[Below is a touching story that Linda shared about her granddaughters and the topic of "spiritual partnership" at Wednesday's Awakin Circle in Santa Clara.]

One day, I was in the kitchen, and our granddaughters were visiting us. They were pretty young, maybe 10 and 12, or maybe 8 and 10. They're sitting in the kitchen, and I'm making some food. I think I was making a smoothie. But I was in a hurry, and I had gotten caught in a frightened part of myself that was impatient and trying to get things done quick.

I'm just running around the kitchen trying to get everything done.

So my granddaughters are sitting in the kitchen, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that they're whispering to each other.

Then, the older one says, "Grandma, I think you're in a frightened part of your personality right now."

It made me laugh so hard that I was instantly out of it. Because they had never done that before. They had never had the courage to say something like that to me. We've been talking about these things to them since they were very small. You know, about how you can know the different parts of your personality, but you don't have to be controlled by them. And we can support each other in that. But grandparents and don't usually have relationships with their grandchildren where the grandchildren can say something like that to the grandparent. It's a little different kind of a relationship.

I have people around me that are my spiritual partners. What I mean by that is a partnership between equals for the purpose of spiritual growth. I'm not just talking about my partner, Gary, I'm talking about other people in my life -- like our grandchildren or people that are in our programs. They're our spiritual partners. You know, I love that. Let's say I'm in a fear-based part of my personality, but I'm not aware of it. You know, I'm doing something that I'm not aware of. They will say something to me because I say I want that.

And it's so thrilling to me to have that happen. So thrilling in the moment. Those parts of personality don't really like it, but I'm thrilled! The inside of me is thrilled about it because that's the kind of partnership I feel that eventually we all are going to come together to be. We're going to say what we really need to say to each other. From love.