She asked, “How is your soul?”

Whew.

We were minutes into lunch, saying our hellos, figuring out our favorite Mexican dish to order, and then she asked me.

“How is your soul?”

It was said in a way kind of like you would ask someone “how is your family?” or “how is your new job?” only there was so much more to it. It was a beeline to my heart. In a cut the crap, not interested in meaningless small talk, let’s choose to be real here and now kind of way. It was gorgeous. I think that it did every bit of what she likely intended it to do…it said to me, “I’m asking you to be vulnerable right now, and I’m reminding you that I am a safe person to talk about these things with.”

I have learned that there is an incredible value in being able to connect with people like this. I have seen the magic of that connection happening in seconds when you choose to be open to it. It’s happened to me in a BIG way twice in the last two months. These are my people. These are the people I know I could fall apart with, and they will tenderly hold my pieces while I work on just how they should fit back together. They won’t force me to do it before I need to, and they certainly won’t do the work for me.

There’s a little voice in my head that kind of wonders “But are you sure?” and then my soul calls up to it and answers, “Hell, yes I’m sure! This is amazing! Let’s celebrate these people!”

Then vulnerability is a lot less hard. It’s a much shorter distance to getting real. And the connectedness of our souls digs deeper. It’s magic for sure.