Meeting a stranger for lunch

Death has a way of narrowing your circle of friends as you get older and in recent weeks, I have decided to fight back – to start enlarging that circle.
     So yesterday, I did something I have never done – I met a stranger for lunch.
     A former colleague had given her my name as a potential partner for a freelance project and we had emailed back and forth a few times before someone else was chosen for the work. But she sounded so interesting, I suggested lunch.
     Turns out, she IS interesting – a professional graphics designer, mother of an adopted Chinese teen and now, at midlife, a student in divinity school.
     We spent an hour talking about matters ranging from why Jesus is called “Lord” (for reasons that surprised me) to why low-income housing is placed in some of the least healthy places in a community (and how to find time to advocate against that) to how to balance work and home life – all over a fantastic, organic meal at a place called Life Alive in Lowell, Mass.
     We hugged goodbye. I hope we do it again.
     But whether we do or not, I feel good today for having taken a risk that paid off, and for meeting someone who has made my life seem that much larger, and richer.