There were signs before. It started decades ago, in the volatile years, the wild dancing, the breakfasts at dawn, the years where we were both just cutting loose, not searching for anything in particular, tied to the pursuit and little else.
Then the pursuit was over and family happened, marriages, kids – two girls for her, one of each for me. We ran into each other a time or two over the years. I believe we were always cordial.
Then fast forward thirty years to the night I was playing at the Artichoke and I kept looking out at this huge smile from the back of the room. The rest of that night, we were the only people in the bar – two sixty year old hippies with a connection back to a time when that was just about enough. Her divorce wasn’t final yet, I was dating someone else, but – it was just the two of us in that room for the rest of that night.
There were signs before, all the talking, the catching up, filling in the lost years; the easy acceptance, the lack of drama, the careful attention when so little attention had been paid before. But there was a moment, a perfect, unscripted moment when I knew exactly what my destiny was – the moment we tied our hands into a knot across a table. I knew then that this table, this restaurant, this glorious food was more than just a meal – it was sustenance for a life I was just beginning to live.
The kids are fine, solid adults all. Our lives are so full it’s hard to imagine anything else. Where we’ve come in our single decade is a wonderment to me. It is my joy. It contains every drop of my passion. It is my sustenance.