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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Soulmate, Myself:
Omega Point

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to face unafraid, the plans that we made

Elenchus. Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics does such a good job with her version of “Winter Wonderland.”

Kairissi. There’s something really magical about that song.

E. It’s more than a Christmas carol, more than an ode to the beauties of nature. I’ve listened to “Winter Wonderland” so many times, but I’m still emotionally jarred every time I hear the words, “to face unafraid the plans that we made.”

K. It was never meant to be a Christmas song – there’s no reference to the holidays in it. The songwriter had other things on his mind. There’s a sad story behind “Winter Wonderland.” I was reading about it.

E. What happened?

K. Twenty-eight year-old Richard Smith of Pennsylvania married Jean Connor in 1930. The next year he contracted tuberculosis. His condition grew progressively worse, until he died in 1935.

E. They were together for only five years… and I’m beginning to see how “to face unafraid, the plans that we made” found its way into the song. But, please continue. How did he deal with his illness?

K. Richard was growing weaker. On cold winter days he would sit by a window, watching children play in the snow. And he would dream about a better life in which he could enjoy a “winter wonderland” with his new bride.

E. (silence)

K. Richard’s vision of romance and happiness with the girl he loved amidst Nature’s snowy glory inspired him to write a poem. It’s how he wanted to live – to feel joy “to the top,” to revel in a carefree, unbothered existence with Jean.

E. His joyfulness is all the more remarkable as those were the years of The Great Depression, when thoughts of gloom and defeat had infected the national psyche.

K. By 1934 the poem was complete, and Richard approached his friend, Felix Bernard, skilled at music composition. Richard didn’t live to see the finished project, but Felix would transform “Winter Wonderland” into one of the most popular songs of all time.

E. … “to face unafraid, the plans that we made.”

K. Tell me what you see, Elenchus.

E. It’s interesting how Richard cast the lovers, probably, as young teens.

K. The song hints at the possibility that these young romantics might have even been a little younger. In the less-known second verse, the snowman is being knocked down by “other kiddies” – another version has it "all the kids." I'm not sure if we have Richard's exact original final draft of "Winter Wonderland," but I won't worry about that -- I'd like to give you my own version. As I see it, this very joyful girl and boy are fairly young, and still consider themselves to be "kids."

E. I’m thinking they’re 12 or 13 – not old enough to direct their own lives quite yet, but having attained a minimum sufficient freedom to spend some time together by an evening fireplace.

K. I’m being persuaded by your theory, and if we’re correct, then these two might be the classic “girl and boy next door." They’re too young to be given permission to traipse across town on a “date-date,” but, if they’d grown up together, it would be natural for them to be in each other’s homes by a fireplace…

E. And that’s why, not yet of an age to enjoy total liberty, they feel the need to “conspire”…

K. (smiling)

E. … thereby pursuing their romance “under the radar.”

K. (softly laughing) Uh-huh. The fathers were likely oblivious to conspiratorial ways, but the mothers would know everything.

E. (smiling) mmm...

K. Our whole romance back then was “under the radar,” stuck there and out of sight, and you were the last to know.

E. Well, I have another story about a “winter wonderland,” and it’s about you.

K. Now I'm worried.

E. In the song, they talk about being in the “meadow.” I was walking in a meadow once. It was March. There’d been a recent snowfall, and it had frozen into a bejeweled crust. I could walk on it, slide on it, and the hard surface didn’t break.

K. Oh… I wish I could have been there with you.

E. It was unusual. Snow naturally reflects sunlight, but this was different. The frozen albion mantle had created a lustrous prism, enhancing the sun’s reflection, causing common radiance to issue as a sea of diamonds.

K. (sighing)

E. I’d never seen anything like it, and I’ve often been around snow. The entire meadow had been repainted as a vast carpet-expanse of twinkling “stardust.” I stood aghast at the beauty. And as I observed this marvel, a phrase came to mind – “glistening, shimmering, sparkling”…

K. (smiling)

E. -- and in that moment… I thought of you.

K. (silence)

E. And I said to myself, “This is what I live with all the time.”

K. (softly) -- the “sparkles in your head.”

Editor's note: See the other-side channeled testimony of Sir John Pensley regarding the unveiling of previously-unseen reality coming to us as "tiny flashes" of light. I submit that Twin Souls, within their own domain of discovery of "what's real", might also experience this smallest incremental luminescent display in the form of what Elenchus calls "sparkles in the head." This should not seem strange as Twins, even as children, might become privy to the unfolding of "ultimate reality."

