The Arrangement
In the mid 70s, I was living in an “efficiency apartment” with a roommate. Every time she had a date, I either took a long walk (I had no car.) or I sat in the bathtub and read.
I was grateful to have housing, but the arrangement got old quickly.
Jay lived down the street. After we had our interesting meeting, we would talk, as I made my walks out on the street. (And yeah — I’ll admit I tried to take my walks when I could see him arriving home from work.)
After hearing my sad story of hoping to have enough money soon to get a place of my own, he made a generous offer.
He worked for an ambulance service as an EMT. He worked 24 hours on and 48 hours off. He offered me his apartment for the 24 hours he was at work. He said nothing about the time he would be home.
I took the generous offer. However, God was about to deal with refining both of us.
In a world that had gone out of control for me, I spent a lot of time organizing the small world I had left.
Jay, it turned out, was “unstructured!” One look at his habitat … and I almost went back to the bathtub at my roommate’s apartment.
But Jay was so generous, I stayed for the 24 he worked … and often hung around while he slept when he came home. I learned not to wake him up. He was not nearly as charming when awakened out of a sound sleep.
And I learned not to try to organize his stuff. (He said it was organized!)
And when he was awake, he cooked for me before I took my “go bag” and went back up the street.
Then we talked for hours on the phone.
Then the day came when he broke the news … and broke my heart. There had been no promises, so none broken.
Everything had been for “today.” And now it was turning into tomorrow. Jay announced he was moving to Etown, a city about two hours away.
I thought “it”, whatever “it” was, was over.
Lessons:
Enjoy each moment.
Don’t try to write the story. Live the story, as it comes.
Sometimes when you think your carriage has turned into a pumpkin again, it turns out the prince really likes pumpkins and comes looking for them.
It ain’t over until it’s over … and sometimes it ain’t over!
