Back just before Thanksgiving of last year, I got a Tweet from an old friend that I hadn't seen or talked to in 18+ years. We had originally met when I first started graduate school and started attending the same church that he was attending. It was instant attraction on both ends. We did eventually go out on a single date that was a total disaster. Despite that, we managed to be friends for the duration of my time in graduate school and went our separate ways after I left school a couple of years later.
That series of Tweets between me and him flipped a switch in me. At that point, I was already questioning how much longer I could stay in my unhappy marriage, but the way he treated me with such love and respect changed the course of my life in rapid fashion. I knew I could do better! I had come to the reality that I really wasn't getting what I needed emotionally or spiritually from the marriage I was in. The writing was on the wall. It was time for me to move on.
For a while, I thought I would be moving on with him. The mutual attraction was still there, but there was a problem; he was gravely ill and getting worse. He didn't (and still doesn't) know how much longer he'll even live. As much as we both wanted it, we had to come to accept that, short of a miracle healing, this wasn't going to work. On my end, at least, it wasn't an easy pill to swallow.
He has been a wonderful source of support in my journey through the divorce process and reestablishing myself as a wiser, more capable, and more confident single person. For that, I will be eternally grateful both to him and to God for reconnecting us at just the right time. It didn't turn out how I thought it would, but God knew exactly what I needed and that's what I got.
Happy 40th birthday, my friend! May God continue to bless and keep you always. :)
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