Stranger Love

Rain was sprinkling the Monday ground. Traffic was bumper to bumper due to the slick roads. You came to my mind, as you do from time to time. I've learned to brush you off, but on this cold, wet morning you lingered longer than normal.

I remember that moment. I was in this very seat and I heard it rush out of you. You didn't realize the words that were coming out. You didn't know the weight or the impact of those words. You didn't know words could weigh so much. I didn't know they could weigh that much either.

I remember how I went numb, speechless. I'm never speechless, I alway have something to say. But in that moment, all I could do was listen. All I could do was sit and pick up each piece of gold you were throwing out at me. That's why they weighed so much, they were gold nuggets.

Then it hit me. I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but it hit me as I sat in traffic on a slick road full of red brake lights.

You were a stranger.

You never felt like a stranger, from the moment I met you, you never felt like a stranger to me.

But you were. You hadn't known me long enough to know the things you knew. We only had a few late night conversations under our belt, but not enough for you to see what you saw. I let people see what I want them to see, but you went deeper. You saw past the closed door.

You were a stranger that night. A stranger who poured a weight of love onto me. A love that is normally only conceived through years of conversation, minutes upon minutes of countless moments. 

But our moments were few, our time was limited and yet, I've never felt more love. 

I'll always remember that night. The night I was given pure love from a stranger. I'll always remember how I didn't know how to receive it. I didn't know how to take a love like that and tuck it away. Love changed for me that night. It took on a new face, it took a new name. All because of a stranger. All because of one stranger.