A moment in time

 

 Sometimes a few seconds can change a life for the better. What got me thinking about that was a friend who recently lost his wife of 56 years. It had been a successful marriage.

In the 1960s he was in the U.S. Army. She was a German hair dresser. Both chose that moment to walk through the train station in Stuttgart. He was totally taken with her. She wasn't totally taken with him, but he persevered and persevered and persevered until she married him. Had they not chosen to walk through the station at that moment and stop at a stamp display, she probably would never have moved to the U.S. Who knows where he might have ended up, but their team would never have been formed that gave them a great life together.

A moment in time changed their lives.

I can say the same thing about my husband and me. I almost did not attend that conference in the Lake of the Ozarks. Missouri hadn't passed the Equal Rights Amendment and I didn't want to add any income to that state BUT the subject of the conference was too enticing.

If he and I weren't at the snack bar at the same time, would we have ended up happily married? Okay it took another few decades for us to get together, but that initial meeting was a moment in time.

Walking from my doctor to the Geneva Train Station, I cut through the UN gardens. 

"Can you tell me how to get to the train station?" A woman asked.

"I'm going there, let's walk together."

We chatted the entire way. She as on a business trip from Russia. We exchanged emails and began a correspondence. No, I don't think she was a spy trying to turn me.

She invited Rick and I to St. Petersburg for one of the most fascinating trips of our lives. By living in a home we saw a side of Russia we never would have otherwise. A moment in time led to many magical moments.

They (that great mysterious they) talk about being at the right place at the right time.  

And then there's my friend and wantabe brother. I wouldn't have met him had he not bought a photocopier in the Netherlands. He photocopied an issue of the IHT as a test with a job opening in Switzerland where I worked, which he got and we ended up sharing the company apartment. He visited Argelès with me, met his wife and they had a son who is now at university. I bet Tim doesn't know he owes his existence to a photocopy machine bought in 1990.

Sometimes it could be a professional association that's triggered by a chance meeting, a piece of paper with information one acts on, any number of things.

Thus getting up each morning can hold secrets for the future we can't possible dream about. We never know how one thing with intertwine into another and another and ... It's one of the glories of life.