I went to breakfast with my husband and while we were eating a few tables down, I saw something interesting. There was a man who was sitting by himself. He was eating his breakfast quietly and he seemed peaceful. Soon afterward, a hostess brought a couple in. The wife had a high energy. She wanted to go straight to the breakfast buffet before she even sat down because she was so hungry. They were seated at the table next to the peaceful man. As soon as they sat down, the woman introduced herself to the man because they were all at the same writers conference as I am. The peaceful man immediately explained to the couple that he had a sore throat and couldn’t speak. That fact didn’t seem to make a difference. The woman just started to talk and didn’t stop. When the waiter came by to check and see how their food was and if they needed anything, she didn’t know because she hadn’t started to eat. She had been talking so much. The man with the sore throat took a chance when she took a moment to take a bite to eat and asked her husband what he did for a living, but he was also taking a bite of food. So, she swallowed her food and then answered for her husband. When my husband and I left, she was still talking.
I can’t fault this woman for being herself. I do feel bad for the peaceful man with the sore throat because his breakfast was interrupted, and I don’t know if he wanted the intrusion or not. However, this does relate to my story. Yesterday, I wrote about feeling bad that I wasn’t more outgoing during my first day of Stokercon. I could be like this woman going up to total strangers and just talking away, but that’s not me. I don’t like to talk like that. I am careful with my words. When I say things, I want them to have meaning. When I say things, I know that they may rattle around in my brain for days and sometimes weeks because of my OCD. And most importantly, if I don’t talk all the time, then I get the opportunity to hear all these amazing encounters like this woman who loves to talk, her husband, and a peaceful man with a sore throat. They are all my brothers and sisters in Christ, all children of God, and miracles I got to witness as I ate my breakfast this morning.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
