Member-only story
I Connected With My Younger Self;
Sometimes in life, you find yourself connecting to someone in ways that you couldn’t have imagined…something seemingly random and innocent and then there you are, or rather, there you were, transported back through the years, because you realize that you have just encountered a younger version of yourself: not an exact doppelganger, but enough like the younger you, that it causes a veritable cascade of emotions within your heart.
In the area where I currently live, there are (thankfully) many dog lovers. All of us with dogs (and those like myself no longer graced by their luminous presence due to illness) form this unacknowledged alliance with each other, meaning: we may not always know everyone’s “names” but we recognize each other on sight, while out walking our fur babies; hence, when my lovely dog Jake was here with me, people knew me as “Jake’s Mom” — we would see each other, chat for a bit, our mutual dogs would play and sniff and then off each of us would go into that good night, fur babies included. It’s a lovely little enclave wherever animal lovers are gathered.
So, the other week, this young girl who often walks her dog “Isabella” or as she is lovingly referred to “Issie” was out walking with Isabella and as I saw them both and began to pet Issie, I learned two things: this girl, whose name is Jennifer, was getting married and she wanted to invite…