K. Ellus, you've said you experienced "the sparkles" even when you didn't like me. You said this happened when you were around me even as a young boy. But tell me -- is it really true? Can children fall in love? I mean, find the true love? Give me your best answer.

E. I think they can; of course, it’s problematic, but they can. Finding true love is not primarily a function of years; it takes more than time. It requires a shift, a ratcheting-up, in consciousness.

K. Can children achieve that?

E. It’s rare; but then, it’s also rare among the so-called adults on this planet. A further complication is that even when better awareness arrives, it might come, in the beginning, in fits-and-starts, as it might be easy, for a time, to repress and sweep under the rug.

K. And so, some children, those "soul pledged," might catch a glimpse of true love, but it wouldn’t necessarily remain as a settled state of mind.

E. I think that’s right.

K. Ellus, we both know this is what happened to us with our “peak experiences.”

E. Yes – the “peak experiences,” but also the “constructive assent.”

K. Elenchus, do you recall the story of the two eight year-old kids, a boy and girl, each with parents who worked as missionaries in a third-world country? The boy, astonishingly aware, fearing that he might lose his little friend, pledged marriage to her if she would wait for him to grow up. She accepted. He sealed the contract with a gift, a small vial of perfume borrowed from his mother. They made good on their mutual promises and twelve years later they were married. Apparently this is a true story. What do you make of this?

E. I think things like this can happen. I recall Will Durant discussing the ancient Egyptian culture, and he used the phrase regarding little girls then, “nubile at ten.” In times past, children were considered virtual adults at ten or twelve. What we today call adolescence, a prolonging of childhood, was largely unknown in pre-industrial societies.

K. That’s very interesting. Maybe the story of the two eight-year old lovers is true. And it makes sense: those two missionary kids experienced a good deal of hardship living in a back-water country, and it would only be natural for them to rely on each other for companionship to a degree not seen in a typical Western Hollywood-culture world.

E. What does this say about what happened to us, Kriss?

K. I’m suddenly seeing some things. We’ve admitted to ourselves that we did not treat each other very well back then. But if we had lived a life of material privation, we might not have allowed ourselves the luxury of petulance and churlishness. Because we, in fact, do have a deep bond, we did perceive the occasional “peak experience,” but there was no ready impetus in our relatively easy lives to develop this into true relationship, as was the case for the kids in the third-world country.

E. I think this is plausible.

K. I believe that our “constructive assent” led our hearts to "dream" and to make “plans," though, at times, only subliminally. I think my statements here are true, but, as I make them, I also see that we fell victim to an antecedal requirement ignored – “to face unafraid.” We weren’t yet able, or willing, to do that, and so everything fell apart and was put on hold.

E. Richard Smith presents an ideal, and very few, maybe none, can actually do this flawlessly. But, Kriss, why don’t you sum-up for us the message of this song.

K. It’s a song about rejoicing; about two young lovers "living in the joy" and celebrating -- for what they have together, and for the many good things they'll yet share; and they’re so giddily exuberant because they know, they can feel it, deep down, the reality of it all -- they have each other, and need nothing else.

E. This reminds me of the Guides' message in The Wedding Song -- that authentic lovers' own unshakeable conviction regarding the palpable and substantive fervency of their own romance and relationship becomes part of the evidence, a "witness" -- not only to themselves, but to the world -- that true eternal love, in fact, exists.

K. That's a beautiful truth. And maybe this is why "Winter Wonderland" is the most popular, the most played, holiday song ever, having been recorded by more than 200 different artists. The pretty tune alone doesn't account for its massive success. I think that people are resonating with a great truth portrayed by two kids rejoicing, making those plans, unafraid, dreaming together, to share love forever.

E. Richard wrote of his "Winter Wonderland" image of joy when he was dying. I’d like to think that he’d already caught the tiniest snowflake’s view of a coming happiness in Summerland.

K. Maybe Richard was like the third-world kids suffering privation. As his suffering increased, as death neared, he seemed to see life and love more clearly, what's truly important. And what he saw was joy.

