Friends & Small(er) Towns

I have always wanted to move.  Where, I don't know, just somewhere, anywhere, just to shake things up a bit.  I like bigger cities, the feeling of anonymity, the speed at which things move, especially the traffic.  On the flip side the traffic would bug the heck out of me when it isn't moving.  My bro-in-law pointed this out when I was ready to bolt from my parents' house so as to avoid the 4th of July "traffic" on their country dirt road.  "Oh, yeah, that's some traffic....what is it, like 40 vehicles?"  My affection for bigger cities probably lies in the fact that my grandparents lived in Portland and they helped us create such wonderful memories there.  And the anonymity wouldn't be so good for the soul...to be just a face in the crowd...where, proportionately, no one really knows your story.

Friday I was grocery shopping.  Meandering through Safeway, I recognized an older lady from our parish.  I smiled and moved on thinking that she probably didn't even recognize me, I mean I stand in the back of church most Sundays!  She grabbed my arm, looking at me like I was one of her dear friends and said, "We are praying for Theresa, and your whole family."
In the past when someone says they're praying for us I've thought, "Right.  How can you possibly be praying for us...that's just what one is supposed to say when there is nothing else to say." 
But she meant it, and she meant it enough to remember Theresa's name. 
In the next store the situation was repeated, and again, and again, and again.  Every single place I went someone reached out, out of themselves, and asked about Theresa, asked how everyone was doing, with such sincerity.  My soul was touched.

The next evening my girls and I went to the Symphony and here, gathered among 5000 people, where one could just blend in, the same thing happened, and the next day when we attended Mass at another parish.  I believe God was trying to tell me something....possibly something He has been trying to tell me for years.  Bloom where you're planted, accept the love you are shown, reach out to others all the time, don't let anyone be just a face in the crowd. 

And a couple pictures of my evening out with the girls ~ and some friends that we may have never known if we lived anywhere else!