Engagement

A year ago on Christmas eve, a very special bulb that had long been underground sent out shoots and started blooming right in my path.  I reconnected with an old friend who I had not seen for several years.  I recognized right then and there at the door of the church that she was my special Christmas present from God.  There she was at my new church on Christmas eve with me.  A friend in the midst of my desolate heart and many strangers.  That meeting lead to a year long journey together.  We met most weeks for a late night hour over tea in her quiet living room.   In some mysterious way we were brought together to be a unique support for one another.  I needed a close-by new friend to help open up my heart in love and friendship to both myself and another.  She was on a similar journey of life pilgrimage.  For a time on this journey we have walked together.  We have encouraged one another and spoken the unsaid words already in our own hearts to each other.  She had taken a huge risk and had quit her job, gone on a three month walking pilgrimage in Spain, and joined an online dating service.  Taking time off work and meeting people on-line was way out of her comfort level.  I had taken a huge risk and was going to counselling and learning to care for myself.  We were both treading on very new and uncertain  ground.  We both often wanted to give up and retreat to places of known safety, but each week we quietly encouraged and pushed one another "further up and deeper in" on our journeys.

Almost a year has gone by.  A most wonderful man asked my friend to marry him last week.  She and her fiance are on an amazing journey and a miracle relationship of joy and love.  I am also engaged.  Significantly more engaged with life, myself and God.  Encouraged  by her joy and creative engagement with her husband-to-be, I am also enjoying fresh  new engagement with my own special and most loved husband.

Friendship and support along the way come every so often as special gifts to be cherished and unwrapped.  Our paths will soon take some different turns, but the companionship and mutual engagement with one another over this special year will always stay with us in our hearts, a surprising and life giving bloom of joy and delight.