Once upon a time, I met a handsome stranger at a bar.
He asked, "What are you writing on your laptop?"
I replied, "You first. What are you writing on yours?"
He told me it was a journal entry about how his marriage had just ended. The ink was barely dry on his divorce papers. His heart, raw and pulverized. He wanted to process his emotions by writing them out.
He mentioned that he liked my backless dress.
We spent that night together and many, many nights
thereafter.
A few months later, our brief relationship ended.
He explained that he'd been married for many years and wasn't ready for another committed relationship, not yet. He wanted time to be free and unattached.
"You're a remarkable person. I wish we'd met
at a different time," he told me.
Although I understood his feelings, I was extremely sad. I mean, he had kind eyes, taught English Literature, and owned a jacket with elbow patches. My weakness!
I wrapped myself in a blanket and cried for three days nonstop. I called a friend, vented and babbled in my snot-filled state, and she said,
"Maybe you'll get back together in a few years when the timing is right. Maybe you won't. What you need to do is say, Universe, I'm open to this or something better."
This ... or something better.
Those words reminded me that the world holds many wonders and that this,
right here, might be "good" or even "great," but what if something better is coming? Something so magical, my current mental framework can't even comprehend it?
