I met a man very briefly a few days ago, but he had a large impact. Doug tends to introduce me to everyone who comes into the gymnastics office, and this man was going to lunch with him. He told John that I had lived in Japan and was going to get married in April. John had been stationed in Japan during a war and talked about working in the post room on an army base. He was one of those people I trusted instinctually because of the gentleness and sincerity of his questions. I told him about teaching Bible classes and the Japanese response to it.
It was the end of the conversation that really moved me, though. John had one of those sets of eyes that just seems to see you. And he looked at me very sincerely and said, "So you've gone from that life to getting married in less than two years. That's a lot of change."
I was relieved that he and Doug left for lunch at that point, because I was fighting back grateful tears at someone seeing me like that. It's crazy how rare it is for us to truly stop and be present, and how amazing to be the recipient of the gift of five minutes of real attention.
