Happy Birthday Jeffrey. Happy New Year everyone else.

My friend Jeffrey’s birthday coincides with the new year and we have rung it in together over the last few years. This January 1st I am allowing myself the sweet sadness of missing Jeffrey who now lives in Florida. He is one of those enigmatic people that never ceases to surprise. There are no presets, pigeonholes or personality types for my Jeffrey. He is just Jeffrey… a light in shining armor.

I met Jeffrey at the Freihofer’s Run For Women. No I wasn’t running yet. I was still quite overweight and a long way from considering my first 5k. I was merely there shopping with my friend Donna, visiting the vendors for gear. As we stood listening to the miraculous properties of this flexible ice pack a very tall man with a very sweet face started chatting with us first about the foundation he was there representing and then about everything else. I swear there were beams of light that pierce my soul and bounced back at him and we were now connected. Forever.

Ok so maybe that’s an exaggeration but not by much. We spoke of life. How it was short but wide. We talked of doing something you love trusting that the money would come. We wondered if somehow, someday we would overcome our core fear of not being able to care for ourselves.

We share common backgrounds although he is from the west coast and had spent 20 plus years in the Navy. I am an east coast girl having spent 20 years in politics. I am a life coach and he wanted to break free from the ‘job’ and work for himself training others physically and spiritually. We exchanged contact information and let go.

It would be months before we connected again. As coach and client we worked on manifesting his dream life. We explored what stood in the way… what fears needed to be re-examined, what action steps had to be taken. Success came swift and in an interesting way. Jeffrey came to the session several months into the coaching and said he had good news and bad. The good news? He was let go from his job. I congratulated him! The bad news? He could no longer afford the coaching. I hugged him…assuring him he was ready to go it alone at least for now.

And he was. Several months later he approached me with the concept of bartering for coaching and as it happen I was looking to run a marathon and Jeffrey has trained dozens of neophytes like myself. We had a deal. We had a mission. We had each other.

Jeffrey and his partner have become a part of my family – sharing holidays, beach trips, summer BBQs, Cranium and Monopoly marathons and of course birthdays. This year I have muddled through each of these events without Jeffrey. I still feel that soul piercing connection despite the distance.

So on the eve of his birthday I celebrate him. Thankful that his birth and mine put us on the earth plain at the same time… grateful to know him, blessed by his attention and love and looking forward to see him soon.