*“Talk not of wasted affection; affection never was wasted.” 

There is this one guy, I will call him J., I wrote about him before. We met in the train while commuting to work several years ago.  There was an immediate attraction, so we enjoyed many flirtatious train trips.  I didn’t have a boyfriend but he was married.  We didn’t want drama, so it ended before it began.  It became a friendship.  (yeah, yeah, I shouldn’t have been flirting with a married man to begin with, I am a shameless flirt, but I am older and wiser now) We kept in touch on and off. Years later when he got divorced he called me and asked me out for a drink to catch up, but at the time I was living with EX and I didn’t think it was a good idea so I declined. He understood.

After EX and I broke up J. and I met up again but by this time he was seeing someone else. Soon after that he got married.  I was a tad surprised by the marriage as I didn’t expect someone to get married so soon after a crazy divorce.  Not everyone feels they have to spend time mourning the demise of a relationship like I do.

*Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

Fast forward to today.  I saw he had a new picture on LinkedIn and sent a quick note saying I like the picture and saying I hoped he was well.  After a couple of replies he tells me that there has been some personal changes, and I guessed, correctly, that he had become a father again, after all, as they say, after marriage comes baby and carriage.

I am very happy for him.  A new baby is always a good thing.  Immediately I realized that tears were welling up in my eyes.   Why am I getting emotional?  Having a baby was never a dream of mine.  I didn’t grow up dreaming of marriage and kids.  But still, somehow, there is this poetic sadness in my heart.  That could have been my life; that could have been my baby.  I think of the irony of timing and space.   Perhaps if we both had managed to meet up when we didn’t have other people in our lives, perhaps, perhaps…

At times I like the idea of a baby, I even long for one, but having a baby is no longer an option, it is not longer up to me…that ship has sailed.  It would be awesome to have that choice forever.  There are always options, I affirm to myself.

*“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” 

Reality is that J. and I would never be a great long lasting match.  There was chemistry and mutual admiration but that wouldn’t be enough to sustain it.  We would be great partners in some project but not in love.  My sadness over “what if” is unwarranted.  If we were meant to be and if I really liked him and he liked me we would have made it happen.

Stubbornly tears fall, and yet through tears I realize how awesome my life is and how I would not have it any other way.  God has a plan and I trust in that!  I am where I should be, baby-less, husband-less, but content, blessed and grateful!

I am blaming a poor baby for the tears in my eyes and the pain in my heart, but he is not the whole reason behind the tears.  It has been an emotional day.  As soon as I got to work I got a call that my mother was in the emergency room with chest pains.  She is fine now; it was just a false alarm.  But that was enough of a reminder of how far, geographically, I am from my family.  I am reminded that one day I will get a phone call that will cut me like a knife, what will I do then?  A feeling of powerlessness invades me and tears threaten to fall.  I let them.  There is nothing I can do but pray for a peaceful heart and mind.

*“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.” 

*All quotes by  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow