I distinctly remember a tingle in my stomach when I first saw Michael. The church was set up differently and in walks a handsome young man who sat in the section to the left and about 3 rows behind me. After the service, I calmly dashed over to introduce myself and welcome him with no ulterior motives (well, not totally). I invited him to lunch with a group and was delighted to give him a ride there. The moment I began learning his story and his graceful outlook on others and life, I knew we held a connection that would change my life. (Throughout lunch, another guy was flirting with me relentlessly to which Michael thought I was finding delight. Not so.) The next few days and nights were filled with heart and soul conversations, glasses of wine, little sleep and a lot of evolving emotions.
Michael was helping my neighbor with an all-nighter of work and I stayed up to make cookies from scratch (as I would for anyone). One night they worked super late and Michael asked if he could sleep on our couch. I decided to make him more comfortable and slept on the other couch. As we were falling asleep, he reached over to grab my hand. I was a giddy young girl.
You see, this man had faced many difficulties in life. He caused me to expand my view of love and grace. He was considering the life of monk hood and here he was holding my hand! Shortly after, we were bike riding along the Olentangy River trail and stopped to lay on a hill and look at stars. My body was tense every time I inched closer to him and relieved at each movement he made towards me. Eventually he was holding me in his arms and I knew they were the arms I wanted to be held by for life.
The poor man- he was stumbling through his words and had a nervousness about him and when we arrived back at my house, he ran his hand through my hair and blurted out “I love you!” to which I could not deny my own affection towards him. Two weeks and we knew we were falling in love.
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