“This is the magic of the experience.”
It was an instant connection during the Kindergarten roundup in the early 80's in rural Iowa that set the stage for a laughter-filled, adventurous friendship between Lori and Jolene. Romps through the woods that bordered Lori's land, visits to the principal's office (and coordinating stories), trips to the lake in bright-colored life vests, and high school dances dotted with poofy sleeves, were fertile ground for these two curly-haired friends to anchor a feeling of belonging, trust, and genuine acceptance.
In time and around the age of 18, their adventures and desire to experience new parts of the world took them from rural Iowa to two different big cities out west, where they lived much of adulthood - with only spotty moments of reconnection.
In the past couple of years, however, as they've reached their mid-forties, they've both returned home to Iowa as they enter what Lori calls their Chiron return era, a time of returning to what matters most.
"Chiron is known as the wounded healer. The wounded healer, when it returns, actually takes us to our highest point of spiritual integration, which is another way of saying that we don't give a crap about all the stuff anymore. We just want to be in our soul's blueprint - what we came here to share. We want to feel love and emanate love. It's such a place of living your life fully in your brightest light, out loud." Lori explained.
Along with their desires to return to the land they love, which provides ample space and time for connecting with nature and the simple joys in life, they've also experienced a coming home to each other.
"How much time had passed between talking never mattered. It's just like we picked up where we left off," Jolene said.
So much of who they were as children, and what connected them decades ago, is alive and still present today. Jolene makes Lori laugh. Lori is still a partner in adventure for Jolene.
"She's always been who she is, and that spark and that energy in her has always shined through," Jolene said of Lori.
They could talk all day - though they admit that words aren't even needed at the level at which they connect. And they'll happily run off to the woods and explore in a heartbeat, just as they did as young girls.
Among all the similarities to yesteryear that they cherish today, there's also beauty in, and appreciation for, who they have become in time. Both have "done the work" as Lori says. They've shed conditioning and come to fully understand, embrace, and live out loud as the people they are here to be. This work has allowed their friendship to radiate at an entirely new frequency - while still anchored by the comfort of "you knew me when…"
What is also new is the next generation. Jolene's 14-year-old daughter opens the door for Lori to share her mothering energy, energy that she holds to this day after her daughter "gained wings, not legs" nearly 17 years ago.
"That's how we were meant to thrive. As adults and mothers, we were meant to have time off. We were meant to be able to come back to ourselves because we could trust that the people in the community were part of our child's ecosystem. And so, even for the mothers that didn't actually get to have their kids grow legs, they still feel like a mother, and they still have that connection with the whole group." said Lori.
Their friendship is a beaming example of the beauty of human connection - a connection that spans multiple versions of themselves.
Jolene, in a Buddha-like fashion, releases expectations for what is to come with their friendship - and opens up to the possibility for it to unfold as it will.
As they journey, it is so clear that they always know how to find home - and each other. As Lori says, that's the magic of this all.
"The fact that we are here at 48, and this is where it went, is so profound. It's so the magic of this experience."