Glimmers of Happiness

 

    I leaned back in the antique wooden chair and listened as it creaked with age. It was clearly chosen to be inside the charming little coffee shop because its dark wood and hand carving fit the cottage decor around it.

    My friends were sitting around the table chatting with each other and laughing over something silly that I was sure the one had said, the one always said the wildest things at the most random times. 

    Across the room was a young woman with immaculate blond hair and a Christmas-sweater-clad pet bull dog who sat panting beside her chair. I inclined my ear and soon discovered that behind her energetic and peppy voice, she was promoting her own business and talking about its foreseen growth to a man who was undoubtedly a potential investor. He watched her intently and nodded his head, asking the occasional question that never failed to put her right on the spot. He had ordered a salad, it seemed like something that a business man would order at this cafe. I looked down at my own burger and decided that perhaps if I was an uptight and terribly fancy business man, I too would have ordered a salad. I smiled at the thought and returned my attention to my friends. 

    To my right sat one who was recently engaged and her wedding date was coming up on us so quickly. I wouldn't be able to spend time like this with all of my friends together again for possibly ever. My three friends were all roommates with each other. Life had brought them together in surprising ways and I had become their adopted roommate over the course of two years. We knew each other's struggles, fears, secrets, and had spent some of our best and worst times together. I was trying to enjoy this time with all of them, but I knew that in the span of a month that the one was moving hours away from us all to start her new life with her husband to be. It was a truly bittersweet thought. 

    The side door of the cafe swung open abruptly and the jingle bells above the door rang as if startled from a nap. In stepped a very stylish older lady. Her white hair was curled and swept onto the top of her head into a large and fluffy mound reminiscent of a perfectly filled soft serve ice cream cone. The expression on her face matched her stride, stern, brisk, and purposeful. 

    She gave the room an analytical glance and strode through the main opening to where we had ordered our coffees. 

    I picked up my coffee and sipped it slowly. The sweet peppermint warmth filled my mouth and then my stomach. That woman was the owner of this cafe. I recognized her as one of the customers of the local general store where I worked. She had every bit as much of a commanding air to her in her own domain as she did behind the shopping cart in the aisles of my own. 

    The mission that my friends and I had today was to spend time together browsing for Christmas gifts for our other loved ones. The time we were having with each other today was gift enough for us. Quality time had become really important to all of us as we grew older in our own lives and together. 

    I smiled, truly feeling it come from deep inside of me. My life is a beautiful thing, I decided. Every bittersweet moment deserves to be cherished. I hugged all of my friends extra hard that day and thanked the Lord for making moments like these possible in my life. 

    Each little temporary and fleeting smile and laugh, they're all the glimmers of happiness that fill my life with light.