In the end of February, I traveled by train from Arkhangelsk to Usinsk, in NW Russia. My compartment companions on that train were a young husband and wife, with their 6-month-old baby. The woman, Elena, spoke excellent English and was the ‘nicest person in the world’, a real sweetheart. We had wonderful conversation the whole trip and related well on everything we talked about, all of which was real stuff of life.

Last month, Elena asked by email if it would be OK for her to share my contact info with her dear friend Anya, someone she said would have interest in communicating with me. Of course, I said yes. A couple of weeks ago, Anya, who lives in Moscow, contacted me to ask if I would do a zoom call with a women’s group she heads up. The purpose of the group is to do things to help improve their conversational English. She said they would be very happy if I would join them in conversation, not only because I am a native English speaker, but also because I am an American who is living an interesting life. My answer was yes.

Last week we did a test call, as I had never used zoom. Earlier today (morning my time and late in Russia, depending on the location), we did the conference call with six women spread across Russia. Instead of talking for 1 hour as planned, the call went on for over 2 hours. We all appreciated the opportunity to connect and we had fun interacting. At the conclusion, they all said they would like to have me join them again sometime.  They flatter me, but they also bless me, as I benefited greatly from our interaction.

Anya sent me this photo of her computer, which shows 4 of the 6 women on the call with me:

Although the excuse for our session was to improve their English, the underlying theme during the call was philosophy of life. That came about because the first question asked of me was what is my job. Oh, boy! Of course, I responded that first and foremost, my job is to be happy, inside, intentionally, to appreciate everything (in all things give thanks). That led to a number of interesting discussions.

My view is we humans are literally all one, with individual perspective and *only* physical separation. We are all definitely in this dynamic dance of life together. It blows me away that, at this particular time in history, I’m blessed not only by amazing travels in Russia, but much more importantly I’m blessed with real connections with other real people. The gals on the zoom call today seemed to understand when I described that my experience is that I get more of whatever I pay attention to and focus on, like it or not. My main focus is on how amazing life is.  Somehow, life continues to become ever more amazing to me.  This zoom call is the latest thing that serves to prove my point.

This is my story and I’m sticking to it 😉

GoldBalloon

PS During our test zoom conversation, Anya asked me why I have such interest in Russia, to visit so many times, for so long in total over so many years and to travel so much of the country.  I admitted there isn’t a simple answer, that the best way I could explain what is at the core of it was to say it’s purely an energetic attraction.  I described that a view I have is that the balance of energy between the countries she and I were born in is of the same proportions now as it was in 1989 & 1990, except the two countries have swapped position.  Whereas Russia/USSR was on its way down then and the US still on its way up, now it’s the opposite.  I have observed such major changes in both cultures over that period of time.

Something I expressed to Anya is that Russia is in what is referred to as a ‘sweet spot’ in history, substantially headed in an overall positive direction.  It was a new phrase for her.  That view of Russia made such an impression on her that she shared what I said with the other women on the call today.