Stories

A couple of the people I've been working with lately have become some pretty cool friends. They have me laughing at regular intervals and basically make what could be a hellish project something I look forward to figuring out. Last Friday we went rollerblading and on the way back my friend David asked to hear the story of Misty and Sam. It was probably more an act of kindness on his part, as I'm sure he has already heard it. But I love telling it and I surely started at the beginning and told him the whole story. And he listened and stopped and asked questions and three miles later we were saying good by and I was all full of this magical mix of new friends and new adventures awaiting just around the corner and old stories and home waiting for me a mere block away.

It was pretty nice. Awesome, in fact.

And, if you read this at all, you know I can't talk about how in love I am with Sam enough. Mostly because I had kind of given up on such a thing happening to me. (And yes, I just referred to Sam as "such a thing"). It was for the birds, I decided. Or at least not for me. I had a life and plans and hopes, and perhaps, perhaps there wasn't room for another person. Another force in my life. And I had made peace with that. And then I met someone who also had plans and hopes and wasn't looking for anything big or crazy. Who wasn't sure how another force would work in his life - and yet, us coming together seemed the most natural thing in the world. There was no eminent compromise, no letting go of the dreams and hopes. Just a celebration of them, a curiosity of them. A wanting to know more. There were nights of talking 'til then sun came up. Endless evenings on the phone, afternoons filled with emails and IMs. It seemed from the beginning we had stories to tell. And looking around now, it's comforting to me those stories haven't slowed. The plans haven't changed. The dreams didn't dissipate.

And I guess, that's the beauty of it. That we've lived lives worth celebrating, for their hardships and their triumphs, even before we met each other. We are still learning new things, still sharing new stories. And I'm lucky that I've found someone like that. Like Sam. Who celebrates all the stories that came before as much as the stories we're living. I don't think that's easy to find.

And for someone like me, who so loves her stories, it's priceless.

The beauty being of course, that the best stories? They're yet to come. Creeping over the horizon to reveal days I've yet to even dare dream of.