Our Mirror Friends

green walk

I've always felt that finding a new friend is a little bit like falling in love. It's one of the nicest things that can still happen to us even in our dotage, and it comes, if it does, as a happy surprise.  We certainly weren't expecting to begin any friendships while waiting in the ticket line at LAX.But there they were, a couple in their 60s, comfortably worn but still attractive, articulate and literate, wry and observant, easy to talk to. And talk we did.

It turns out they were returning to the UK after having visited their son and his American wife in southern California, just as we were on our way to visit our daughter and her British fiancé in England.  Yes, it's our situation in reverse. Also, they live on a farm in Wales, which, when you consider all the possibilities, seems not so very different from a ranch in Gaviota, and she told me about her most recent book, which I promptly downloaded (and, as it turns out, it's a heck of a good book), and...well, before you know it we were exchanging contact information and planning to visit them in Wales.

What's amazing is that a few weeks later, we really did visit them in Wales. And our first impressions proved to have been sound: they were lovely and gracious and we felt completely comfortable with them. We seemed to have similar experiences and perspectives on a lot of topics, and there were very few we didn't discuss. Miranda enjoyed their company also. And I was touched to see a copy of my book by a chair in the living room.

At one point we went for a walk straight up a steep green hill– "to the edge" was the term employed–and got caught in a brief and beautiful rainstorm. Then we returned to the old farmhouse for tea and talked until it was late. They invited us to spend the night, but we had to get back to Oxford.  We said good-bye knowing we'll see them again.In a month of travel, we've seen and done a lot, but this was one of the unexpected gifts. A simple thing, but lucky...and not that common.I shared all this in an email to my friend Dan, calling it serendipity.  

He had another term for it. "It's synchronicity," he wrote. "You found your mirror friends. It's wonderful when life on earth reveals itself this way."