E. Great insight, Krissi.

K. Most of us will need to wait for Summerland for the fruition of "the joy," all of those happy “plans we made.” But it's coming for everyone.

E. But let me ask you this. I can see Richard sitting, transfixed, at that window, thinking of better times to come. And he would have already been missing Jean and the life together they would soon lose. He was dealing with his own fears, of course, a threat of loss regarding "the plans" that Jean and he had made. But, in his hopeful ecstatic vision of future happiness, I'm wondering, why did he cast the song's two lovers as children? Why not make them 30-something, as he and Jean, in fact, were?

K. That’s an interesting question. And just now as we speak I believe that Heaven has given me an answer. Minutes ago we asked, “Can children find true love?” – but now I’m wondering... if anyone else can.

E. mmm... Keep going on this.

K. To be truly in love, to live in and to become recipient of love's splendor, requires us to dismantle our heavy psychological defense-mechanisms; to cast away the "games people play”; to make ourselves open, naked, and vulnerable to each other's spirit; to trust, to believe, to surrender to each other. Adults don’t do that very well. I think it’s as Jesus said: “to enter the kingdom” – for us, the kingdom of eternal romantic bliss – “we must become as little children.”

Editor's note: See more discussion of the "magical child."

K. Elenchus, you said you’re emotionally jarred every time you hear the words, “to face unafraid the plans that we made.” That sounds like a “tip of an iceberg” reaction. There’s something going on below with that. Tell me what this really means to you.

E. The phrase “to face unafraid, the plans that we made” seems harmless enough. But it accesses something wide and deep concerning true romantic love. It’s so important that I want to save it for another discussion when we can concentrate on it. But, for now, let me give you a short answer.

K. Please.

E. Women don’t always realize it, but, as a general rule, men named "John" are constitutionally unable to “make plans” with a mate; not really. It’s too threatening. It's all of those things you just listed about being vulnerable. Men have to give up some of their power to "make plans." We don’t like that. We’d rather be “head honcho” and just do whatever we want and not ask anybody.

K. And this is the standard view of men named “John”?

E. John not only doesn’t truly want to “make plans” with Mary, he doesn’t even really want to talk to her at all. Well, he will, to maintain a civilized appearance, in order to keep Mary from running to the hills. He needs to sleep with her, and so he’ll offer certain concessions. And he might grudgingly make some plans with her, for operating the household and mundane things like that, but his heart's not in it. He’d rather just railroad through whatever he wants to do.

K. But then we have a song which virtually puts lovers “making plans” as front and center of their joy.

E. That’s why it’s so jarring, so anomalous, so out of character. Because when a man finds his true one, when his name is no longer “John,” now, suddenly, like a mad man, he can’t get enough of talking to her and “making plans” with her!

K. John and Mary know nothing of this dynamic.

E. It’s so important that I count it as one of the very top tests of true love. Let us agree to speak of this again when we can discuss it at length.

K. Ok…

E. I’d like to say one more thing. It’s indirectly related to our discussion, but it's part of “winter wonderland.” -- I have a fantasy about us.

K. (smiling) Just one?

E. (small smile) Must I reveal all my secrets?

K. (softly laughing) What did I just say about being open and vulnerable?

E. (small smile) I’ll tell you about the others at the right time; but… I’ve always wanted to be “snowed in” with you.

K. (small smile) mmm… Will we be “dreaming by the fire”?

E. Of course.

K. It’s interesting, isn’t it, Ellus – two young kids, meant to be together, can “make plans,” but not necessarily consciously. Of course, we had a long discussion on this “subliminal” aspect in the “constructive assent” writing, and so we shouldn't go into it again right now, but… it is amazing.

E. Absolutely.

K. Just to offer a few words, how would you say this works for them?

E. Well, as we’ve intimated, most of it is well “under the radar.”

K. However, years later, as they look back on this, it will all seem pretty obvious then.

E. Every time they look at each other there’s a sort of – how shall I put it? – a jarring disturbance in one’s spirit.

K. (laughing) I think that’s what they call being in love.

E. (small smile) Thank you for informing me.

K. Don’t mention it. But, you actually make a good point. They interact with lots of other kids, but when they interact…

E. … or clash.

K. That, too; but when they do, it feels different. They’re too young to even stop and think about the difference, but on a slightly deeper level…

E. (softly laughing) They don’t have any level deeper than “slightly.”

K. (smiling) I guess, but you’d be surprised - speak for your own species as mine is quite sentient in such matters.

E. Point well taken.

K. Well, we shouldn’t get into this at the moment, especially as we’ve already plowed this ground in “constructive assent.” Let’s send our readers there.

