Tonight, I will have dinner with my friend and mentor Ann Smith. Ann is here in Florida visiting her niece, so it was a happy discovery that we were going to be here at the same time because of Bill’s concert schedule.
Ann has been a mentor and friend for many years, as she has been to a long parade of college students, men and women in ministry, couples whose marriages were in trouble, and thinkers struggling with their faith. I love Ann because she is so alive and ready to take on any discussion, constantly pushing herself (and me) to grow. She is one of the sharpest minds and wisdom-seekers I know, so as a friend she is a rare and invaluable fellow pilgrim on this “journey to the sky”.
While Bill and the Vocal Band are singing in Ocala, I am meeting Ann and her niece Marcie for dinner. We will laugh and tell stories and inevitably land on some topic that speaks to the core of life. I will wait as on the edge of the ocean for the waves of Ann’s insights to wash up on the shore of my comprehension, then try to memorize the moment, make mental note of her words and, maybe, while she isn’t looking, scribble her wisdom on a napkin and tuck it into my pocket.
I will forget that it’s in my pocket, in all the gathering together of things to return home to my life in the dark January cold of Indiana. But on some bewilderingly regular day of my real life, I will reach into that pocket for a tissue, and there will be the paper napkin laden with diamonds from Ann. It will hold just the right words for just the right moment to reflect a prism of light on my path. And I’ll thank God again for a friend like Ann and for that dinner in Florida when we celebrated Ann’s 97th birthday, for I will have in my hand the sparkling dust of eternity from the youngest woman I’ve ever known.
(For more about Ann, see “Wisdom from Ann” blog for Oct. 31, 2018)
