A seven year old girl went riding her bike through the woods one day. Enjoying the feeling of the grass hitting her legs and rolling through the dips, avoiding the ruts. The warm summer breeze blew through her blouse. She peddled onward and through a stream to the other side, then along the shallow bank.
The little girl came to a stop next to a large hickory tree and pulled out a small blanket from a backpack she was wearing and carefully spread it out on the grass and sat in the shade under the old tree. The girl pulled out a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and began to eat it, while watching dragon flies playing on the water of the stream a foot below her.
Something glittered across the stream and she looked up in time to see a boy her age, on a bike passing through the trees. The boy stopped his bike, looking at the girl who he had never seen before but knew so well. He turned the front wheel and pointed it at the stream, crossing it and leaning his bike on the hickory tree, he sat down on the blanket next to the girl. She handed him the other half of her sandwich and looked at the boy, the other half of her. In their innocence of youth, all they knew was the comfort of the moment.
“Hi.” She said.
“Hi.” He said
The two sat watching the dragonflies and then laying on the blanket watching clouds float by. Finally the two said the only other three words that they would say that day to each other.
“See you soon.” He said.
“See you soon.” She said.
And off they went on their separate ways.
Years later the girl, now a young woman was walking along a small street in Italy, having traveled for two semesters in college. She felt the cobblestones under her feet, smelled the aroma of fresh bread on the air and saw a small cafe, where she stopped to get a cappuccino. As she stepped in the old worn wooden screen door,the summer breeze blew against her back. Once she had received her cappuccino, she sat at a small table outside. As she sat there, she watched a fountain and two sparrows playing in the water. Looking up the young woman saw clouds listlessly floating by. The door on the cafe opened and out came a young man. He walked over and sat at a table next to her drinking a cappuccino of his own. The man was reading a small brochure about tourism in the small Italian town. He glanced up and saw her pale hazel eyes locked on him. And he knew in that instant that she was that little girl that he had met under that hickory tree. That little girl that he had known for hundreds of years.
His soul-mate, reunited.
I believe there is only one real answer, and sadly one that not everyone finds, is love. It doesn’t have to be romantic love, it can be love from a friend, an acquaintance, or simply a touch from another person that cares. I remember as a child, my grandparents, teachers and friends… They always had no problem touching a shoulder, giving a hug or providing comfort when it was needed.
I know that if I lost this person, that I will have known they loved me and that they know I loved them. Are there others that don’t fit statement in my life? Absolutely. Can you say the same? What would happen if you lost your spouse, partner, best friend, brother, sister, mother, father, grandparent or child? Can you say that you have let them know how you feel or told them everything you’d want them to know?
I started considering this today when I saw a video featuring Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann. Now hold the phone friends and keep reading, this will not become a political discussion.
What it truly boils down to is the love of one another and the respect that comes with that. The need for us to support each other as humans, as people and as individuals with individual dreams and goals. We all deserve a chance to be more than our inner workings. A chance to step outside of our designed box and have a moment in the light.