Astonished!

There are a lot of people who walk in and out of my life.

 There are my personal ones, the brief acquaintances of a friend of a friend of a friend, shopping, boating, gambling, camping and work.  Sometimes, by the quirkiness of coincidence, we know each other - we connect and recognize each other by threads of historical events and parties and weddings and funerals and graduations and births and so on and so on.

Usually, we all take our recognition of each other in stride.    It doesn't seem to matter anymore that our little village is now a large populous one.

There is a gentleman who comes to bowl on Tuesday afternoons,   I think he's a member of the regular league who come to bowl once a week.   He has the nicest smile, it projects a warmth of contentment and happiness.    He's always dressed smartly, jeans and a collared golf shirt.   He's well groomed and his eyes sparkle as he says "HI" to me.   I think he has a crush on me.

I'm punching in, the alleys are smashing down pins, the front desk staff have once again turned the music system on too loud and the kitchen aroma of the grill now wafts towards me.   This is what I encounter each and every day when I arrive at work.    Except on Tuesdays, when well-groomed, smiley faced gentleman is there.

I probably wouldn't have paid attention to him - until I retained my recognition of people at the bowling alley.       Hundreds of people come and go and I feel no connection to them whatsoever, except for Tuesdays.

Last week I arrived to work as usual to the smell of hamburgers and onions on a brioche bun and the knock down of pins and loud music, and my gentleman.   Except this time he was being escorted back to his bowling lane by a special needs counselor.   He was smiling at me, like he usually does upon my arrival at work.   I watched as he rejoined his group at the lanes.

There are a lot of people who walk in and out of my life, but so few who astonish me.