E. Ok, but how would you sum this up in a very brief way.

K. If two kids are destined Twin Souls, that inner “radioactivity” is never parked in neutral. It’s always burning, always attracting them, always preparing them, forming and shaping their capacity for future love. Granted, their own immaturity and egocentrism temporarily shields them from the titanic forces in play, but – the hot-boiling plasma of love never stops bubbling.

E. Kriss, in closing, tell everyone what you mean by “titanic forces in play.”

K. We’ve laid it all out in many writings; but, to reference one, a really good one, see “The Wedding Song: an Earthrise Restatement.” All of God’s plans for humanity, all of divinity’s hopes for our future happiness, the very purpose of the universe and the world - all of it devolves to a single reality-shattering instant of time: the moment when Twins consciously and fully realize who they are to each other!

E. Is that what happened to me?

K. (smiling) I’ll explain it to you someday; but, if you closely examine those "sparkles in your head", you'll find a tiny photo of me embedded in each one.

E. mmm... maybe you photo-shopped this just to confuse me.

K. I don't think so - they're factory-installed and custom-made.

K. It’s been quite a few years now since we had the above discussion.

E. We promised another discussion of “to face unafraid, the plans that we made”, but we never did.

K. It’s worthy of further investigation. I would say “to face unafraid, the plans that we made” is a sleeper topic for us. We have many favorites but this one has been neglected and deserves better.

E. We said that it “accesses something wide and deep.”

K. Let’s say more on that.

E. Those two kids by the fire remind me of us – not that we actually did that, but, with just a little more awareness, we’d have been right in there.

K. In the last few years, as featured in other articles, we’ve said that, with a little more awareness back then, in our heart of hearts, we would have wanted to make “plans” just as these two did.

E. And here I think our testimony will be controversial…

K. Only to those who haven’t experienced this.

E. But, making plans, for those who enjoy a soul bond, takes to itself a substantial force and energy which, to an outsider, will seem unlikely.

K. Let’s just share our testimony and not worry about the skeptics; they’ll find out later.

E. As we peer through the mists of ancient teen immaturities, piercing all the way to “what might have been,” we see that, in our heart of hearts, making plans together was just about the most wonderful thing we could think of.

K. In that “might have been world,” we see ourselves as eighth-graders.

E. We’re 13, just like the kids in the song.

K. And we know we have something together. Even so, we’re not compelled to find a secluded place to be intimate – not that we'd have been totally opposed to that – but, instead, what we really wanted was to make plans for the future, for after high-school graduation, to marry and to go to college together, and then work together as teachers.

E. This vision of what we wanted for ourselves, this “making plans” together, was so incredibly exciting to us, that we began to structure our lives around it.

K. Sitting by a fire would not have been a bad thing, but what was most important to us was to study together, almost every night, and prepare for our future lives. And you came to my house, almost every night, and mom set up a table and study lamps for us, just off the kitchen, in a small ante-room.

E. We were so enthused, so almost wildly-ambitious to do well together, and for each other, that we asked your dad if he would get us the high-school freshman science and math textbooks so we could get a whole year’s head-start on those studies.

K. We were so excited. And we began to outline those books, and do the work, and we made a thick set of notes which, we thought, might even be used later when we'd be teachers.

E. It is difficult to convey the explosive and churning excitement in our spirits to be working on such a project.

K. Because – it was more than studies; it was our life, our joint life, a preparation for our married life and work to come - it was a form of love for each other. It was, writ large, the entire disciplined program of “to face unafraid, the plans that we made”.

E. And we did this kind of together-study all through eighth grade, and then into the years of high school. Needless to say, we did very well in all of our academic endeavors.

