During my years working as a property manager between 2005 to 2010, I had the privilege of meeting Karina. She and her son moved into an apartment complex I managed. She had only been in the United States a brief time, having moved here from her homeland of Denmark.

Karina was in her seventies and dressed with a unique bohemian flair wearing dramatic outfits, bold jewelry, hats, and occasionally a fur wrap. She carried herself proudly, royally. Her demeanor had a touch of melodrama, and her Danish accent was thick.

I took to her right off; she was a kindred spirit. Since our first meeting, she always called me ‘angel dearest.’ Perhaps, that’s because she couldn’t remember my name! But I like to think it was because she was fond of me.

Karina would invite me over for coffee which she always served in delicate china teacups with saucers and nibbles of Danish cake or cookies. Her apartment had many framed photographs of her dressed in various theatre costumes. She would regale me with stories of her earlier avant-garde lifestyle. A single mother with an acting career on Broadway, off-Broadway and traveling with troupes around Europe.

She often invited eclectic groups of people to stay at her castle for rehearsals, parties and ‘free-thinking.’ I wasn’t always convinced of the veracity of her stories or that I even understood them fully through her accent and interjection of Danish words, but I always enjoyed her telling of them.

In her home country, she had a healing practice using electromagnetic energy. Her patients would receive pain relief by using an electromagnetic device she had created. The machine was still in her homeland, but she would be sure to show it to me once it arrived the United States.

After one of our lively conversations in my office, I was walking her to the door and suddenly, she clutched onto one of my forearms with both her hands in a sense of urgency. I thought she lost her balance but that wasn’t the case. Moving her face close to mine, she said “It’s all about the light angel dearest. Do you understand? It’s all about the light!” Again, I wasn’t sure I understood.

Eventually, I’ve learned that everything is energy, as present-day physicists have proven. Visible light is an energy that travels in the form of electromagnetic waves. Karina knew about the light; she understood its power. She let her own light shine in her unique way, holding nothing back. A free spirit. A ‘ballsy chick.’ Is that enlightenment; to be our true self? I feel like it is.

Soul often (often!) tells me that I don’t need to define everything because then it limits it to a small human understanding. And that I don’t have to know how everything works either. I just need to feel and experience in the ‘now’ with consciousness, mindfulness. So, I do. I experience the light, feel it, bask in it, heal in it, saturate myself with it, meld with it, play in it. Bliss is the closest word I have to describe it.

Karina told me about the light, she demonstrated the light. She loved who she truly was and shined that out into the world. We are all lights. Don’t dim your light.

P.S. - A year after Karina’s passing, I visited her son and his wife Cee. He validated Karina’s stories and showed me photos of the family castle. Then Cee showed me the electromagnetic device that Karina had invented and admitted that she used it daily to relieve her own pain.