One of Those Moments #2...

Needing some time to clear my head, to sort out some thoughts, to just be, I went for a walk around the river walk. With our fall like temperatures lately, it was a beautiful day to do this and was greatly needed. I found myself a somewhat secluded area to just rest, think, and listen.

And there he was.

I looked to my left to see an older gentleman possibly in his late 80's sitting on a bench just watching the water. In his lap laid a notebook just waiting to be used. I watched him for a bit as he was similar to that notebook as he too was just waiting for something...maybe for someone particular, maybe just someone to talk to, or maybe he too just needed some time away to think, to be.

And then he came.

This younger gentleman approached the bench, yet sat on the very opposite side of the bench as far from the older man as possible. His music heard loudly through his headphones that even I could make out the song and at the same time he was texting someone on his cell phone. He sat there for a minute or two oblivious to those around him until the old man shifted causing the bench to shake a bit. The young man looked up at the older gentleman and they both smiled. He took off his headphones and put his cell phone away. And they sat there quietly.

The old man then began conversation with an introduction and pleasant greeting in which the young man replied with niceties and so the conversation continued. Before I knew it, they had moved closer together and they were laughing and having an interesting debate on the best way to make paper airplanes. With the young man contributing his knowledge on the advances of science, the older gentleman sharing his wisdom and firmness of the true and steady classics, and the papers of the notebook being ripped out and used one by one to prove one another's point, it seems that a simple interaction as this, can turn any day around. Even just by my observance of it, did I remember the way can choose to live...by seeing the one right next to us!