As a kid, we ate out but tended to frequent the same type of restaurants – typically Chinese, Italian, or the diner. In NJ, diners are a big thing and the perfect way to satisfy the whole family. I was in high school when a friend took me out for Indian food for the first time. I didn’t like it, but not too long afterwards I had the opportunity to eat it again. I LOVED IT!
Now, there is never a time when we are thinking about where to go for dinner, or what take bring in, and every time Indian is suggested, I am all in. EVERY TIME!
So it’s a Federal holiday today and my son and I made to plans to meet for lunch. Indian? Absolutely! We are having a lovely time, chatting about everything and I’m reminiscing about that first friend who took me to eat Indian, and I’m thinking – how wonderful that I gave this cuisine a second chance. This food that I love and brings me joy. And now I’m thinking about second chances. That’s the thing about life – it gives us second chances, and third and so on. Really as many as we need. I could have closed my mind to the possibility of not ever eating Indian food again after the first unpleasant experience. But I didn’t.
I can close my mind to the possibility of ever loving another man again too. Or I can open it to the possibility of meeting someone new, someone wonderful, albeit different. Someone who is meant to come into my life at this right time because meeting him sooner would not have worked. That was true of Daniel. I loved the person Daniel was when I met him, not the person he was as a younger man. The years and experiences he had when we were not together shaped him into the wonderful person I met in June 2012. While he would say he wished we met when we were younger, I always disagreed. We met and fell in love at the time that was right for us, when it was meant to be. We were both open to meeting someone, we had ideas of who would be right for us, we found the qualities and traits we admired in a partner in each other, and the timing was right.
Now, that being said, there is NEVER a right time to lose someone you love. So I am not here to say that everything happens for a reason, because I think that’s BS. Things happen. Terrible things. But also good things. So today I plan to keep my mind open to finding the good things in life. And today’s really good thing was a day off from work and a delicious Indian lunch with my sweet boy.