~~~Nag Champa~~~

[AkashicWreckage]

There's Josie and Bob, who live sorta across from me.
I don't think either of them have hit 65 yet---but it's begun to happen with them too.
They are catching the old fart disposition.

A year and a half ago, Bob and I met under stressful circumstances.
I lived here maybe two or three days, when I walked out my front door to run downstairs for a moment.
As I was watching myself close the front door, I realized that I didn't have my keys on me, and my hand wouldn't listen to my brain and closed the door anyway.
Locked out---no cell phone, no nothing---

I had been cleaning, so I had on a skimpy tank top and short shorts---not an outfit to go around ringing doorbells so I could use someone's phone.
I rang a few doorbells, no one was home.
Even if they were home, most here wouldn't hear the doorbell anyway.
I almost felt like a geriatric call girl.

Rang the doorbell at Bob's place, and he answered, thankfully.
I told him of my predicament and he called the building director downstairs.
That's the 91 year old who shacks up with Bailey's other mother.
He has keys for everyone's unit.
No answer.
I didn't have my cell phone on me, when I locked myself out, so I didn't have my condo owner's phone number.
That's when I introduced Bob to Craigslist.
The ad I had answered for the condo was on Craigslist, and we quickly found the phone number.
I thought she'd be able to come over and open my door, except she was in Georgia.

So, Bob offered me cold coffee as we waited for the Condo Couple to arrive back home.
He told me about how his wife was up in NY and that she didn't like him to make so much coffee.
When she was away, Bob could cut loose and do whatever he wanted.
He would make several pots of coffee, one right after the other, and then put the coffee in containers in the fridge.
That way, all's he had to do was pop it in the microwave and nuke it for a few seconds to warm it up.

Well, after about 45 minutes, the hot condo couple from downstairs returned, the director unlocked my door for me, and I began to make friends in the building.
Everyone thought is was so cute that I'd locked myself out---Big Excitement for the whole building to chat about---

About 3 months later, one Saturday morning, there was a knock at my door.
I walked over to open the door and Bob was standing there.

I said, "Hi Bob, how are you doing?"
He replied, "Every time I pass your door, there is a strange and familiar aroma that is in the air. What is it?"
I answered, "It's Nag Champa."
Bob said, "I don't know why it feels so good to smell it and it brings me back in time."

I basically burn either Nag Champa, or Golden Nag Champa, or Spirit Guide, or Patchouli Forest incense.
I've had some interesting experiences with Copal incense and when I burn Golden Amber on my night table, I have interesting dreams.
I didn't realize it at first, when I began to burn those incenses, that they can induce altered states of consciousness.
But mostly, I burn the Nag Champa.

Bob was standing there, not inside my apartment and not quite outside the apartment and he had this weird look on his face.
I asked him if he would like to come in for a while and then he said to me---
"I don't know why I'm telling you this, I have memories of my past lives and I was someone very important on Atlantis!"

It was the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth.

And the first thought I had was---
Of course.
Yes.
We've ALL been someone veeeeerrrrry important on Atlantis---
And, let's not all forget the Lessons of Lemuria!
I was a priestess and Beach Buddy was an important government official---

I think I was also Eve---I love apples and sometimes have wicked cravings for a good crunchy cold MacIntosh apple.
Adam wasn't so hot in bed either, but it was slim pickings back in the day---
After that life as Eve, I came back as a slut a few hundred years later---big deal.

By this point in the Past Life Reunion Tour with Bob, my Beach Buddy----who had come for a visit a month or so before that and never left---looked at me, and I looked back at him.
I raised my right eyebrow to signal something or other to him.
He pursed his lips and raised his left eyebrow to let me know that he got my message loud and clear.
We were both clearly amazed.

Out of all the gin joints, and condo communities around, here's this guy telling us about his life on Atlantis!
Amazing!
So, Bob took a seat and told us about Atlantis, and some of his other lives.
He explained to us that he set up an Excel spreadsheet so he could put his past lives in chronological order and keep track of them.
My Beach Buddy and I told him that we had also been on Atlantis and that my Beach Buddy had been murdered for his exposure of the corruption there.
Yes, I know---we think it's freaky that we know this is true, too.
It is kind of bizarre and if anyone told me I was crazy, I'd agree with them.

I think that Bob was really enjoying having an audience---he began to make himself comfortable, easing back into the cushions on the couch.
He began to tell us about how he'd get these random flashbacks of Atlantis---
"If I'm near my computer, I quickly open my Excel files and jot the information down so I won't forget."
Bob had his hand up by his chin, rubbing it gently as he went on, "My wife doesn't believe any of this stuff, she thinks it's crazy."

Bob continued, "After all the information I have uncovered about all my other lives, 32 lives so far, the conclusion I have reached is in this life I just have to give in to Josie and do whatever she wants."
His voice lowered and he said, "I am not supposed to argue with her anymore and that is my one big lesson in this lifetime."

Bob stayed for almost an hour, going on and on about his lives, my eyes began to glaze over and I just nodded my head and finally he was ready to leave.
Before he said goodbye, he advised, "I won't be able to burn any incense because Josie would have a fit."
