Why is it that friends have a way of cheering you up when you most need it, even if they are unaware that you need it?

Take, for example, the photos you see here today. They come from Roger, who is “fortunate to live only about a half-hour away from the Black Hills National Forest” in South Dakota, he writes. Roger is a wonderful friend, and yet, like so many I have met through Thunder Valley Drums and the work I do, he is a friend I’ve never met in person. When you really analyze friendship, though, particularly if you are familiar with shamanic journeying or any practice that takes you to the larger reality of existence, you make many friends you never meet in person on this plane. And if you haven’t had a direct experience like this, I’m sure you’ve read or heard about them from such sources as the Christian Bible and most other holy books that report encounters with non-humans, like angels, “one like a person” and so forth.

So, despite having never met Roger, I consider him a great friend and brother. (And he is, by the way, quite human.) We probably swap emails three or four times a year, and that’s it. But we have a strong connection, nonetheless.

And so it was a few days ago that, quite out of the blue, I received an email from Roger with these beautiful photos attached. They could not have come at a better time. So, thank you Roger.

And thank you, my friend.