He told his Truth as he stared into my eyes. “Universe, I am on the quest for discovering my divine Goddess.” In that moment, I no longer saw the presenter, the coach, and the author.
Written by Mingjie Zhai and photo by Alissa Christine
I saw a human being. Stripped of titles, he was vulnerable, beautiful. He was another light soul being. He was love.
It was my turn.
“Universe, I am out to inspire people who have loved and lost to let go of creative expression.” As I locked into his ochre eyes, I knew in that moment, he saw the beauty, vulnerability, and love in me as reflected back at him. Like two mirrors facing one another, we were two beings reflecting each other’s infinite possibilities.
Mirrors
In that instant, I no longer showed up as the girl standing in line, among several others audience members, at the Temple of Consciousness, waiting to talk to Bryan Reeves, after he and several other panel members finished the Sex, Love, Porn discussion moderated by Dream Rockwell.
When I shared about the mission of The Love Story, I was the person that reflected his commitment in 2013, when he founded Operational Mindful Warrior for veteran suicide prevention, the same year I had attempted to take mine, and now in 2015 at LIB, here we are, staring into each other’s eyes, not knowing of each other’s 2013, yet somehow feeling powerfully connected to each other through it. After the soul stare exercise, we had stepped back from the workshop to talk. I gave him the love story behind The Love Story–the mission for suicide prevention and what inspired me.
“Where do you live?” Bryan asked. “We’re over by Santa Monica,” I replied. “I’m over by Topanga, and I’ll be back next week,” he said. “I may be over by Santa Monica the following week after my trip. I’ll get your information and get in contact with you when I’m back.” I felt a sense of guilt for being so attracted to this man knowing I am already committed. It’s not wrong. I remind myself. I have the self-control. I know he’s used to this–drawing women towards him, that is. It was void of manipulation or effort. It was as natural as gravity itself. What was it has me being drawn towards him? Authenticity perhaps. When he told me he would connect with me when he gets back to the city, I felt the weight of his words.
Nothing's more attractive than a passionate man in action.
As a former U.S. Air Force Captain with a masters degree in Organizational Dynamics/ Human Relationship, he achieved the pinnacle of what the American Dream could be. Even after obtaining the money, a prestigious job, a nice home by the beach, an intimate partner, and high-level education, he felt utterly miserable. Something was missing and he needed to figure it out. The military, as honorable as it was, somehow felt like he was missing the mark.
We invited Ozzy Smith, a business owner in his 30s, and also a man who “has it all” –money, respect, and prestige, to interview Bryan on The Love Story’s behalf. After the interview, Ozzy and I had several conversations about the experience. Ozzy: “MJ, I don’t even know this man, yet it’s like he’s telling my story. We have this deeper connection that I never thought I could find in another man.”
A few months after Ozzy interviewed Bryan, he started traveling around the globe to search for his inner Truth. He would reference his experience with Bryan as being “one of the most important conversations of my life.” It sends me chills to think that that is what transformation looks like. It was the same feeling I discovered in myself when I looked into Dream Rockwell’s eyes during our conversations 14 months ago when this project first started.
A connection to get the journey started.
And we all pull towards him, like feathers in the wind—being rocked this way and that, gently cutting through the air on a force that carries us towards the ground. That is Bryan Reeves. His energy is the wind that carries people to the left and rights as we gravitate towards earth. That Bryan connected with Ozzy somehow initiated Ozzy’s reckless abandon in flying to a far off to regions like Israel, Thailand, and onwards. His transformation is the possibility he created for Ozzy and as I’m writing this article, I feel Ozzy somewhere in Thailand, getting hits of insight to the Truth of what was, what is, and what will always be.
Bonus The Divine Feminine
An excerpt:
When you surrender to heart, surrender to love, while the masculine in all of us yearns to show up and be of service in that love. To protect and care for, and make sure, to provide the container within which that love and that life can flourish. Men, we know instinctively we didn’t come here to just make money, to just build monuments in our name, and businesses, and just build shit that’s going to die anyway. That’s not what we are here for. We know that. Deep inside. Of course our culture is denied and depreciated and tried to destroy feminine energy and feminine expression and disregarded as weak, and fragile, and invaluable, and unproductive. That’s a lie. Feminine energy, life, mystery of this unfolding moment, love, it’s the most powerful force on the planet, in the universe, and the masculine energy in all of us, yearns to be of service to that unfolding mystery.
To learn more about his services and creative gifts,
please go to his BryanReeves.Com