Hey, 11

I already had a seat.
What convinced me in that split-second to look for a better one, to find the one next to you?

Seriously though.
What if I hadn't decided this was worth skipping church for?
Was it luck that drew me to notice this author's session just a few days before?
What if my friends had been unsuccessful in convincing me to buy those tickets?
I nearly didn't.

Looking back further, what if I hadn't read that author last summer?
It took months of another friend urging, it took a Powell's recommendation, it took that book staring at me from my shelf for quite some time before I capitulated.

"Is what we read really that important?"  I've always thought so.  Now I have no doubts.

And what if I hadn't just gotten my pixie, which in turn determined my costume, which was the same as yours?
Would we still have met?

A book. A tv show.  A costume.
So many small decisions--decisions that seemed wholly unrelated to "important life questions."
And yet.  It was all of these seemingly insignificant decisions that all led me to that one, very important question:
"Hey, 11, is that seat open?"

[3.30.2014]

[7.25.2014]