It Starts Small

 

      Sometimes the beginning of a significant event in your life starts out very small. Twenty years ago I was bored. It was a warm January day. Since warm and January don't happen often, I decided to drive to Stillwater. It's a cute little town not too far away from where I was living at the time. The downtown area is nice to walk through. There are a lot of little shops and antique stores lining the main street of town. Restaurants and coffee shops took their places between the stores. It's a good place to walk.

    I found a place to park and started walking around. I probably went into a few shops that I liked. I don't remember if I bought anything. The last shop I went into was advertising a coffee shop at the edge of the downtown area. That part of downtown Stillwater had caves and this shop was located in one of them. It looked interesting so I thought I'd stop by and get a drink.

   The shop was small, one main room where the cash register was and another room in back. There were a couple people ahead of me. The man at the register was calmly waiting on the customers. When my turn came I ordered an Irish cream latte. It was what I always ordered when I went to a new coffeeshop. Most coffee shops have Irish cream syrup. It's a simple drink to make which means it's hard to screw up. I got up to the counter and gave the guy my order. In a few minutes I was sitting at a table reading a book I brought with me and enjoying my drink. It was pretty good.  Once I finished my drink, I went to my car and drove home. I liked the coffee shop. I made a mental note to go there again the next time I went to Stillwater.

   What I didn't know is that the kind man with the southern accent who waited on me and made my drink had been praying. He was rebuilding his life after a rancorous divorce. He wanted to have love in his life again, but was scared. He wanted to make a better choice and had asked God to help him know who would be the one he could have the type of marriage he hoped for.

   That visit to the coffee shop led to another visit with my mother a few days later. We had gone to the Como Conservatory to walk around and look at the flowers. We didn't want to go home yet so I suggested this coffee shop in Stillwater that I found. 

   We got our drinks and sat in the back room. The kind man that waited on me was setting up a microphone and getting out a 12 string guitar. I recognized him and thought he'd have no clue who I was. Some of the songs he played were ones he had written. He talked about writing the songs and the process he went through. As someone who also writes, I was interested and thought it would be fun to be friends with this man. Mom wanted to leave and we did. I planned to came back and get to know him a little better.

   What I didn't know was that our first meeting had impressed him. He had a profound impression that I could be the one for him. He was happy to see me again. 

   A few days later I returned to the coffee shop. I discovered his name was C.  We had a nice conversation which lead to exchanging phone numbers and email addresses which led to our first date which lead to nightly conversations which lead to a proposal and a wedding.  

   You never know what a small thing will lead to. In my case in has lead to twenty years of experiences that I would never had otherwise.