What is the purpose of the people who come into your life?
I remember the first time I saw him. I walked around the corner at a friends house and there he was. Up until that time I had laughed when I heard someone say ‘They took my breath away’, thinking it was just another lie concocted by Hollywood to sell more chick-flicks.
But he really did take my breath away. He sat tucked in the corner of the veranda, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, staring at the smoke which was curling out of the makeshift BBQ. We laughed later that evening when the story unfolded of how the BBQ actually came about. Not having one on hand they had found a wheelbarrow in the garage, emptying the rusted bits and bobs that it contained, and filled it with wood and pieces of faded newspaper and a fire that lustily devoured the fuel with its hot, orange flames. Someone had found a section of meshing from goodness only knew where that now doubled as the grill, glowing red each time a breath of wind blew against its entangled face.
He didn’t speak much, tending more to listen, but his laugh was unrestrained and came out with such force that it threw his head back and shook his entire body. Around his gentle eyes curls of hair caressed his face, clean shaven and smooth with youth. As the daylight began to fade and darkness cocooned us under a starlit sky, I was able to take longer stares and watch as the firelight flickered across his features. Every now and again I could feel a blush rise as we would catch each others gaze, lingering for a few seconds, catching the curve of his smile begin to crease the edges of his lips, before looking away and waiting for the beat to return to my heart.
For I was with someone else at the time. He sat only a few inches away. Every now and again I could feel the brush of his leg against mine or the touch of his hand as he rested it on my shoulder. We had grown too comfortable. We had love, but there had never been emotions like this before, not even in the early days. He had never sent my mind into a spin or caused my breath to catch in my throat. He had never stopped my heart beating in one second and then sent it into overdrive in the next. He had never looked at me with that stare, the kind that says more than a library of books ever could.
We had shared one kiss, later when both of us were unattached. It was a stolen kiss, one that should never have happened because all it did was made us both ache for more. But life sent us into a churning, stormy sea of events that would see us being swept away from one another.
I often wonder where he is now, what he is doing and who he is with. I wonder if he ever thinks of that moment when we first met and couldn’t take our eyes off one another. I wonder if he thinks of that kiss and wonders about what could have been.
I wonder why we have encounters like that, why we meet people who have such a huge impact on our emotions, but then who disappear as quickly as they appeared. I wonder what purpose they have on our lives, if they are here to leave a footprint on our souls to remind us of them throughout time.
What person have you had a brief encounter with that has left a mark larger than most you have known for so much longer? What lessons do you think they have come into your life to teach you? Why do you think they were part of your life for such a short time?
Kalikapsychosis
You always manage to write about things that are close to me - this is one that mystifies me, as it happens to me so often.
Really, in the end, Ive lost very few of those people. Sure, there are some out there I probably, realistically, wont see again, but really, the world can be very small, and just when I think someones gone they reappear.
And there are others Im still trying desperately to figure out - but that can wait until we are alone with a bottle of wine!
Love Speaks
Food Slate
I've had several encounters like that too -- though not always positive, the impact on emotion(s) is indelible in any case...
I think they were placed in my life to make me a better person (if it's positive) and a stronger person (if it wasn't as positive). Does that make sense? I think I'm rambling...
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
ahh you are really fortunate that they manage to keep cropping up hey. It`s just a really bizarre thing that someone would have a HUGE impact on your life after having been in it for such a short time and then others, who are there for ages leave little trace.
Just one of those qeird little mysteries of life I guess...
Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Yeah I hear ya on making you stronger. Sometimes they are sent to challenge us... and challenge us they do!
I hope your encounters are a lot more positive in there future.
ash
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Hiya! What a beautifully crafted post. When I worked at a Women and Children's Shelter I met so many families who touched my life. They were in and out of my life like rain. Very memorable indeed. Thanks!
Mis
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Good people seem really rare... or is it that we are too busy to see the good in others these days? But when they do come into our lives they leave the light on for days... years... a lifetime! I`m happy to read you have an array of lights in your life!
Ash
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
*sigh*
I think everyone has one of these fellows locked away somehwere in their past.
I wonder if he still plays that Accordian, perhaps to his children.
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
yessssssss they are mind bogglers these ones. Wonders why things don`t work out with the good ones but we seem to linger on with the bad ones?? WOMEN!
Ash
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
one more night is all I`d ask for, should a request ever be put in sometime down the line again!
It`s weird - I wonder what we would be willing to give up, just for that moment? A good friend says that we simply remember it, looking back through the veils of time, and remember the good, for what it was then.
Now that time has moved on, we have moved on and grown... will that love and that spark and connection still be there? Is it worth leaving the one you are with, breaking their trust, perhaps destroying another, just on a whim and a past emotion... that didn`t work out, perhaps for a reason?
It`s a tricky one!
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop