When I run into Xia she is a ball of excited energy, she lets out a loving squeal and throws her arms wide to receive me, a gesture that says "this space is for you."
The hugs are tight, warm, and linger where we seemingly forget about the world moving around us. There is an exchanging some form of energy we crash and squeeze tight to press our spirits into each other.
After the excited hellos simmer, there is a space that we occupy, an us-time where the world kinda pauses. While still holding that wide welcoming smile and with the deepest sincerity in her eyes she asks "how is your spirit?"
She looks at me in this way that requires me to fully understand she is calling on more than a throw away response but needs an intimate truth in whatever way that falls from me. I have her undivided attention and she is interested in the whole of me.. She rummages my wellbeing.
How is my spirit?
Although 10 years my junior her maturity and life experience has afforded her a calming voice with a beautiful motherly warmth. Her eyes become a sanctuary of acceptance. She becomes a light at the end of some proverbial tunnel that I didn’t know I was traveling. She is a safe space. How is my spirit? In one sentence I feel cared for, valued, pampered, safe, important. The excited hellos and hugs are wonderful but her inquiry presses its ear directly against my warmth to hear the thumps firsthand.
How is my spirit? My response is always delivered with an unintentional pause. I’m not sure if that pause is shocked by the weight of the question, if I’m deeply touched by her general concern for me, or if my entire being takes a moment to complete a full wellness check to be able to report back with an honest unknown truth. Xia’s question pushes me to question my own wellbeing and If I'm not well this is the opportunity to vent, to pour myself into an awaiting hungry ear, to be seen. She is a safe space.
How is my spirit? I am well in fact
great but now somehow better Thank you Xia