Friday, June 19, 2015

All Those Years Ago


My life changed 25 years ago today. Old friends from that time will know what I mean, some of them share the memory and the change. The event is not the point.

Change is.

How many times in your life has some event, some minor alteration, something completely happenstance or inevitably a person changed your life?

Sometimes it's immediate, Saul being struck from his stead. Other times, most of the time, there is just a slight nudge on your path. Often we miss it when it happens, but later, if we practice reflection, the ripples can be seen as a slowly rising tide that carried us away.

Think about it, no really think about it. In just a few moments I can think of 5 individuals who changed my life. More than just a great professor, an amazing lover or a challenge put to me; well, maybe the lover; but it's your life, do your own inspecting

Simple choices eventually altered my life forever.

The final play of the Stockbridge game.

A sixteen year old applying to just one college, because the high school counselor handed over just a single application.

A friend who signed me up for the real estate exam and then told me I had two weeks to study.

A woman I didn't love, who told me she loved me.

A catalog in an unread pile for over year, only to somehow appear a day before the deadline.

. . . and first, last and always -- the magical time that ended June 19, 1990.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The gladiolas are blooming in the yard. Sadder this year than last. Wish he could be here to see that girl in the red and black size 1 year old bathing suit get married. Or the one I carried at his memorial become a mom herself. Time is like that I guess.

Carl said...

...June 19, 1990. The date plays over and over in my head. The node that defines and divides my life into before and after. I am forever grateful for know you and everyone surrounding Tom.