… So, after my encounter with the Thin Silence that day at the nursing home, I decided to sign up on Match.com.
I figured it was my best option to meet someone. Because I’m such an introvert, I had really no other way of meeting someone who was: 1. my age, 2. interested in men, and 3. looking for a relationship. Match.com answered all those questions instantly.
I was so naïve, I even used my real name on my profile. (I’ve since learned that no one does that.) In less than a month I had coffee with four ladies, and Nancy was the fourth. Actually, Nancy contacted me first. She discovered my book, “What the Dying have Taught Me about Living,” liked what she read and reached out.
Her profile captivated me. She too is a writer (of poetry), she also has a Doctor of Ministry degree (as a Zen Buddhist), and her favorite author is Thomas Merton. She had me at Merton.
I did notice that every picture she had posted on Match included her poodle, Shanti … so I knew this would be a package deal. We met for coffee, and after 90 minutes or so of me trying to find out how this beautiful woman was just too good to be true, she said she needed to go walk Shanti. I invited myself along, figuring if Shanti didn’t like me there would be no future for us.
Well, Shanti it seems has no better taste in men than Nancy does, so I hit the lottery.
We married on May 16th of this year. I close this post with a poem I wrote for her on our wedding day.
Bonazzoli
fleeing in fear, like me, the prophet found a cave
and there he would have stayed but for the call of God
and there I would still be but for the invitation of your love
God was not in the wind
but the gentle breeze of your spirit has soothed my shame
God was not in the earthquake
but the depth of your love has plowed the fallow covering
cocooning my pierced and wounded heart
God was not in the fire
but the passion of your love for me and for life
has thawed the atrophied emotions within my breast
BUT, God was in the whisper
and the prophet hid his face
when I sensed the voice of Thin Silence
emanating from your soul
shining through those magnificently clear eyes
it called me
out of hiding
and into life
So, Lou, that’s the story of how Nancy and I met.
Then on September 8th, the second anniversary of our first date, everything we own went up in flames …