily is not the Lily of the book, but she is beautiful and she has a lot of love to give.  She came up to me at the strip club, and as politely as possible I told her “you’re not my type”.  She said “give me 5 minutes”.   Confidence, panache?  Well, NOW you are 🙂 . Long story short, Lily and I are now good friends.  I am a mentor to her and she to me.  She is beautiful, and she has a heart as big and open as anyone I have ever met.  She is 22 years old.

She believes in god.  She says with a big “G”.  She says that is because it is just human; that we put a capital letter on our names and “on stupid stuff like The White House”.  She believes in a creator.  The big energy.  Whatever “he” is.  She uses the word “he”.  She is a beautiful, shy mid-Western girl.  Maybe I want the small-Buntingford “me” back.

Always as a little kid, Lily says she was always better at solving other people’s problems than her own.  She said she always find the right words to say to someone, to just spread a little love.  To help just a bit.  Another soulmate/friend?

She says she is learning to mourn for the first time.  I know how that feels.

Of all places, here is some wisdom in Lily Burana’s book.

My Lily says there are no such things as coincidences.  She says “everything happens for a reason.” 🙂