Connections Across the Pond

I watched the character-driven 1987 movie "84 Charing Cross Road" this week and was struck by how the relationship between these two people mirrors in so many ways some of the connections that have grown between myself and people I have met through email. I used to love having pen pals when I was a kid, and so naturally was drawn to emailing. But the gift I had not expected was for deeper connections to develop between us when we had never even met! I feel so close to some of these people, and this reveals how beautifully energy can flow across the land and sea, uniting spirits drawn to one another. We share hopes and dreams, trials and sadness, and with our words are joined in a space of true appreciation, respect, compassion and love.

In the movie, Frank is reading a poem by Yeats while thinking of Helene; I had to pause the movie so that I could read the poem slowly, several times:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

~ He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats

Isn't that incredible? A beautiful poem to share the love between those who have somehow connected, not just ‘lovers,’ because love in its purest form is a divine gift: a sharing of souls, a treat of thoughts, a dish of dreams. Like one of Yeats’ heavenly threads, we may find ourselves drawn to connect with those hundreds or thousands of miles away. And realize that our words can harm or cause pain.

So, no matter who they are, let us "tread softly"...