Hello! (A Five Minute Post)

I'd be tottering until a pile of not yet read novels and political philosophy books, scarf dangling, Starbucks toffee nut latte in hand. I'd look around for you, a tentative smile on my face. And then I would recognize that you were the one I was meeting, sitting with your beautiful small smile and your cup of coffee (or maybe you're drinking hot chocolate, or you're holding your children on your lap or they're running all over the place because childhood makes room for that).

And I would want to run over and say, "Hello!" in a warm voice, warm like the smell of honey in Earl Grey tea, warm like feather comforters and sunshine in May. And I would sit down with all my piles of new loves - all the books I'd just checked out of the library, and I would ask too many questions, breathless and excited.

Because I would be awed. That you are you, and no other, that you hold inside yourself all of this wonderful creativity and thoughtfulness, that the lines of your hands and face and your smile (I love to make people smile, so maybe I would tell you a joke about hedgehogs or something, or tell you about the time I did something embarrassing, or just laugh with you)...

That you tell the story of you, and as I gesture wildly with my hands and throw my head back in laughter and let my eyes grow wide with surprise, and as the stories spin out of us like tops down a set of park steps - I want to add your story among all the miraculous ones I carry in my heart.

Love,
Hilary