It was 19° F and the “F” stood for “Friggin’ cold!” I had screwed Abandon earlier with a short walk and when I suggested that she just pinch a loaf in the house tonight, she said, “As much as a pile of crap on your floor would go unnoticed in this dump—get your lazy ass up and take me to the park!” While I wear the pants in this relationship, in part because I think people who dress their dogs up in little outfits are idiots who never grew out of playing with Barbie and Ken dolls, I knew she was right—that a pile of crap would go unnoticed—and so I took her out.
The wind was blowing and my nipples had gotten past the point of erect and to the point of risking shattering with any sudden movement. As I approached my tree friend I said, “Seriously, just a few breaths and I’m outta here!” He just smiled at me and in a silence I was too cold to hear said, “That’s all I need.”
After sharing breaths, he guided me to lean my back against him. I said, “Seriously, just for a second. I’m freezing my nuts off here!” I turned around and leaned against him. And suddenly the cold disappeared, like that feeling you get when you find a warm patch in the ocean and think, “This is so delightful!” until you realize that you just swam into a pool of piss from some bastard swimming near you. I could hear and see the wind blowing the branches around me but I somehow seemed insulated from the cold in my tree friend’s warm embrace. At that point, there was no man leaning against a tree or tree supporting a man; our physical forms could no longer be delineated.
He showed me how when you press yourself close to another, not physically but by seeking understanding and union, all the coldness that was between you before will disappear in an instant, for there is no more “between you,” no separation, only One Being. He then told me to be like a squirrel and take my cold nuts home.
“Meeting is the melting of boundaries, blurring of the divisions, overlapping, overflowing.”
—Osho from Meetings With Remarkable People (p. 110)
Kitty says: 