In Passing

I said that it would be awhile before my next blog, however it started raining here in Idaho and I just had a very noteworthy experience that I want to capture before my memory of the moment lapses into time.

As I was walking along the river in Coeur D'Alene, I was deeply engulfed in my abnormally-sized headphones, while concurrently gazing off into the distance. When I am in very scenic places, or places that I have not been before I tend to do this. This practice helps me acculmate myself to my surrounding here and allows me to really experience the moment of just "being". Eventually, I broke my stride and decided that I wanted to sit on a bench, in order to really absorb the sight of cars passing on the bridge over the river. I sat there and silently thought about the stories and lives of the people in the array of cars that were passing in the distance. In my eyesight came this young woman that was walking up the path beside the bench I was sitting on.

She came up behind me and asked me for the time. "Eleven oh four," I said.

Cleverly she responded, "Oh, you are right on time. You must be my secret admirer." Then she pointed to the sign on the bench that read Dedicated to All the Men I Have Loved. She continued, "Honestly, it doesn't matter if you're a woman." I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. It was so witty and quick.

Somehow we began talking, and she told me why she was walking along the river and of the sorrows that brought her to where she was. Intermitently, I added words of encouragement or asked a question, but I didn't say much. In fact, we didn't even exchange names. Before she left, she asked if she could share a poem with me and I said that it would be lovely. Quickly, she recited a poem from memory that she had written about the demons in her life and her willingness and desire to change. I starined to keep some of the entire lines in my memory, but I couldn't do that and follow the emotion of the poem at the same time.

Then, she got up and declared that she would be on her way. I hurriedly asked her if I could give her a hug. She said yes, we hugged, and she was on her way. Turning around, she called back to me, "Thank you, you made my day. I don't know why I shared those things with you, but I am glad that I did. You are my blessing today."

As quickly as our interaction began, it ended. I am not entirely sure why, but these types of things happen to me often. I think it just goes to show that giving a stranger a smile, or an ear to listen for a few spare moments can really make a difference in someone's day.

I hope she gets to where she's going and gets to make the changes in her life that she wants to see come to fruition.

It is never to late to change or to grow. I am so privileged to have the extra time to listen to the stories, woes, and joys of other people. I gain as much from listening as they do from sharing their burdens and blessings.