When I moved to Peru in 2000 to create a spiritual center in Cusco's Sacred Valley, I felt a sense of peace that had been alluding me most of my life. For many years I thought I would not be happy until I found my soul mate, my life partner. But once in Peru I found a deep sense of fulfillment that I hadn't felt before. I bought land in Pisac and began by building a house that soon grew into a Guest, Healing and Conference Center called Paz y Luz (Peace & Light). Each step I felt I was where I was meant to be, doing the work I was meant to do. I let go of the idea that soul mates existed, or at least mine.

After my book was published in 2006, a guest arrived here on a spiritual journey. She said she had a message for me. The message was about the next level of my work and how to prepare for it. She also mentioned that “my man” might be close at hand. My reaction was an odd mix of anger and fear. I told her I wasn't looking for a man. I was happy the way I was. She just smiled which irritated me even more.

My harsh reaction to that part of her message led me to contemplate what was behind my resistance. Here I was in my mid- fifties without having a long-term romantic relationship lasting more than 4 years. Perhaps there was some growth and transformation needed in that area of my life. In my meditation the next day I sat down with Spirit to discuss what I could do. I said if I could heal whatever it was on my own, great. I would make that my intention. If I needed a relationship to do that work, then please deliver the appropriate man to my doorstep.

A few months later in June 2007, Christer arrived at Paz y Luz with his tour group from Sweden. I lead them in a one-day workshop on the Andean Spiritual Tradition. After the morning session of our workshop, I went over to talk with him. Somehow our hands touched, each right on the other's left. There was a strong current pulsing through us in a rapid circular motion. We looked into each other's eyes saying nothing. The workshop continued without any chance for us to process what happened until that evening when Christer approached me and asked, “What was that – the energy flowing through our hands this morning?” My heart started to pound as if it had just occurred to me that I was attracted to this tall gray haired handsome Swede. “I don't know”, I said, “but if you'd like to discuss it, come in.”

We talked with each other like old friends. The strength of our energy connection was matched by the connection of our personal interests, spiritual journeys and mutual attraction. Christer was a business consultant from Stockholm who was on a spiritual search, he told me, open to changing his life. We talked all night, saying goodbye as his group departed at 6am for their train to Machu Picchu. Two days later we met in Cusco and he spent the rest of his week with me. In September I visited him in Stockholm for10 days. By the end of the year he moved to Peru to start a new life with me.

It didn't take long for the challenges to present themselves. I had lived on my own in the house I built and now there was someone living there with me. Adjustments needed to be made. Christer was far from home in a land whose language he didn't speak, no job, no friends, without all his familiar comforts and customs. Things were not going as smoothly as we'd hoped.

In April 2008 we hosted a Gathering at our Center – to Envision, Experience and Manifest the world the way we want it to be. One of the participants, Jamee led us on a meditative journey to the Upper World, to envision the world the way we wanted it to be – first, on a personal level, then on a community level and finally our vision for the world. The first part of my meditation was clear and immediate: It was important for me to be part of a loving couple, to allow Christer into my heart fully, without guarding or protecting myself.

On a community level I saw the safe haven I am creating here at Paz y Luz, where people come to learn, grow, heal, transform, discover their true selves, open their hearts, to live in Love and Light, free from fear. This was my vision for the world as well – a place that was free from fear, where all people live with open hearts, able to express their hurts safely and gently in order to clear them and heal them, not inflict more on others.

Coming out of the meditation, we were each given a piece of clay and invited to express our visions with the clay. I first molded some of my clay into the top part of a man and a woman connected at the base as well as their arms, U-shaped. Then I formed a flat container with low round sides, and small rolled pieces of clay inside representing the people who come to Paz y Luz. Then I realized that the couple was part of the container so I attached them to the side. As I did so, I saw that the couple was also a model for the divine – male and female in perfect balance and union, watching over us all. The importance of me being a couple took on greater significance.

When everyone was finished, we came together in our circle to share our visions and clay pieces. Christer made a globe and an attached tower with an opening at the top (like a vase), which he said was “United Vision”, akin to the UN only better. He had a flower bud at the opening in the top with fully bloomed flowers around the globe. These represented projects that were inspired by the upper world and came to fruition through United Vision. His second clay piece was a man whose head was removed and replaced by a flower. His head was held in his arms close to his heart. Christer said that was him sitting in his office in the tower of United Vision where he worked more from his heart than his head.

On the last day of the Gathering we did a dance/meditation called Sounding. The music was an epic story of a warrior who came home resolute to “fight no more” and discover how to live from the heart. As I danced I went into a deep meditative state. I received two very clear messages. The first was, “My gentle heart will fight no more.” I realized in that moment that despite all my defenses, I do have a gentle heart and in order to live from it more fully, I need to let go of any form of fighting. The second message was even clearer than the first, “You need to marry Christer.”

