…it is never to late to find your “Happily ever after”…
On March 8th, 2020…Mr. P and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary… of when we first met across 2,000 miles of oceans and space…and I was 62
After several disastrous failed relationships…and thousands of encounters on just as many dating sites (OK, an exaggeration…but that was what it felt like)…off and on over decades (and that is not an exaggeration)…I had lost hope of love…I was trying to learn the art of contentment with the company of self…and just be grateful and relish the myriad number of blessings in my life…
…and then at the most unexpected time and with a most unexpected person…
…living in a sparsely populated country community…although full of lovely members…was not chock full of eligible bachelors that met my extremely prohibitive list of requirements…
“She always thought she needed someone to love when all she really needed to do was love the world and let love find her in its time and in its way.”― Kate McGahan
Whether good or bad…I had learned enough about what was important and even necessary in a companion for me…I wasn’t desperate to settle with just anyone…just for the sake of being in a relationship…I had gotten to the point of “I would rather be alone”…than settling for “less than” what my heart felt it needed and/or wanted…and although it had turned out badly…I had experienced “love” in my innocence…
In my ever thirsty seeking of adventure and knowledge of the world…I joined a PenPal site..hey…just for the heck of it…and one day…I had a message from a man from South Africa wanting to exchange photographs…he was such a gentleman also…not like most of the men that had answered my post…He offered to help me put my photo right side up apparently my photo was laying on it’s side…now who could turn that down…
He liked my Alaska photos…and he was a pilot who had taken some stunning photos also…so the adventure began…
It did not ever cross my mind that it would lead to anything more than a casual exchange of emails and photos…after all he was half a world away…so he was a “safe” encounter…later I find out that apparently his ideas of what was happening was very different from mine…
The correspondence went on for several months and we slowly revealed a little more about ourselves…our conversations became a little deeper…he was experiencing some life events that I had already lived through…and hopefully my “coming through to the other side” might be encouraging…
With no pressure…and no expectations…it was effortless to be open and genuine…over the following months…I started to “like” this fascinating person that I call Mr. P…he was intelligent and could carry on interesting conversations on diverse subjects (a primary requisite)…and on top of that…he was emotionally intelligent…
He was cultured and traveled…a love of adventure was also on the list
He had goals and ambitions…not waiting to sit in a rocking chair or fishing boat…or spend hours in front of the TV (although a couple of hours watching science videos is a totally different matter)…
He was a man prone to faithfulness in a relationship…he had been married for 30 years…had moral integrity…a big NO. 1 after my history…
And he believed in God…although our views about how the world was created and other religious/spiritual beliefs are different…we respect and even debate each other’s suppositions (I fear that he is winning)…
So now what..
…after approximately 8 months of transitioning from email correspondence to constant lengthy voice memos and numerous daily What’s App messages…he wanted to come and meet me…OMG!!!!…No way…no how…
How to ruin the perfectly fantastical and exhilarating friendship…meet up…
― Robert Fulghum, True Love
Threads of Thought 