Coincidence

It would be spooky if it didn't happen so much. My theory is some people are good senders and others are good receivers.

To be a good sender you have merely to think furiously and clearly. Develop a distinct visualization and include a target in your picture. It's automatic.

To be a good receiver you need merely be settled and open and unblocked, receptive to outside signals and to the notion such things exist and really do happen, and then trust them when you do pick them up. It's automatic.

They are very easy to dismiss. The demand of our focus on the material world fairly demands it. To materialists you're a flake to put trust in psychic perception.

I suddenly began thinking of a thing somebody imposed on me a long time ago that turned out to be a lot of work but even more fun. I don't like impositions and that blocks a lot of fun things. My most fun things arose from impositions. A woman in this building was hosting a benefit and she felt overwhelmed, her status among new business owners in the Golden Triangle was at stake and she asked me to help her with food. I told her yes, but I'd need some help to pull it off. I didn't realize she'd send ten to fifteen people off and on through the day, young people eager to be involved but with zero knowledge of ... anything.

You should see how beautiful these young people are. Collectively they are outstanding.

They had to be told everything. Every detail and in concrete terms. Nothing subjective made any sense. Brown the bacon in the oven to crisp, didn't make sense. Stir until the texture stiffens, didn't make sense. Cut into small pieces didn't make sense. The exact temperature, the exact number of minutes, the exact size, the exact amounts were needed for comprehension. Spray the pan with oil before placing the puff pastry, roll the spring rolls just so. Load the skins with this amount of lettuce, this amount of bean sprouts, this amount of shrimp cut this exact way, this exact number of mushroom slices, cut exactly like this, rolled exactly like this exactly this tight. On and on with every detail about everything. As if programming a computer from a blank disc.

And how fun that was. How much people learned. How eager they were to do everything right. How open to correction. How beautiful each of them are. And what a pleasure it is to have them around. How much we laughed. Each person learning. That really was fun.

Then I never saw them again.

Odd thing to think because that was about eight years ago. It was an isolated incident, a fundraiser that didn't repeat. It relates to nothing. The memory of it, the memory about the feeling of it, just popped into mind. From nothing.

And I'm sitting there thinking, "That thought was weird."

Then I watched the video of Troye Sivan learning how to debone a chicken thigh and fry it held flat with a brick and how to make a pesto by using a mortar and pestle. He hadn't done anything like any of those things. Each little task was revelation to Troye. The setup is for the learner to act silly as television hosts and comedians do when they have a chef on their show with some kind of demonstration; behave inept for laughs and race through the segment unreasonably. The hosts never behave seriously. The segments are usually worthless. I expected Troye to behave inept like everything is new and too odd to handle. Too icky, too foreign, too bizarre, too dangerous with knives. But he didn't. He behaved smartly, eager to lean new useful things, desirous of doing it right, doing it well. And that similarity made me think again of those kids the woman sent over. And there is that whole scene again bloomed in my mind.

On Netflix I watched a movie named "Burnt" about a chef who's mental trying to achieve Michelin three stars and with a past of drugs that brings bullies to his place for money he owes and beat him up regularly until he does. The show is about his unstable emotions. His kitchen is spotless. The workers are shown scrubbing it down every night so the aluminum surfaces shine and the whole place is gleaming to begin a new day tomorrow. When the chef is cooking and in military mode he barks commands as a drill sergeant does and the entire kitchen staff behind him yells back in unison as soldiers in bootcamp, "Yes, Chef!" And that reminded me of those kids again. They all fall in line so easily and so willingly. And there is that picture again bloomed in my mind.

Now in the span of a day I pictured this apartment filled with young people taking my instructions. And taking them to heart. They weren't just helping my friend with her benefit, they each really wanted to learn something about how to cook. They are bright and pleasant, energetic and capable. I do want that around me again.

This repeated recollection had the accompanying feeling of yearning.

I rarely speak to the woman. We hardly ever see each other. Only rarely. But this morning I did. And while we were talking she said completely unrelated to what we were talking about, "Remember that time you made spring rolls for one of my parties? We were trying to decide if it's worth it to have another similar party." She brought up the party preparation that I had already thought about three times by flimsy tangental mental connections just the day before and now here I am in it. I should have known those were transmissions and not just idle freeform thoughts floating up. This is the moment that those mental pictures and yearning were about. I instruct myself, now, solidly in the world say the right thing. "I would be pleased to do that again. You filled my apartment with your daughter's friends and all of us had a great time together. They had to be told everything ... "

She repeated, "Everything."

"And they did learn a lot. And we all had a blast. Yes. I would be pleased to do that again."

Plus, she got very good food preparation besides, a genuine catered deal.

So that is the start. My friend is in the planning stage again. And I was part of her initial picture. She signaled me and I responded. She attained her initial "go." I am open to helping, and my helping will be in the form of showing other people how to do it but not actually do the whole thing myself.