Some people don't hear messages easily and others don't trust them when they do. But I have been receiving messages during meditations and healing sessions for more than 20 years. I have gotten pretty good at deciphering what is my own mind-chatter and what is a spirit-given message. Both messages I received that morning were strong and clear. I trusted the source from which they came.

Our next workshop activity illuminated and affirmed these messages further. Jamee led us in creating a sacred geometry mandala for manifesting our visions. The principle was simple: with intention and clarity, what we form in our mind/heart, we begin to create in material reality. First in meditation and then on paper with markers and paint, we chose our symbol and invited Spirit to help us work to manifest our vision.

My symbol was two even-sided triangles connected with their points in the center. This hourglass symbol had been given to me in a meditation in 2001. I was told it was “heaven and earth”. Inside the bottom triangle I put Paz y Luz, healing, conferences and the United Vision Heartquarters. Below that triangle, I put a man and a woman with their outstretched arms touching – Female Male Union. On the left side, I painted a soft vibrant pink orange heart and wrote around it, “My gentle heart will fight no more.” Where the two points of the triangles connected in the center, I wrote the word TRUST. The tower of United Vision extended into the base of the upper triangle, with its flower bud falling down from heaven and blossoming below. In the “heaven” triangle I put another couple with arms connected and I wrote Divine Feminine /Masculine Creator, Sacred Union.

Jamee had laid out a few decks of cards used for guidance and divination. One deck had symbols with sayings. The one I picked said, “I choose to experience heaven on earth”, which I wrote on the bottom of the paper. I was stunned at how perfect it was for what I had already drawn – earth reflecting heaven. Then I pulled an Avalon Wisdom card - Partnership! “Seek connection in all things. This is a coming together of ideas, the marriage between two people, the harmonious blending of energies. It's a portent of opportunity, where partnership exceeds the potential of the individual.”

Partnership exceeds the potential of the individual. This is why it was important for my work that I am a couple, a partner with Christer. The vision and messages were coming together. The work of United Vision required both of us with all our differences and commonalities, Christer and I, sacred union. Of course the work of United Vision will require more than the two of us. But I now understood the connection between the personal and the collective in a more significant way. And the importance for me of making a commitment.

In one more act to assist the manifestation of our visions, we were invited to create our own once-upon-a-time story told from a future perspective about a time before our visions had become reality. Mine went like this:

Once upon a time there was a man and a woman who lived on earth in different corners of the world. Before they came to earth, they lived on the same star where they made a contract to meet when they knew the moment was right on earth to change the world. Many years passed on earth and they experienced so much life that they nearly forgot their promise. But one day, while the man and the woman were sleeping in their own corners of the world, the Star-Giver blessed them with a Star-kiss that helped them remember their soul contract. In his dream the man saw a beacon of light from the high Andes Mountains in Peru. He packed his bags and journeyed to a small town along the river in the Sacred Valley not knowing that the woman would be there. But because she too had been kissed by the Star-Giver, she remembered her promise and was waiting for his arrival. When they saw each other, their hands touched and their hearts remembered everything.

And so began their challenge to change the world.

The first world they need to change was their own because they had become very set in their own earthly ways and each had their own manner of managing their lives. His corner of the world was urban, neat and orderly. Her corner was mountainous, mystical and a bit chaotic. They had to adapt, release, heal and transform in order to see the other with eyes of love.

Then they gathered together with friends who had traveled from near and far to help them envision a new world. They sat around the fire and dreamed their world into being by removing their heads and placing them on their hearts. It was then that the Star-Giver again came down from heaven and opened their hearts to envision a world where people lived in Trust instead of the fear they'd always known. They envisioned a world where everyone was valued and supported, where they shared and contributed and made decisions by consensus. Together the group envisioned that the place they were in by the Sacred River would be the Heartquarters for their United Vision to grow and manifest.

Soon it was time for all but the man and woman to return to their own corners of the world and so the vision began to spread. Each of the friends found other groups who had done the same kind of work around their own fires, people who had also been kissed by the Star-Giver. In this way, with Love and Trust and Gentle Hearts, the vision was manifest and the world was changed. The man and the woman were very happy that their soul contract was now being fulfilled.

Because the man and the woman had learned how to come together in the balanced union of Love and Light, they reflected the sacred union of male and female in the divine creator. They were able to experience heaven on earth and they lived happily ever after.

When the Gathering was over, I had quieted my logical practical mind enough to know from a very deep place within myself that I would marry Christer if he wanted to do so. One day in early June, a year after we met, Christer said, “Let's do it.” The strong connection we felt with each other seemed to override our petty irritations. We both felt that within our partnership we could be more than we could apart.

We were married on June 26th, my parents' 60 th wedding anniversary. Since then I have often thought about the Partnership card I pulled during the Gathering, “Seek connection in all things. This is a coming together of ideas, the marriage between two people, the harmonious blending of energies, where partnership exceeds the potential of the individual.” The relationship, albeit not always easy, has brought healing and transformation for both of us. Our journey toward Sacred Union continues to unfold.