Who you meet...like a beach.

Who we meet and when we meet them has always been something that has always fascinated me.  You never really know how long someone will be in your life.  Even when you think you do, you don't really. Ebb and flow.

In 1985, I met my best friend. We sat next to each other at lunch and I would overhear the conversations she was having with her friends. I thought we had much in common so I started talking to her and haven't stopped in 28 years. Just spoke to her this morning. I met another girl that year in school and we also had much in common but we lost touch a year or two after we met. Our lunches were never at the same time, we only had one class together. Never saw her again.

In Spanish class, decades ago, this girl just happened to sit in front of me because the seat was empty. We started talking, she asked if I could help her out in class and we've been close friends ever since. That same year, I had a falling out with my roommate, a girl I thought would be in my life for years and years. We even spoke of our children one day playing together and owning homes in the same neighborhood. Never saw her again.

There was this anthropology class I took one summer and across from me sat this beautiful girl and her cute boyfriend. They introduced me to their group of friends and we all hung out that summer. They moved away soon after that. August and I visited that beautiful girl, who is now married to someone she met after she moved away, and they have a beautiful baby boy who was born two weeks before August, almost to the hour. When we hung out those months, all those years ago, I never thought that one day our babies would have a play date. I hope we can see more of each other. I'm the one who moved away this time.

I met my husband in 1999. He was working at a coffee house and I was working at a library. Our lives crossed briefly then. One afternoon, just out of the blue, without prior introduction, he gave me a beautiful  book he thought I would be interested in. I was. I read it, I wanted to talk about it but he was gone. I ran into him here and there but we never said much more than hello to each other. There was a smile, a wave, a nod, always from a distance. Then, I just stopped seeing him around town. The book sat on the many shelves that came in and out of my life for years. It held two stories, the one it contained and the one it was a part of. We ended up in the same record store one evening and still, no conversation, no clues, absolutely nothing indicating that in five years we'd have a whirlwind romance, and a baby girl.

We all have these stories, connections lost and found, re-connections, bad connections, disconnections. Go with the natural ebb and flow.