The Universe: Hello, dear one! We see that your life has been rather delicious the past few days!

Alexandra: Hello dear Universe! Yes it has. I’ve had a three-day birthday – the best kind! Eating in restaurants with good friends, cake every day, the whole nine yards!

U: We are pleased for you.

A: Thank you. The insular, isolated person I used to be appears to have moved out, and taken loneliness with her.

U: Why do you think that is so?

A: That’s an interesting question… My gut reaction is that I don’t feel like I have to defend myself now.

U: Please explain.

A: Well, I’ve not thought about it until this conversation, but I think that in the past – or throughout my life till now, probably – I felt vulnerable. Sort of dangerously at risk.

U: At risk of what?

A: Being hurt is the answer that comes up for me. It’s possible that because I found life to be painful that I avoided the risk of adding to that pain. But that meant that I also avoided living. Which was, in itself, painful! I guess it’s true that avoidance creates more issues than it solves.

U: Avoidance doesn’t solve, or, more importantly, resolve anything.

A: I see that now.

Oh! And I’ve just seen for the first time that the word AVOID has another word inside it – VOID. Empty! Completely empty…

All this time, it’s been there, in plain sight, and I couldn’t see it at all until now. And now it seems so obvious!

U: And now that you’ve seen it?

A: I can’t unsee it. It’s as plain as the nose on my face!

If I avoid challenges or problems, my life becomes a void. The little life I’ve always hated, because it didn’t fit me properly. But I molded and shaped and resigned myself into accepting it, because I was too afraid to take the great leap into the unknown of a new “me.”

U: And now, at the beginning of this new year of life for you, or as you yourself have described it, a new era?

A: I feel excited! Not “whoopee!!” kind of excited. More like the good feeling that comes from knowing someone’s got my back. And that someone is me!

U: Which is why we also – as you put it – “have your back.” As within, so without.

A: Yes! I shared a quote with friends on WhatsApp the other day from my mentor, Daisaku Ikeda. It says: Our lives and the universe are one.

The Universe: Just so, dear one. Just so. Happy rebirthday!