I’m fascinated with how some people just seem to mystically resonate with each other; how you could meet a person and immediately feel like long lost frieds, as if you’ve known each other for many years.
If I believed in the transmigration of souls I could have explained it easily: our souls have met in prior lives. Unfortunately I do not believe in reincarnation, so this hypothesis does not explain the wonderful phenomenon of such best-friends-at-first-encounter. I’ve been blessed with many such friendships and had the opportunity to catch up with two such friends recently.
I think I met Dane in 2003. Dane is the father of Parkour in South Africa. Another friend told me about the Parkour craze after seeing a documentary (“Jump London”) about it on television. It sounded like fabulous fun to me so I searched for it online, was able to find practitioners in South Africa and my brother T and I met up with Dane at the University of Pretoria one Sunday morning where he showed us the ropes. We felt a very strong connection with Dane and his wife, El, from the start. Not merely a friendship connection, but practially a family-like connection. I saw Dane again in 2004 when he and some other traceurs (Parkour practitioners) came to join us at the Potchefstroom University for a jam.
On Sunday afternoon I met up with Dane again after five years and the deep connection was still equally strong as before. This have been only our third meeting in the flesh, still the bond we felt were similar to that I have with some of my closest friends. I mentioned to Dane how strange this is, that this is only our third meeting but we feel like family. He concured and said something interesting. He believes that “communication” happen on a level that transcends geographic distance.
Another friend with whom I have a similar connection is Ronel – I think we met in 2000. We met via a mutual friend while we were both still at university. If I remember correctly, I was busy doing my honours in English Language and Literature at the time, and she was doing a degree in Graphic Design. We met at a little restaurant outside of a film cinema. Again the same thing happened as with Dane. We were friends upon first encounter.
Ronel is one of my closest friends even though we do not see each other that often either. Our psychic connection is quite strong. In conversations we would often say the same things at the same time. Once, in 2003, she phoned me one morning and my immediate reaction was “You are getting married!,” even though I we have not communicated for quite some time and I knew nothing about her love life. Intuitively, when I heard her voice I just knew.
I felt that way with Nathan. When we first met we "clicked" and then I saw him at campmeetings and the like. We would pick up where we left off, it was like we weren't really apart all that time. Even after he died I caught myself looking for him in those places, and then I had to remind myself that he won't be there.
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