By Kenneth Stepp
Today is a big day. That’s an interesting statement. You see, I met a girl. Not face to face yet but online. We met digitally about 4 months ago. She reminded me of someone special that I lost not long ago. Her looks and her voice. There, that’s the mechanics of meeting this girl. Enough about the ingredients of the story…
Flashback to about 2 ½ years ago. I was with my girl, driving to one of our adventures and a song came on, Beautiful Crazy by Luke Combs. I started crying while listening and holding her hand. It was a magical moment for me. One that after she died I thought I’d never have again.
Flash forward to today. I heard that song again and my hopeful heart, like on que, felt something again. I realized two things. One is that my new friend not only reminded me of my girl on the outside, her heart did too. This silly song and a digital friend helped me to feel hope again. I knew as I heard and read the lyrics that my heart was fully awake again.
I suppose that this story could end here and still be considered a win. It’s a great story of hope and an awakening of something that I thought was dead forever. But does the story end there? Will we both put THE END after the last word? Or will there be more of this story?
I wrote recently that the death of depth is the tragedy of the singles community. As we swim in this sea of singles together we rarely meet someone with real depth. Her layers are fun to dive into. One thing I am sure of is that she is already important to me and I believe always will be.
Before getting ahead of myself I will say that we have become friends, real friends. When she hurts I hurt. When she’s happy I’m happy. When something important happens I tell her. Friendship is not a consolation prize and if that’s what we are I consider myself so blessed for that.
Remember that I said today is a big day. Today is my friend’s birthday. This is her first birthday in decades that finds her alone. She lost her husband about 10 months ago. Today is a big day because we get to be alone together…. Electronically of course.
One day I will meet my sweet friend and after a ridiculous amount of hugging we’ll get to talk face to face. I look forward to that day very much. Happy birthday sweetie. I can’t tell you how much you have done for me and how knowing you has changed my life.
Three things you can take away from this piece about you. You matter, you make a difference in every life you touch, and you are indeed an angel. I wrote about angels among us recently. You’re my living proof.
The link to the song is below. We used to dance to it often. It still reminds me of my girl.
