I’ve had two totally amazing evenings last night and tonight. I’m on a roll!

Last night, I was in a meeting with Robi of La Maison at Greenbelt 5 in connection with a raffle sponsorship for Runners’ Runner. Midway into the meeting, a petite lady in her 40’s walks in with a couple of shopping bags and her humongous black handbag, as is typical for women who bring along their laptops nowadays. She dropped by the resto to get some take-home food and was planning to leave immediately.

Robi introduced me to the lady named Jhet, adding that Jhet is one of the owners of La Maison and that she’s an author. And then I recognized her!

Jhet is Juliet Torcelino-van Ruyven
author of “The Tale of Juliet – You have the power to change your life”
2007 #1 Amazon Bestseller for Biography

I had seen Jhet before, and I began recalling how, where and when I had seen or read about her. I told her I knew about her story, and was half embarrassed to tell her that I didn’t get to read her book yet. As I continued to rattle off a few places or events where I might have encountered her, we later figured out that I saw her first as a guest of Bo Sanchez in one episode of Preacher in Blue Jeans .

Juliet and I had found multiple levels of connections within the first few minutes. You know how there are some acquaintances with whom you instantly click with? As if they were an old friend, or a long lost buddy. That’s how it was like exchanging stories with Jhet.

When Jhet learned that I was into running and blogging (Jhet’s daughter, Michelle, runs too; Jhet is looking at starting her blog), she started to declare to me that: “The universe brought you to me!” It’s the law of attraction at work, added Robi. Here was Jhet wanting to get started with blogging, and here I am, a blog coach who so happened to be in her restaurant and meeting her with some guidance from above – serendipity!

We could do some great things together!

And everything just synced up between Jhet and I in the first evening — one unexpected serendipitous meeting of minds and souls. “Kindered spirits”, Jhet mentioned. My meeting with Robi had to be cut short, my time with Jhet had to be cut short as well due to prior appointments.

We agreed to meet again on Tuesday evening.

A second encounter with Jhet

On Tuesday evening, I made my way to Jhet’s condominium. We had dinner at nearby Cibo at Rockwell. We started sharing stories about what we’re doing these days – as if we were old friends and just catching up (maybe our souls are old friends).

We started sharing about our passion to help Filipinos, about our life stories and moments of inspiration. We talked about having so much to write about, so many stories to share to the world. We talked about businesses and investments. We talked about Timbaland, Timberlake and Jojo.

We talked about travelling, and technology and twitter and live mobile video streaming. We talked about blogging.

We talked about the Philippines and poverty and rising up to prosperity. I told her about how affected I was watching a few seconds of a documentary that had a child saying: “Ang gusto ko, tunay na buhaaaaaaayyyyy.”

We talked about Jhet’s encounters with the common Filipino. Jhet shared about how so many people have approached her or contacted her telling her how her book has made an impact in their life. We talked about her daughters and making a visit to Jhet’s hometown in a poor area in Batangas.

Oh we talked about sooo many things. And the stories just flowed on and on.

We did have a mission, and that was to get her started with blogging. So we connected to the internet and looked into the blog that a friend had setup for her. We focused on the critical few things that she needed just to get started blogging via WordPress.

She’ll be leaving the Philippines and will be in travelling for a series of engagements around the US and Canada. It was absolutely amazing spending time with Jhet the past two evenings. I am honored to have met such a wonderful person who has touched the lives of many through the stories of her life enshrined in a book.

It was another of my experiences with One-ness – a strong connection to another person, and becoming one in feeling, one in intent, one in laughter and delight, one in understanding, one in purpose, one in shared experience.

Jhet gave me copies of her books (there’s a Filipino translation version too!). Siyempre, hard bound at may personalized autograph ang natanggap ko! I’ve got some reading to catch up with ;-) .

Dear Edwin,
Blessed to have met you.
Together let’s make a positive difference in the world.
Keep Soaring!
Love and prayers,
Jhet

Jhet is leaving the Philippines in a few days, thus we made sure to spend some time together before she left. Although in our minds, it would have been awesome if we had met 3 weeks earlier, I know in my heart that God’s timing is always always always perfect.

Thank you for the friendship, Jhet. Simula pa lang ito!

ka edong
serendipity knocked, I answered
www.edwinsoriano.com