I have a long-time friend, a good friend who has deeply influenced my life. Though we live nearby, we rarely see each other. He’s busy. I’m retired. Still, he’s often on my mind.

Last Sunday, I went to a local plant nursery. It was bustling, the parking was tight, and people moved with urgency, eager to grab their plants and get in line to pay. As I eased through the packed lot, I stopped to avoid a collision. Just inches away, in the car beside me, was my friend.

We both looked up, our eyes wide, smiling in disbelief. We rolled down our windows, and for a moment, just took each other in. It was a moment of quiet recognition, familiar, meaningful, uncanny.

Some might call it a coincidence. Others a synchronicity. But I think of it as a kind of quantum entanglement. In physics, entangled particles remain mysteriously connected across any distance. I believe some human connections work the same way. They are timeless, invisible and always alive beneath the surface.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting a lot about my life and where I am three years into retirement. I find myself sitting with discomfort and with questions.

This is, after all, what I asked for: more space, fewer obligations, time to slow down. But getting what we ask for doesn’t always come wrapped in ease. It feels as if a thread in the fabric of my life has been pulled, unraveling routines, beliefs, even identity. What once held me together is loosening. I’m being invited to let go.

Retired now, I find myself floating between who I was and who I’m becoming. It’s unsettling, but it’s also honest. Something is shifting. I’m being asked to listen more deeply. To trust more fully.

Grace has touched my life before, often when I least expected it. I can’t summon it, but I’ve learned to recognize its presence. And lately, even in the uncertainty, I feel it near.

I’ve written about my involvement with the ManKind Project. Recently, I’ve been invited to take on a leadership role. A position that once would have lit me up. I used to want to be someone. To be seen. To be acknowledged.

But now? I feel something different. A quiet pull inward.

The desire to accomplish, to achieve, to be “somebody” is softening. In its place there is a growing urge to simply be who I am, fully, without pretense. To embrace my “Garyness,” not in striving, but in surrender.

In the Hindu tradition, there’s a stage of life called Sannyas. It is a time of spiritual deepening and release. Not a retreat from life, but a letting go of worldly attachment. A turning toward the sacred. A commitment to what matters most.

That resonates with me now.

I want to focus on what’s mine to change, and release what isn’t. To stay grounded in the things that awaken me. To live with openness, curiosity, and reverence.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “that there is so much variability in the human genome, the statistical likely hood of anyone of us arising out of that immense improbability is slim to none.” But, here I am. Here we all are. Each one of us. Out of the 100 billion people that have been alive since the dawn of our species, there has been and only will be one of me and only one of you.

What a gift. I have to assume that I am, that we are not a mistake, but a divine miracle.

In Hindu thought, Shiva is the boundless, formless awareness—the infinite potential of all creation. Shakti is its living expression—the energy that moves through everything. Together, they weave the universe.

And I? I am learning to trust that dance. To yield to what’s unfolding. To let the unraveling create space for something new.

This is the sacred work of now:

To show up.
To listen.
To let go.
To remember who I truly am.

And maybe, every now and then, to meet a dear friend in a crowded parking lot and feel the universe smile.

Despite the circumstances I might find myself in, I strive to make inclusion, compassion, understanding, and love my first response.

Amidst the chaos and uncertainty of life, I remain open to Grace and the gift of my life.

If you have any questions, please email me at garymerel@gmail.com or call 732-208-2836. Also, please visit my website at leanintoyourlife.net

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And I? I am learning to trust that dance. To yield to what’s unfolding. To let the unraveling create space for something new.

This is the sacred work of now:

To show up.
To listen.
To let go.
To remember who I truly am.

That resonates with me now.

I want to focus on what’s mine to change, and release what isn’t. To stay grounded in the things that awaken me. To live with openness, curiosity, and reverence.

Because this life—this one, unrepeatable life—is a miracle.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “that there is so much variability in the human genome, the statistical likely hood of anyone of us arising out of that immense improbability is slim to none.” But, here I am. Here we all are. Each one of us. Out of the 100 billion people that have been alive since the dawn of our species, there has been and only will be one of me and only one of you.

What a gift. I have to assume that I am, that we are not a mistake.