K. And, Elenchus, what’s really interesting to me is that, with all of our excellence-of-spirit study projects, we didn’t feel the need to escape to the hidden backseat of a car to explore sexual encounter. We talked about the possibility, and it’s not that it never crossed our minds. But we were enjoying ourselves so much, just being together in our prep for the future, that we didn’t feel compelled to have more just then.

E. On Friday nights, we’d take a special break from our “kitchen table” pursuits, and we’d go for a long walk on a grassy expanse just adjacent to your house. Your mom and dad could see us out there from the kitchen window. We were talking and laughing so much. It’s exactly where we wanted to be out here on that open field, feeling comfortable and happy with our growing accomplishments, and we didn’t feel the need, at all, to “take things to the next level.”

K. In a way, there was little point. We'd soon have each other, and this fact was not lost upon us. We wanted to be married right after graduation, so that special time was fast coming, and we were mesmerized by that mega-event, now, so visibly, on the horizon, about to engulf us.

E. This whole issue of “to face unafraid, the plans that we made” has been underrated and misunderstood. As we've said, in the typical marriage, “John” isn’t so keen to make plans with his pretty “Mary.” That’s not what he signed on for.

K. In too many cases, what he signed on for was just an interaction with a beautiful body, and in a depersonalized manner. This kind of “arms length” psychological compact creates a sense of isolation and “your job is to make me happy” and so there’s little thought, in any meaningful way, given to making plans for the future. As far as John is concerned there is no augmented future to plan for – Mary is a sex-object, and that’s all John wants to know. (See more in the Krishnamurti lectures.)

E. But it’s absolutely and totally different when you’re with a girl who’s the other half of your being.

K. Oh, that little thing.

E. With Twin Souls, there’s an unleashing of hidden energy.

K. In the “waves” article, we spoke of “rogue waves,” a confluence of individual consciousness-waves creating a larger – and growing – rogue wave. This is what we, in potentia, we’re experiencing with all of the heady and near-intoxicated feelings concerning prep-work for our future together-life.

E. It’s a form of the spiritual life, a life attuned to the finest vibrations of God’s essence. I’m reminded of the bubbling and effervescent Rose Carson, reporting directly from the afterlife, how she just couldn’t take it all in as it was so wonderful.

K. Elenchus, let’s reprint the entire inset-box:

K. Rose is such an incredibly wonderful example of what we felt, and feel today, as we live in the energies of “the consciousness waves” – the burgeoning, bursting, spirit of excellence, of pro-activeness, of faith that all is well in hand as we live under the mantle of Mother-Father God.

E. Krissi, in the earlier discussion, you made the comment that open-eyed young teens, well taken by the spirit of “to face unafraid, the plans that we made”, are like the children Jesus talked about who will “inherit the kingdom.”

K. Thank you for bringing that up because we’ve actually thought a lot about this topic since then. There is much to say here, and so we must refer our readers to a discussion featuring Wordsworth’s “Ode On Immortality.”

E. It’s a major writing.

K. We learned so much. But, to offer the briefest recap, Wordsworth spoke of what we call “the magical child.” This is a human developmental stage, before age six, spoken of by the great poet as “apparelled in celestial light.” He meant to say that young children see beauty everywhere, paint smiley faces on the sun, chase butterflies, pick wild flowers, and generally live a life of “wow, it’s so wonderful!”

E. This immature “magical child” is not fully sentient but, what’s really interesting is that, in the Wordsworth scheme of things, we, later, as adults, if we become enlightened, re-enter, in a sense, “the magical child” stage, but this time with critical-reasoning faculties.

K. Despite the greater cognition, this new-and-improved “magical child” regains its guileless and open sense of “wow, that’s amazing, there’s beauty everywhere!” (See the article for a full discussion.)

E. And I think you and I would suggest that lovers, authentically in love – which would include our open-eyed 13 year-olds – live in that magical-child world of “everything is so wonderful!”

K. And when an awakened soul lives in that kind of shimmering-glistening-sparkling world, well then, you won’t be able to get enough of “to face unafraid, the plans that we made”. All you’ll want to do, as so well expressed by our sister Rose Carson, is to make plans for more and more identification with all of the wonderful things of God.

E. (smiling) And so, why should this sense of plenitude come to me, especially, when I see you?

K. (smiling) You’re just lucky, I guess, buddy.