Excerpt: "s I watched the couple walk ahead of me, they slowed to join a party of similarly aged and dressed folks. A group of beautiful people who, by all appearances, have plenty of whatever they want and need. The kind of look that says that you made it in life and are now going to enjoy what’s left of it.

For whatever reason, a sad story arose into my awareness. Several years ago, I was volunteering at a memory care facility, playing music for the small group who lived there, getting to know them and their families, and experiencing a lot of healing and meaning of my own.

I met a gentleman there whose wife was one of the residents. She was quite young, as was he. One day, he explained that they had looked forward to their retirement years all of their lives. In the first year, his wife received her diagnosis and before the end of that year she needed advanced care.

They were younger than the couple I met at the crosswalk.

As I felt the sadness of this story, all of a sudden, tonight, walking along the street, rather than seeing any of the clothes or identities that anyone was wearing, I began to see them without any of those layers, real or perceived.

I noticed my heart soften and open.

Not only did their layers shed before me, but my own shed.

Several people approached me, frumpy-dog-walker-look and all, just to say “Hi!” One gentleman, who was so in love with his partner that you could feel it a block away, stopped me and introduced himself, “Hi! What’s your name, sir? My name is Dan. It’s wonderful to meet you.”