Did You See the Fireworks?

This post is a continuation of the saga I began describing in my last post,"What's Happened to All My Ducks?"

I Thought I Had My Life All Planned Out

Having just sold my house and moved into this apartment in August, I was happy with my new digs, and thought I'd never be moving again until they carried me out in a box.

I was happily engaged in discovering just the right treasures to furnish my apartment with in order to transform it into my own comfy private abode. Having friends, my family, WA, my singing, and other activities that I enjoyed, I was content and planned to live here for a long time to come. Though I missed romance occasionally during the holidays, I had no burning desire to go seek someone to fill that void.

Then one day the unexpected turned my whole world upside down.

A Surprise Phone Call From a Long-Lost Friend

A man from my checkered past that I had been head-over-heels in love with and had lived with for 8 years called me. (No, this is not his picture.) He had emailed me jokes and occasionally called during the 20 years since we had seen each other, but we had both gone our separate ways with new loves and different pathways in life.

When he called, I was so taken aback to hear from him that I was not very encouraging at first. My immediate knee-jerk reaction to his question of whether I was seeing anyone was to tell him that I was not looking for anyone, and I was happy with my life the way it was.

But he wasn't satisfied with that answer and continued to call and email me until I finally agreed to consider exploring the possibility of getting back together.

It Took a Lot of Soul Searching

I really had to evaluate my feelings and consider whether or not I wanted to make any changes in my life. It felt like such a huge risk to embark on such an adventure when I was so cozily content with my life the way it was. But a little voice in my head kept asking, "what if you stopped being so stubborn and gave him a chance?"

Many phone calls later as we continued to reminisce about the good times, I finally came to the conclusion that it would do no harm to meet him and see what happened. I also had to admit to myself that I was excited about seeing him again after all these years.

I told him that I would not move into anyone else's home or use their household goods. We agreed that we preferred to live in North Carolina if things worked out for us, but would also consider Florida temporarily while we made up our minds where we desired to live. He wanted to move out of Brevard County, which is very congested, so an epic search for a home that we both liked ensued.

Where Will It Be...North Carolina or Florida?

We both like North Carolina better than Florida, but he needed to find a place fairly soon because his lease was coming due. So, he searched in Florida while I looked at North Carolina properties. We emailed each other listings of places we liked and could afford, then discussed each of them at length on the phone prior to deciding which ones to go see.

Both of us found a property that would work, and we each went to see them. The North Carolina property I found was perfect. It was an old stone house set on 200 acres, had a huge garage with a workbench and lots of room for his stuff, a chicken house, a doggy door with a fenced yard, a greenhouse, garden spot, a pond, and a stone fireplace.

The only drawback was the way the lady handled her rentals. She insisted on doing an "open house", and there must have been at least 20 other people there when I saw the place. There was very little opportunity to talk with her privately to offer her my deposit.

She took applications from everyone who was interested and refused to even consider prioritizing my credit and background checks in order to accept my deposit for first, last, and security on the spot. Instead, she insisted that she had to perform background and credit checks on every one of the other applicants before she could make her decision.

This wouldn't work for us because he had found a place in Florida and had to give the landlord a definite answer. We couldn't wait for her to do all of her checking before making her decision because we would have missed the other opportunity.

So, it was decided that he would move to Silver Springs, Florida. This is a lovely, rural area of northern Florida that is in the middle of Ocala National Forest. The house is small, but the ambiance more than makes up for it. There are grapefruit, orange, and lemon trees in the large front yard, and the back yard features a lake with boat dock, and large old live oak trees draped in Spanish moss. The people are friendly, and the lifestyle is laid back.

Quick Trip To See Him

We decided to combine my trip to Florida to meet him again after a 20-year hiatus with his move to Silver Springs. That way we would have time to get reacquainted, I would be able to see the house he was moving into, and I could help him pack for the move. I packed the car, loaded up Leia, and we were off!

It was a grueling twelve-hour drive from western North Carolina to Brevard County Florida, and I arrived in the wee hours of the morning. He greeted me with candle light, roses, and a huge hug.

After daily emailing and constant phone calls for the past several months, it did not seem like it had really been 20 years since we had seen each other. It was exciting, but felt very natural...as though we had just been apart for a few days.

Of course, we have both changed and grown during the past years, and it will take some time for us to really get to know each other as well as we used to. But it's a miracle that we have found each other after all this time, and that those old sparks are still flying! We both feel that our reunion was meant to be and are eager to be together again.

My lease would not be up until August, but management has released me from it. I will be moving to Florida in May.

If I had allowed my contentment with the status quo and fear of the unknown to make my decisions for me, we never would have come this far or experienced the wonder of starting over again. This situation reminds me of Charlotte57's post "faith is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to walk with courage into the unknown." Thanks, Charlotte. I love that quote.