Be Someone’s Glass

I wanted to tell you about my friend.

He died.

And I really barely knew him but then again, he touched my soul, so the loss has left me heartbroken.

Many months ago, as my own life lay in shambles, I sat one day, sipping coffee while in the figurative arms of people who share a similar story to mine. And on this one particular afternoon, the most beautiful scene played out before my eyes.... like one of those movies they show at film festivals where all the deep, life-changing stories are told.

There a man sat. I noticed him first because of his eyes. They twinkled and danced as he looked around the room, much like my dad's. I remember feeling little needle pricks in my chest as that never-fading dull ache of heartbreak flared into the burning pain I feel when I remember how bad I miss him.

As our time wore on, another man spoke of his frustration at how hard life is. He had an accent.... a Hispanic one, but spoke in English.

And then, well, that place in the movie where you wish you had tissues tucked under your leg happened.
The sparkly-eyed man whose eyes danced softened into puddles of crystal blue, like a lake at sunset when the wind is so still that the water lays motionless, like glass reflecting all God's light from above.

He turned his shoulders and feet toward the other and said, in Spanish, words my brain did not understand.

But oh my heart.

It knew every syllable.

I sat there, still as a statue as he spoke through his own tears of empathy, compassion and pure love for the other. I don't think I even took a breath, for fear I'd miss a note as he sang his song of healing or fail to exhale without
letting out the whimper that was welling in the back of my throat.

About that time, a dear friend of mine leaned over and said, "He's telling him it's all going to be okay.That he's not alone.  And that he loves him and we are all here for him."

The two had never even met. But look at how love can spontaneously erupt into an act of kindness so powerful that I will forever be changed.

There's a song with a line that goes,
"I can hear your heart from here."

And that's exactly what it felt like. I could hear his heart and I could see the way it danced in step with his eyes.
Searching. Bright. Kind. Love spilling down cheeks, covering all of us in oceans of glass lit from above.
I told him after that his love got spilled on me and how beautiful I thought he was. And I hugged him real tight.

And then I never saw him again and now he's gone.

But I have to believe he could hear my heart, too. Cuz it was turned up real loud.

#magicmonday #besomeonesglass #blackrockstateofmind #weneedeachother