I suggested to him that I could give him an empty Nag Champa box, and he could keep the incense in there and just smell it every once in a while.
He liked that idea.

A few days later, there was another knock on my door, it was Bob again.
"Josie just left to go shopping, she'll be gone for a while, can you come over for a little bit?"

"Sure!" I replied, "Give me a few minutes and I'll be right over."

So, I went and knocked on his door and Bob led me back to his office. I'm wondering to myself, "Geez, what is going on here?"
Bob sat down at his computer, opened up Excel, and began to read to me the different lives he'd had---
In chronological order---
Booooorrrring!
But I went along with it, and I was nice and polite.

Bob would stop by every once in a while to chat, and one night we invited Josie and him over for a Night with Spirit.
I was going to do readings.
I can't remember if it was that night, or just a feeling I had---but I knew that Josie was sick.
I also knew she had 2nd and 5th chakra issues, how I knew this, I don't recall.
Bob also talked that night about his "prostrate" (sic) gland and how it was bothering him.
It was an interesting night and after that, for whatever reason, Bob didn't stop by, and didn't even say goodbye when he went back up north for the summer.

Josie, however, was another story---
One evening, as I was sitting in the living room, and Nag Champa incense was burning, she passed my door with a group of friends and I heard her say very loudly, "That's marijuana we're smelling!"
"No it isn't! It's Nag Champa!" I wanted to scream at her!
I almost did get up to open the door to correct her---but she's a Leo, so I chose the path of non-confrontation.

When they came back for the winter season here, things were different.
Josie had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was recovering from treatment.
And, Bob definitely had prostate issues.
We watched the change in him take place and he began to get that deer in the headlights look too, and he appeared to be defeated.
We heard varying reports from the neighbors, throughout the winter--- first it was cancer, then it wasn't.
He was going to have it removed anyway.
Bob looked distant, detached, cold, and had an unhealthy grey cast to his skin.

And, I wanted to suggest to him that he not have his prostate removed, that he should see a healer, but I didn't.
We've only exchanged hello's and how are you doing's---it's like it never happened, Bob sharing with us the stories of his past lives.
I realize that part of his spirit has been quashed.
The interactions we shared, still mystify me. Something is there---there is a connection, but it may very well remain unexplored.

I wonder what the point of all that was?
Why would the most unlikely person in the world, knock on my door---
Share his snippets about his previous lives?
Show me his Excel files on his computer, with the box of Nag Champa just a bit to the left of his keyboard---within easy reach?
What was this supposed to be about?

Maybe it was the Nag Champa....
Stirring up memories of a different time and place...
Perhaps to show me and Beach Buddy that---
As Beach Buddy just said, "What is any of this really about?"

[Jeanne]

At the risk of becoming known as a crazy, old cat woman... I must confess; a few weeks after my cat Hobbes had disappeared and my husband expressed his weariness of hearing my whimpering and whining... I let go full throttle. One day while alone, he was at work, I let all my sorrow bubble up and wash away in loud wailing. I did feel much better afterwards... I still miss my boy Hobbes... still hope for his return, but I've cleared out the repressed emotions that seemed inappropriate, annoying and draining.
As to the grieving person down the street... I too don't want that either... perhaps even fear it.

[AkashicWreckage]

I think she was sort of "shell shocked," by it all. Now my mother in law---very sad, she knows no one now and she's relatively young, only 80.
I heard a commotion yesterday, hard to tell where it was coming from, but I assume it was a few buildings down and across the street. A woman was yelling and screaming, with so much emotion, for someone who was obviously not around. I assume it was maybe her husband, but she called for him with such intensity and longing...
I don't want to ever get like that, and have to yell---"I want Beach Buddy! Where is he?"
Not to make light of it---I just don't want that to be any part of my reality...
AW

[Jeanne]

Sad, indeed... I'm really hoping I don't lose my mind... its the only thing I've got left now that most everything else has moved south.

[AkashicWreckage]

I think Josie is/was a total control freak! ;-)
It's an interesting study of people, as I've observed them since their illnesses took root.
LOL to the patchouli oil, to me---it does not smell like marijauana, nor Nag Champa...
The weird thing about Josie, and I believe it's a result of the illness, when they came back she didn't know me.
We had spent time together, she came here and we passed each other frequently outside, their car is parked right next to mine---and she didn't recognize me. After a few months of this, one day when I was walking Bailey outside, she said that she felt foolish that she didn't realize who I was and that I lived right across from her. Very sad, in a way...
Blessings,
AW

[Jeanne]

Good to have you back and blogging, AW. And as usual, your humor filled my morning with laughter.

I'm thinking Josie didn't want Bob associating with a smoker... which she presumed nag champa to be indicative of. Geez, she had issues with coffee... then again, I too discourage my husband's excessive caffeine ways. Bob did say his role was not to argue with Josie... so he quietly relented.

I had a previous employer accuse me of smoking marijuana cuz he smelled patchouli on me. The next day I brought a bottle of patchouli oil to work and had him smell it... he said he was relieved, cuz he didn't want to fire me. Later, I had the pleasure of quitting...