Creative Eavesdropping … ??

“I just met him, he seems like such a nice guy” said a young woman as she hung on the arena gate during down time as a volunteer at the stock show.

“He really is a good man,” offered another female volunteer.

“I met him when he was 18 years old” a woman chuckled and I recognized the voice of his wife.

“They will celebrate 36 years of marriage this year” exclaimed the young girl, obviously impressed.

“Wheeeweeee!” I think to myself. I am both surprised and impressed. I raise my eyebrows and put a shocked look on my face as I turn to look at his wife. She is smiling and nodding her head; grins as she acknowledges my look. In the next instant she replies non-verbally with her own funny face. We all laugh.

As she talks about her husband she is not boastful or bashful; she is easy and accepting. In the four years that I have volunteered with them, I have never heard them say an unkind word or be disrespectful of the other. For the rest of the day, as we all volunteer together, I pay more attention to the two of them. They joke with one another and all those around them. He is more gregarious and funny, while she is quieter and openly contained. I sense a great deal of support for one another; it is so attractive and humbling.

At this stage in my life, I am happy to rub shoulders with a couple who have made it, and are so comfortable in their own skins. I know several couples that have what I consider to be healthy happy relationships, each one looks very different, but they have manifested some thing that I desire. I like being around them. I want to soak up that magic by osmosis. They don’t know that they are my teachers, there is a good chance that it would sully the moment. Is this a performance art? Almost, yeah, I think it is, in its unscripted honesty.

I have never worried about being alone; I have a very strong feeling that I will have another chance. Although I may never have the opportunity to know another human being that intimately for so many consecutive years, there is another guy in my future and we will have a chance to dance life together ~ mindfully, heart-fully, gratefully, kindfully ~ with wisdom, grace and love.

* annette