Young Couple

I was really tired the morning after our quick but long trip. I was a bit later than normal and it was already sunny.

Earlier I thought about staying in bed even longer but I never have been much of a morning sleeper. It's like a switch for me. I am either awake or asleep or on a very brief trip to one or the other.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The Sun was bright and the sky was clear and there was no wind. Things seemed cleaner and fresher. And I was so glad to be home. Just nothing like sleeping in your own bed with your own pillow.

I was taking it pretty easy and driving even beneath the already slow speed limit. I was so enjoying the day and looking all around me and noticing things in more detail than normal. And "more" for me is not a lot I am acutely aware.

It was just before I turned the corner that I noticed the parked car and a little ways from it a young couple.

It is not unusual to see cars in that place nor people enjoying the little park like area at the entrance to our addition. It is one of the things that attracted us to the area. Photographers use it often as a setting for their commissions.

Really I don't know how old they were but the sense I have is that they were young. I think they were nearer to high school than college graduation. But it is just a feeling.

They were sitting on the ground and they were facing each other. They were very close and their bodies were entwined. Her arms were around his neck and his around hers. Their faces were hidden in each others embrace.

It was the briefest glimpse even at my slow speed and then I was past them and in seconds they were only shadows of thought in my mind.

There had been no motion I had noticed when I passed them by. I could not see expressions on either face.

But there was nothing amorous about their embrace.

Perhaps there was joy. I cannot say not.

But I think it was a sad embrace. I don't know for certain but that's my feeling. And it made me a little sad myself. As though there had been some awful misfortune that had befallen them. And each was comforting the other though the experience of this grief.

But my sadness gave way to a feeling of happiness. But it was the kind of happiness that makes you want to cry because it is so beautiful.

I think they were comforting each other. It wasn't comfort by word or deed. It was comfort by presence and touch and that amazing thing we call love.

There's a beauty to that.

When I returned a few hours later they were gone.