A large fish gracefully moves in the fish tank across the room. There is a man sitting in a nearby booth reading a book. The music is low and the only sounds in the restaurant is the clinking of dishes in the kitchen and the water bubbling in the fish tank.
Why did I come here?
Because I am hungry, and I have a story to tell.
So, with my hot tea and sesame chicken I begin to write…
I share a home with my elder sister who is madly in love and currently out of town, leaving me in a house of near silence. Silence is not a good friend to me and I often feel at a loss without good conversation. So I set out to change my dull mood.
With an umbrella as my cane and a hood to shield from the water droplets falling from the trees along the walkway, I began my journey.
I passed an elderly man I often see walking his dog. There was a little girl looking up at him as he talked with another man about his dog.
I came to a little café.
There were papers in all the windows advertising a sale. Peering in the window I saw plates and cups and cookware stacked on tables. They must be closing the café for good.
The area I was walking through reminded me of a friend who lived nearby, an elderly woman who goes to the church I attend. Perhaps I could call her and say that I just needed to listen to her tell stories.
Moving on from the café and passing a fountain on the street corner, I saw a man fall into step next to me. He asked, "Is it going to rain more?" "I hope not, but I'm prepared" I indicated my umbrella.
The man spoke with a young voice as he began to describe a problem with is cellphone and how he was on his way to get it fixed. We crossed the street together. The phone shop he indicated was near a store I intended to walk to.
I continued walking with him as he told, with no prompting, about his work at a local food chain. How he has been wiping the same tables, filling the same straw holders, making twenty containers of tea a day for over a year. We neared my destination but kept on going as he spoke of what he would love to do. Drive a delivery truck, one that delivers sweets and nothing heavy to carry.
I heard many stories by the time we reached the phone store where we shook hands and parted after introducing ourselves. "I'm Kelly"
"I'm Oliver"
It is an incredible thing to commune with God in our everyday walk through life. I expressed the desire to be told stories and moments later God granted that wish through Oliver.
