A Chance Meeting

I have always been really blessed by having really good friends. I have not always cultivated large numbers of friends, but I have always had dear and very loyal and devoted friends. Although I think I have been shaped by my parents, and my devotion to God, I think that many times, I made the right decisions and chose the best directions because I had friends who could clearly set decisions out for me. There have been dear friends I kept from highschool, dear friends who remain from college days, and friends I made when our children were small. It is said that as we age, we often don't find the same level of closeness with new friends that we did when we were young, but I don't know that this really HAS to be true. Perhaps we are simply less open to new friendships as we move through life.
Yesterday, I took Matt into the city for a planned trip to Barnes and Noble and to lunch. (I really try to know what's going on with all of the kids, and lunch by themselves is often a great way to find out.) When we were nearly finished, I saw a dear friend of mine from across the restaurant. She joined us, and we talked for a couple of hours. For purposes of this blog I will call her Carole. Carole and I met some years ago, when my daughter and I happened to go to her pre-moving yard sale, deep in the country, but fairly near our original farm. Carole had one of those rare yard sales where solidly everything was really lovely quality and in good taste. That day I regretted my habit of not carrying very much cash. Stephanie, Adam, and I returned to the sale several times that weekend. We learned that Carole was an accomplished architect who had travelled a great deal, but that now she was pretty devoted to raising her children, who were in college, as Adam and Stephanie were. I believe that week that she met all of our kids. It was one of those rare times where I met someone who shared my sense of humor and my views on most things, although Carole was decidedly more hip than I. She embraced modern technology and modern culture more than I. I had also thought she was perhaps younger than I, but she inspires me, as we are about the same age. Carole and I made friends just in time for her to move out of state on business. In 2008, she and her family moved back. She was one of the friends who listened so well and was so supportive when Daniel passed suddenly. In a sense, running into her in Daniel's favorite restaurant was a gift from both God, and also Daniel.....and perhaps even my Dad. It was a reminder that all of our friendships and relationships are connected through a thread with God, and that we are not left out here on this mission, on islands, although it may seem so, at times.
Even Matthew enjoyed Carole's stories of places she had visited recently, and of TSA, and things people in airports had said to her. She approaches travel with such openness, whereas I approach it will trepidation, as something I must do to get where I am going, not just a journey in itself. God is good to me in that He provides examples like Carole, who show me more of the direction in which I should go.

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This is one of my favorite contemporary Christian songwriters Mark Shultz, singing a song with excellent harmony help by Ginny Owens. Daniel heard this song a fair bit in our home.