Happy Endings (A story about a dirty old man and a misunderstanding)

Knowing that I love all things vintage, a friend reserved a skirt for me at a vintage clothing store. She said that it had my name written all over it and from the picture she sent, she was spot on.

 

So, off I went to try on my longgggg, old no-doubt, new best friend.

 

As I arrived, the parking in front of the store was full, so I drove to where I found a spot and hopped out of the car.

 

My phone rang and I answered. My colleague was calling to discuss a new business deal. I was pacing and talking, talking and pacing, all the while thinking about that longgggg skirt.

 

An old man winked at me and I winked back, still pacing and still talking. He was 100 years old.

 

When I got off the phone, he called out to me. “What’s a nice lady like you doing at a place like this?”

 

“Well, it isn’t everyone’s taste, that’s for sure” I replied “but for me, the older the better” I said, my mind rushing off to thoughts of the treasures inside the vintage store.

 

My phone rang again and I had to pace again. Damn! My vintage fix was on pause again.

 

The man continued to hang around while I talked. As I hung up, he said “So? What turns you on?” to which I replied “Anything long and olddddd actually”. (That long skirt was now just moments away)

 

When I finally made it to the vintage store door, the woman inside said “Oh, I am so glad you are inside” before getting my reserved skirt off the rack for me to try on. “There are some real perverts hanging around there” she said pointing to my car and to the sign that said Adult Sex World in flashing lights.

 

Grandpa’s questions jumped back into the fore of my mind. Gosh, I had just told him that I loved anything “old” and “long” and with my mind now clearer, it occurred to me that he was not asking about the vintage store or my taste in skirts at all!

 

I heard a commotion outside and my car alarm was going off. Every one standing around the vicinity of the car quickly disappeared, including old gramps. So, I am glad to tell you that my story had a happy ending. (Pretty much the opposite of poor, old gramps’ story, I guess) 

 

But that’s life huh? Happy endings are never guaranteed but damn, they can so happen at the most unexpected of times.

 

Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

 

© A Heart Full of Stories, 2016

 

 

P.S.Talking about ENDINGS, aren’t you glad to see the back of 2016?  I sure am!

 

I have suffered tremendous loss this year and it is with the heaviest of hearts that I watch the curtain come down on this show. But, I do know this honestly, loss and mourning are two dark islands that we all need to visit in this cruise around this planet.  So, let’s hold each other in kindness, knowing that the just like the dark, the light islands exist too and that visiting them and enjoying their pleasures is our birth right. I know this without a doubt.

 

Allow me to wish you light in the year ahead.  May your days be bright!

 

I look forward to sharing many of my stories with you in 2017, the biggest of which will be the publishing of my book, which I took a decision to postpone this year in order to observe a period of mourning.

 

Thank you for reading, for sharing and for telling me that your hearts are connecting. Nothing in the world makes me happier! (Well, maybe there are one or two things…but that’s a PG21 story for another day!)

 

Aluta continua, my friends.  Please remember that:

YOU are enough

You have always been enough

You will always be enough

The end.

 

 

 

 

Have you ever? (A deep and personal reflection on life revisited)

Have you ever listened to the rain falling?

Did the gentleness of drops tumbling get you poetic or did the sheer power of the storm remind you of your owns storms?

 

Have you ever felt like you’ve been kicked in the gut?

How did the breaking of your heart sound? Did it grind, wring and burn corners of your chest that you had long forgotten?

 

Have you ever received a gift?

A blessing out of the blue for which no amount of gratitude would be appropriate?

 

Have you ever been betrayed?

Did you stand in the doorway of broken trust and bleed as the shattered pieces of glass cut you as they fell?

 

Have you ever danced? Really danced?

Did the primal impulse to sway create waves of sexual energy that made you high?

 

Have you ever been needed?

Did you beam and melt, motivated and elated or did the knowledge turn on your need for control and power even more?

 

Have you ever traveled alone?

Did you have a partner with you who was not there in spirit? Did the vibrations of civilisations past call out your name and send you home changed  but on fire?

 

Have you ever blessed someone with prayer?

Did your heart send vibrations across tall walls and rough seas; intercessions seasoned with grand visualisations of success, prosperity, abundance to people who you dreamed great dreams for?

 

Have you ever watched a loved one hurt?

Did you feel hammers banging inside your chest and did the shivvering knees make you nauseas with helplessness?

 

Have you ever been touched?

Whether by the 80 year old hand of a stranger, rough with callouses but warm with unspoken stories about abuse, slavery, loved ones that have never returned? Or, was it simply a simple line from a simple song that charged your soul’s batteries and flooded your veins with warmth?

 

Have you ever been lost?

Were you lost in the forest of someone else’s shadow or perhaps lost in the company of familiar people dancing to a beat you could no longer hear?

 

Have you ever been silent?

Did the inner noise, tainted with memories and paranoia, make you doubt whether to trust the whispers emanating from your pulse asking you to be still and trust yourself.

 

Have you ever had a brush with God?

Did it happen when you were at the top of a beautiful mountain or did it happen when you came face to face with a hijacker?

 

Have you ever been an addict?

Did your drug of choice soothe you, own you, control you and lift you all at once? Did your alliance seem ubreakable?

 

Have you ever received a compliment?

A genuine string of words about who you are, not what you can give? Did it remind you of the value you create, the impact you have, the light that only you bring?

 

Have you ever looked your soul in the mirror?

Did your reflection smile lovingly, nod tenderly and embrace you with comforting words of encouragement?

 

Have you ever been seduced?

Did it help you to escape your bad reality only later to return you changed and unsure of the way forward?

 

Have you ever connected with another heart?

Did it feel predestined to happen? Did you go there?

 

Have you ever wanted a glimpse of your future?

Did you follow that need to seek guidance from soothsayers, Tarot cards, horoscopes perhaps? Anything that promised the slightest secret fast forward to a life more grand?

 

 

 

I bet you have! And, guess what? So have many spirits before you, many souls yet to come. These shared experiences give us the assurance that we are part of the same journey and that the “answers” we seek already exist. 

 

These experiences should also remind you that YOUR unique set of experiences, YOUR unique choices, YOUR bespoke combo of emotions is what makes YOUR story a story that deserves its own page in the great book of life.

 

May you learn to appreciate that. There is no story without YOU.

 

Believe it!

 

Lee-Ann Mayimele is Chief Storyteller at  A Heart Full of Stories ©, 2016.

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