Would you help a stranger? Would you give ‘em a smile? A dollar? Or an hour of your time? A total stranger helped me. I was depressed, out of work, my wife left me, my mother called me a loser, and my self-esteem was at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

      I knew that I need something, yet I did not know what it was. I knew I needed help, I just didn’t know what kind. And whom can I ask if I did not know what I need? I had no vision of how to proceed with my life. After being a successful businessman, an athlete, a family man, a professor in college, somehow I lost my geography, lost my nautical charts.

      Every ship needs a captain and every captain needs an education on how to steer and navigate the ship. So there I was, shipwrecked my boat, realizing my need for education and guidance, my need for knowledge. But who is teaching how to live our lives? Parents? Nuh… Who did they learn from? What college offers a degree in “Happiness”? What university has “Love” in their curriculum!  And then I met this total stranger.

      You know how a gifted and compassionate doctor treats his patients? You know what a passionate car restorator feels when he sees a rusted classic car in a ditch? Or when an animal lover finds a wounded pet out on a street? This stranger saw my need for restoration and she offered me her help. She wanted to help, yet she had one condition for me. In order for her to be able to help me, I must be willing to receive help and be willing to help myself. At the time I did not fully understand what this meant, yet I agreed to her condition. And our work began.

      Weekly sessions, homework, meditations, reading, writing, breathing, crying, going through pain, uprooting old damaging events, painful memories, dysfunctional programs, trapped emotions and feelings for almost two years. Two years! I call this a dedication. She calls herself a cleaner (quick disclaimer: if you saw the movie “Leon: The Professional”, she is not that kind of a cleaner, she does not kill people, she is not an assassin, just FYI)

       Most of our sessions were remote yet every time our connection was visceral, the feelings and sensations were almost palpable, as if we were one, as if we were geographically close. She taught me how to stop by brain chatter and how to listen to my inner world, how to acknowledge my own feelings, how to connect with my Self and with another human and with everything else.

      Lana showed me the way, she showed me the light, she helped me find myself again! My real self this time around, the actual me, not the socially constructed one. She taught me the language of feelings and emotions. Our earthly spoken languages do not have enough words to fully express what it feels like to have the connectedness that we had, the trust that she led us into, the openness that she cultivated in me.

       Lana helped me to awake my senses, connect with my feelings, understand my importance and she helped me see how connected we all are, and that we are connected by the means that cannot be measured with a ruler and can’t be touched by a probe, yet we all are touched by it, each and everyone is a part of it. We all affecting one another. We all comprise Life (THE Life).

       Fast forward a few years and I am fully back on track with the generous help if this stranger. Just the social side of it: I am a Chief Technology Officer on a national radio network, I lead and inspire people, I am a Life Coach, online entrepreneur, and I feel that I am a part of that team that is changing the vibrations of this world to a higher tune every day. And the best part of it – she helped me fix my compass, so now I know where the North is.

      I am coming from a very large family. My one grandma was the seventh child and another one was the thirteenth in their families. Yet I never felt being connected with any of my 300+ family members to the extent as I felt with this total stranger. With her kind permission, I started to call her my Godmother, as it feels like I was reborn with her help, support, and guidance. Support and guidance of a total stranger.

     This stranger goes by the name Lana Leibman. Our planet needs more people like LANA! She makes this world a better place by helping people, one person at a time, and she does it from the bottom of her heart, giving away all the love she has (and she has a lot, from what I can tell).

     I am deeply grateful and infinitely thankful for everything she did for me. It warms my heart to know that there are people like Lana out there. Thank you – Thank You – Thank YOU!!! I am passing it on!

 

Glenn Ocean.