We met on a retreat. A retreat that we had all gone to align with our higher self, with no intention of coming back with soul sisters.
The baby of the group said she noticed me in the que. I had a big smile. Even today I am still surprised by this because back then I was depressed. We were the first two to arrive in our cottage. We were told another lady with her son was to join us and would get the master bedroom. We decided to pray that she decided to cancel so we could have the room. The alternative was that we would be sharing the sofa bed. I suppose though our prayer didn't come true, we granted with something much more precious.
When she turned up she looked familiar. Last Ramadan I had bought a life straw from her. At the time I had thought she was American. She went into the kitchen area and in the broadest of Yorkshire accents, she asked us if any wanted a brew. It turned out that American accent was her phone voice. It also turned out that the other two had been attending weekend classes together. They say that the woman in charge of allocating rooms, knew which souls needed to be aligned. It was quite surreal, that our paths had already crossed, yet this retreat was where we destined to become soul sisters.
We spent the next ten days in each others pockets. We would stay awake talking late into the night, sharing the craziest of stories. The lady in charge of our pastoral care would remind us that we needed to sleep, yet each night we would do the same; huddled on our sofa bed chatting the hours away.
As the years passed on, we travelled abroad together and the bond got deeper. One year I had taken a dip and back then as I did not have the tools I have now, or even the healing, I was broken. I recall with the utmost love and gratitude how these two stood by my side. On one occasion, one night after the other, both of them dreamt of my healing. I knew right there, that I had truly met my soul sisters. We felt each others pain as if it was our own and our sense of loyalty for each other was very strong.
The last trip together we had was to a retreat in Glastonbury. On one of the nights there, Ustadha Zahra held a remembrance gathering. Before the gathering she asked us to share one thing we were grateful for. We knew what we were grateful for. All three of us were grateful to Ustadha Zahra for aligning us.