"Falling in love is a thing that strikes like lightning"
Blazing Reader,
"Falling in love is a thing that strikes like lightning," says Allan Watts, "and is therefore extremely analogous to the mystical vision. We don't know how really people attain the mystical vision — but we do know that it is open to many people who never did anything to look for it."
That about sums up my experience meeting Ina Backbier for the first time. I wasn't looking for anyone, and was rather determined to spend (at least) another two more years as a widower, focusing on my novel writing career. But I realized within the first five seconds of our Zoom meeting that I was totally in love with this beautiful blonde Dutch woman who speaks four languages and knows more about psychology than I know about writing. It was, as Watts says, akin to being struck by lightning.
She, on the other hand, was a little less thunderstruck at first, and it took until we met in person (three-and-half months later) before this crazy Canadian won her over. As I related in my previous post, I had the "slightly insane idea" of flying from Toronto to Amsterdam to take her out to dinner. We met at the Dam Square Inn at 11 am and by 1 p.m. a lightning bolt had struck her, too.
In memory of our first meeting, she gave me this custom-crafted necklace for Christmas:
The front displays a map of Amsterdam with a heart over the Dam Square Inn. On the back it says 12/12/24 — the numerologically auspicious date of our first meeting.
Christmas Eve, came twelve days later. 24/12/24 is when Ina opened a gift I had left under her Christmas tree: A pearl engagement pendant. I proposed over Zoom. At this point, she must have surely been as thunderstruck as I, since she accepted without hesitation.
Neither of us are the procrastinating type (as you may have noticed). On Tuesday, we are flying to Mexico to have a small ceremony with our three sons by a waterfall on a jungle path, near the coastal city of Puerto Vallarta.
We'll spend a week enjoying a honeymoon (with our kids!) on the beach, flying down ziplines, swimming with dolphins and being held captive on a pirate ship. Then, the following week, we'll travel up into the mountains for The People's Reset — a five-day event in Morelia, Michoacán (300km east of Mexico City) organized by the Conscious Resistance Network.
On days three and four of the event, Ina will be leading a two-part "Inner Freedom" workshop. In case you don't know, my bride-to-be mentors and guides individuals in the use of somatic self-inquiry to "reset" themselves from burdensome unconscious conditioning and emotional repression.
After The People's Reset, we head to the Netherlands for two weeks — so that my son Jonah can decide whether he wants to live with us or remain in the Great White North.
Two weeks later, it's back to Canada and time to get packing with the goal of immigrating to the Netherlands by April 1st.
Yes, it may seem mad that we are marrying after spending about 46.5 hours together in person. But as Allan Watts also says:
"...when you’re in love with someone, you do indeed see them as a divine being. And suppose that’s what they are, truly. And your eyes have, by your beloved, been opened. If you should be so fortunate as to encounter this spiritual experience, it seems to me to be a total denial of life to refuse it."
Denying life makes for a lousy story.
Or as Ina told me (after reading the draft of this post): "We are the protagonists of a wonder- and love-filled story of life... instead of sitting on the passenger's seat."
That said, I'll let the pilot fly the plane to Mexico.
—John C.A. Manley
PS You can find out more about mijn verloofde's (that's Dutch for "my fiancé's") Inner Freedom workshop at The People's Reset (plus find out how to book a free clarity call with her if you can't make it in person) by checking out this flyer.
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.
