"Starbucks" and Strange Coincidences...

I just have to write this post about some interesting and coincidental things that I have experienced within the past month! There seems to be some interesting chain of events that have been happening recently (and for some reason, it all starts with my favorite "Starbucks" coffee joint)...there may be no direct connection at all. However, I keep thinking things over in my mind and I figured I might as well blog about them!

Last month I received a phone message a few weeks before Thanksgiving from an old, but very good friend of mine, from my high school days! Her name is Hannah. She now lives out of state with her husband and two children, but her family still lives in Orlando. I was once a maid-of-honor in her first wedding. She married once before right out of high school, but, unfortunately, things did not work out between the two of them. Anyway, the last time I spoke with her, it was about 4 years ago when she was visiting her parents here in town. She came to our house and met our children for the first time. Our youngest, Amanda, was a newborn at the time. As I said, in this message a few weeks ago, Hannah was calling to let me know she was going to be coming into town again for Thanksgiving weekend and she was wondering if we might be able to get together at some point? I was thoroughly surprised by her phone call, because we had not even spoken or exchanged Christmas cards, etc. during the previous 4-year period. Well, I called her back and we arranged to get together for coffee one morning just before Thanksgiving at a local Starbucks...my favorite spot! We spent nearly 2.5 hours catching up on everything that's been going on in our lives over the past several years. As we were chatting away in Starbucks, Hannah recognized another old high school friend of hers standing in the line awaiting her coffee. It turns out, this old friend was yet, another one of the former maids-of-honor in Hannah's first wedding, along with myself! What a funny coincidence for us both! Hannah and I later arranged to have our children and husbands meet together for an afternoon of fun a few days later at a local park. It made me feel that warm, nostalgic feeling you get as you get older and you remember things from your long ago past! After all, Thanksgiving time is a time for family and get-togethers with loved ones. My visits with Hannah during her stay in town were a refreshing and unexpected experience!

Now, here comes another strange and interesting coincidence involving Starbucks...Just last week I was sitting in the exact same Starbucks enjoying a brief mocha before heading off to my job, when someone came up to me and asked if the seat next to me was taken? I was sitting in one of those comfy, large chairs they have. As I looked up to respond, I immediately recognized this woman and we both said, "Hi" at the same moment! She recognized me, as well! She was my former best friend from high school named, Angela. I had not spoken to her since our high school days, which happened to be 15 years ago already! This was one of those fleeting moments where I really began to feel "old". What's so interesting about this particular encounter is that it seemed to be almost a "divine appointment". She immediately sat down in the chair next to me and started telling me how bizarre it was that we were meeting face to face like this. She said that she was just standing there in the Starbucks line when she saw another woman waiting for her coffee and she thought the woman reminded her of my mother. She pointed to this woman and asked if it was my mom? I said, "no". She then went on to explain that when she saw this other woman, it made her think of me, "Becky Heard" [that's my maiden name]. Not five minutes later, Angela was asking to sit in the chair next to me and what do ya' know? It was ME sitting there in that chair! We spent about 15 minutes or so sharing a synopsis of our lives since we had last spoken. I learned a lot about the last several years of her life that I never knew. At this point, you might be wondering why I had not even spoken to her at all in the 15 years since we had graduated from high school? I will briefly say, without going into too much detail, that things took an unexpected turn for the worse in our friendship after graduation. As we both went on to our separate colleges, I never kept in touch with her, or vice versa. In my mind, although I had forgiven her long ago, I knew if I ever did come in contact with her that I would probably just ignore her. The wounds were too deep and despite my being a Christian, I always figured that my pride and self-worth would keep me from ever really contacting her again. And, of course, since so many years have passed and so many things in my life have changed since my high school days, I just really put the issues way behind me...or so I thought.

The really amazing thing about this whole encounter last week is that while we were talking, I kept thinking to myself, "this is really weird that I don't feel strange telling her about all the things that I've been up to in my life". It was like there really were no barriers and almost as if nothing had ever happened negatively between us. She kept talking about some important turning points in her life over the last several years and how her faith and relationship with God had grown since then. I had always believed that Angela was a Christian, even when we were back in high school. I remember that she attended Orangewood Christian School in Maitland while growing up (isn't Orangewood Church the "mother church" where UPC began from?). But, back then, it wasn't really something that we spent a lot of time talking about with each other. I had not accepted Christ as my savior at that time in my life. As we sat there in Starbucks and she was telling me about the amazing things God has done in her life, she also commented that our "coincidental" meeting must have been from God Himself! It started to freak me out, a bit...but in a good way! I started thinking, why of all times, have these two young women from my high school days [Hannah and Angela] come suddenly back into my path during this holiday season? And, why does it all seem to be happening at this particular Starbucks? I surmised that even though I may not totally be privy to all of God's plans and timing of things, the Christmas season is certainly a reminder of the forgiveness Jesus came here to represent and later died for. Perhaps, for both Angela and I, God simply wanted to "tie up any loose ends" from the past by having us unexpectedly meet and share our stories with one another. It made me realize that if I ever was holding onto any negative feelings from the past in our friendship, that there's "no time like the present" to confirm that all is truly forgiven! We never really did discuss our falling out or any of the things that went sour in our relationship, but I suspect that for whatever reason, God had a plan for me, as well as for Angela, that particular day last week when we met up. I still can't quite figure out the connection to Starbucks, but, it must have to do with the fact that it was located in Winter Park and my former high school was Winter Park High School. Most of the people I went to high school with were from this area of town.

Oh, and on another interesting side-note, I will tell you that one of the things Angela shared with me is about her very own business that she owns. It's called, "Solarte" and she purchased the business from its original owners on Park Ave. in Winter Park several years ago. She gave me their website address and as I perused the website, I came across a very interesting article featuring an interview with Angela, the owner of Solarte. It gave me a glimpse into some of the things she had briefly talked about and eluded to last week when she told me of the biggest turning point in her life several years ago. I was amazed to see the connection and references to God in this interview and at the bottom of her website. It became clear to me that indeed, God has been up to some amazing things in her life in recent years! I am glad to know that she has found her way back to a faith-filled life and relationship with God! As I said earlier, I never really knew that side of her in our high school days. It is great to see the miracles and amazing things God can do in our lives and in the lives of people from our past! To God be the glory!!!

If you want to check out her website, it is www.solarte.com.