RUNNING INTO THE RAIN

Bridget slipped a wild flower into her hair. The soft blue and yellow of the petals were a lovely compliment to her wispy blonde locks. She looked out into the distance. The sky was heavy, but the storm had passed. There would be another, but Bridget understood that that was where she lived now and she welcomed it. Change is good and storms, in Bridget’s experience, tended to clear the way for new and more vibrant landscapes. Life had never been more beautiful. The wind reared up and the fog rolled up from the sea while Bridget stood gazing out the window, looking out on the cliffs, on her life and on her future. She smiled. Bridget was excited. At peace and fulfilled. She had found that place within herself. That place you find yourself standing when you know you’re whole. When you fully understand who you are. When you are living in that extraordinary feeling of being all of who you are; not because of anyone else or because of anything in particular that’s happened, but because you’ve finally arrived at the place in life you never fathomed existed until you were in it. That in and of itself was the most extraordinary gift. The fact that within that state of being Bridget had encountered a man in the same place still seemed unreal to her. She turned to the mirror. Her dress, satin slippers, the flower she’d picked from the walkway and slipped into her hair... None of it was what she had ever imagined for herself and that made sense to her. This wasn’t a state that someone would imagine. Not her. Not anyone. It was much too simple to think of, it just simply was. The beauty radiating from what happiness truly is was in her reflection and that was all that Bridget saw. She was in just the right place with just the right person at just the right time. Bridget stepped outside into the soft wind, the reaching sun and the ponderous sky. She felt like she was floating as she walked out toward the edge of the cliffs. The world was endless for her; massive and welcoming, like an old friend. Michael watched Bridget walk toward him. The state of his heart and being mirrored hers. They were both in their own completely and at the same time alive as one. They were enamored by each other and seamlessly comfortable in their own skin, in what they shared and in what they would share for the years to come. A man stood to marry them. They were three and three alone. The man’s eyes blessed Bridget and Michael with wisdom and understanding. He could see the future of the union, what it would mean to their lives and to the lives they created and inspired. It was with that knowing that the man agreed to join them and then thanked them for inviting him to do so. What Bridget and Michael had was a love undefined. Full of passion and desire, fearlessness and hope, adventure and commitment. Bridget took her place next to Michael. He gently laid his hand on her waist, her fingers met his and their lips touched in their beginning of forever. A sea spray shot up over the cliffs, the clouds moved in squeezing the sun’s light and it began to rain. Bridget and Michael stayed lost in their embrace as the wind surrounded them, taking with it the wild flower from Bridget’s hair, sweeping it out into the world and taking it out into what would be… © photograph by Allen Henderson. Running Into The Rain awgryphon © All RIghts Reserved