Where Love Is

I was having supper at Spankey's, sitting at the bar, when she sat down beside me. Long black hair, a slender figure, and large brown cow eyes. Steven the bar tender was noticing her too.

"You look like a nice guy," she said to me after a few minutes. Man did she have pretty eyes.

"Thanks," I replied and continued eating.

"I'm engaged" she said showing me her ring, "but I don't think that I love him."

"Then I wouldn't get married," I replied looking at her.

"And I don't think that he loves me either," she continued.

"Then I definitely wouldn't get married."

She looked at me for a few moments before speaking again. "Do you have children?"

"I do. My youngest is 21."

"Oh, I'm 27," she told me. "How old are you?"

"53," I answered.

She was silent again for a few moments. "You seem like a nice guy."

"Thanks," I took another bite of my food.

She decided that she wanted a cigarette, lighting it at the bar. Steven rushed up and told her that she had to smoke outside.

She looked at me and asked me if I wanted to come.

"I think that I'll finish my meal," I told her and resumed eating and she grabbed her purse and left.

Steven looked at me, shrugging his shoulder and rolling his eyes. I did the same back to him and continued my meal.

Fifteen minutes later, I paid my tab and walked outside only to run into her. She walked straight up to me and hugged me.

"You seem like a nice guy," she said with her head buried in my chest.

"Thanks."

"Do you live around here?" she asked after she stepped back and opened her cow eyes.

"I do," I told her.

She resumed the hug.

"You seem like a nice guy," said the now muffled voice.

I put my arm around her and said, "You know what? I think that you should probably head home. Let me walk you to your car."

So we strolled over a few spaces to where she was parked.

"Yes, I probably should," she said," and she climbed into car and started the engine.

I did the same and followed her out of the parking lot. When she pulled onto Butler Avenue, she gunned the engine and sped away much too fast for her own safety, and darting between cars as though she was trying to get away as fast as possible. Running from and running to at the same time is a dangerous thing.

I shook my head and drove the few blocks to my house.

So I suppose that she was looking for love while running away from it at the same time. And that is a funny way to go about it. But I think that it is this way for a lot of people. They think that they know what love is but don't really. They have some movie version of never ending bliss where no one has any flaws and sadness or hurt ever invade.

That's not love. That is fantasy. Love is manifest in spite of flaws and because of sadness and hurt. These are the places where love is purely present. And this is where you find God because God is love so the Bible says. In the middle of flaws and hurt and sadness