Before Knowing & Being Known: Noticing

Do you remember the day you met your best friend? I do. It was a beautiful autumn day. The September sun was streaming, fading and golden, through the red, orange, and yellow leaves. It was cool enough for jeans and a jean jacket, but the air was still clinging to a bit of warmth from the Indian summer day.

As I strolled past the front doors of the church that stood across from the expansive front lawn of the town’s college, I noticed a group of men in tuxes standing as a group on the steps. I say “noticed,” but I didn’t actually turn my head to consider them. Using my peripheral vision as I made my way down the sidewalk, I glanced at them from behind the black sunglasses I wore.

I had heard that there was a wedding at the church that day. My roommate or someone had mentioned that the youth intern was getting married. I hadn’t paid attention to the details because I had no reason to believe the event had anything to do with me or my future. Little did I know that the wedding would serve as the backdrop to the story I would tell for the next 25 years about how I met my best friend.

The details of September 23, 1989, are easy for me to recall because they are the setting of the day I met my husband. And I know that now. Hindsight here is very clear. But as the encounter unfolded, I didn’t really notice each little thing. While it was happening, I was just a young woman walking hurriedly from one side of a building to the other to meet up with a group of people to go line dancing. Yet because my stroll caught the attention of one of the guys on those stairs, my life was forever changed.

Do you go through your life noticing what’s going on around you and whose path is crossing yours? Could you reconstruct the details of this very day if someone were to ask you about it at dinner? Noticing—the precursor to knowing and being known—could lead to a transformative new beginning. The day I just described for you certainly led to that for me.

Do you and I really believe that each day is full of remarkable moments? Noticing allows life to become all it truly is—something to be relished and remembered.

You will never live this day again. You will not pass this way again. Notice.

Jenn Nahrstadt
Friend of Q Place