Live the Dash

This winter my friend Yesenia and I decided to be bold and sign up for a square dancing class. We hadn't done it before and we were pretty sure we would be the only people who were let memebers of AARP there, but we thought "oh well let's do this, it will be fun!" So we did it. And just as expected other than one boy who came with his grandma we were just about the only people under thirty there.

But we loved it! We met so many nice people who cared for us and enjoyed our joining in with them. While there we met another newbie named Tom. He is a very kind older widowed  man who is a retired teacher.

At the end of lessons Tom gave Yesenia and I some very thoughtful gifts and invited us on an adventure to go climb a mountain! Though both of us thought that sounded thrilling I must admit we were both a bit apprehensive. So when Tom called we thought we ought to meet with him to get more details and discuss it s bit further before we could completely commit to an adventure with someone we don't know all that well. 

Yesenia and I like to keep our schedules full so we gave him a limited date selection. When we arrived to dinner last night we were seated and starting talking like old friends. He asked us about our studies (both education wise and bible wise) and then he went on to share a story with us. 

He told us the story about his family and going to church and an amazing story about how a cute little first grader came and plopped herself down right next to him the first time he went to church and years later they married. He is truly an amazing story teller and hearing about his wife through his eyes and seeing his family and her on their climbing adventures growing up was truly a blessing.

Then when he was finished he told us that yesterday eating with him so was special to him because April 20th was actually his wedding anniversary and it meant to world to him that we would come and spend some time with him, and that in honor of his wife he wanted to give us a small gift. He always bought her earring so we to got earrings along with a lovely book to read called The Dash, which was inspired by an amazing poem. He was so excited to hear that I had known the poem by Linda Ellis. 

I can honestly say each person at the table got emotional as he shared his love stories about his past wife and how much he missed her. I feel so blessed that God put Yesenia and I in this mans life to bless him, but in turn we are to being overly blessed. In a day an age of technology and business it's not often that we slow down to learn from our elders and connect with new people. God's really challenging me to step out of my shell to slow down connect with people and I am so eager to continue to get to know Tom better along with many others on the journey of "my dash".