In the Irish language the word Anam means soul and the word Cara means friend. Thus an Anam Cara is a Soul Friend and on Canadian Thanksgiving I am thinking of my soul friends present and afar.

A soul friend is not really chosen or willfully labeled as such, rather it is someone one meets and has the sensation when looking into that person’s eyes of having known them forever. Not in a factual way of time and place nor the romance- novel way of soul mate – one look and you are his (hers) for life without complication, not that troublesome idea. Soul friends span an eternal forever; a sense of knowing that is all encompassing and absolutely comfortable.

I have been lucky enough in my life to meet several soul friends, both male and female. Sometimes it has been a passing thing leading nowhere. I remember once in a bar on Vancouver Island meeting a green-eyed man whom I felt I had left in the middle of a conversation in some distant past. He misunderstood my intentions and intensity and fled, quite spooked.

There is always a sensation of living love in these encounters and whether I see soul friends daily or once every decade that feeling is constant. I have been asked if I am Lesbian when this happens with women and been castigated by women when it happens with men who have partners. It certainly can inspire sexual harmonies but that is just one effect.

The mystic or spiritual security of connections continuing beyond time is deeply comforting to me in this crazy short-term-thinking world. Happy Thanksgiving to Canadians and upcoming for Americans.