______________<\/p>\n
Our first encounters with love shape us and have a lasting impact on how we meet the world. Triggered by a young couple in a caf\u00e9, this poem helped me look back and understand the gift we give each other as we\u2019re just beginning to form both inwardly and outwardly.<\/i><\/p>\n
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Without Knowing<\/strong><\/p>\n Lifting my second coffee to my lips,<\/p>\n I see a young couple near the window.<\/p>\n They\u2019re falling in love. I can tell by the<\/p>\n way he brushes her hair aside, so he can<\/p>\n see her face. Before I can sip, there you<\/p>\n are, across from me, more than forty<\/p>\n years ago. I did the same thing. Parting<\/p>\n your auburn hair, I fell into your eyes.<\/p>\n It undid me, which meant I could no<\/p>\n longer follow the path others had set<\/p>\n for me. Isn\u2019t this the purpose of love?<\/p>\n We only had a few years of opening<\/p>\n what we could in each other, before<\/p>\n you fell into another. You broke my<\/p>\n heart. It took a decade of poking at the<\/p>\n ashes to accept that we sent each other<\/p>\n on our way. Now, in my sixties, after<\/p>\n losing and finding what matters, enough<\/p>\n times to realize that the losing and find-<\/p>\n ing comes and goes like surf that shapes<\/p>\n the sand of our heart, I know I fell through<\/i><\/p>\n your eyes, so many years ago, into the sweet,<\/p>\n resilient place only opened by love, where<\/p>\n we get to see our own worth, unformed<\/p>\n like raw material. It takes years of ham-<\/p>\n mering and being hammered to see<\/p>\n what we can shape from what we\u2019re<\/p>\n given. Strange to pick up this conver-<\/p>\n sation now. I take another sip, and<\/p>\n through the steam, can see the young<\/p>\n woman glimpse her worth briefly in her<\/p>\n jittery, young man. I sip and feel the gift<\/p>\n you were without your even knowing. I<\/p>\n don\u2019t even know if you\u2019re still alive. But<\/p>\n in this caf\u00e9, from another continent<\/p>\n of time, I can softly thank you.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A Question to Walk With: Tell the story of an early love or friendship that allowed you to see your own potential.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ______________ Our first encounters with love shape us and have a lasting impact on how we meet the world. Triggered by a young couple in a caf\u00e9, this poem helped me look back and understand the gift we give each other as we\u2019re just beginning to form both inwardly and outwardly. \u00a0 Without Knowing Lifting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2540,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marks-weekly-reflections"],"yoast_head":"\n