I sat down in my usual spot to eat my lunch.  Time wasn't motionless, but it sure felt as if it was moving much slower than usual.  My mind had been carried off by the spring breeze and was nowhere near my body at the moment.  I looked over to a collection of tables near me and saw a group of women sitting there, talking to each other.  I finished my lunch as I noticed in that crowd of three there was a one woman of unbelievable beauty.  I looked at her for a moment, hoping not to arouse that sixth sense that warns people when someone is watching them.  I didn't want our eyes to meet just yet, maybe ever.  I looked away and pretended that I had not seen her.  It was too much to bear; I turned around again and glanced at her, longer this time.  I tried to drink up as much of her as I could in a quick look.  It was no use; I had to stare at her.  I found her to be just slightly perfect.  The alabaster skin of her face was framed on either side by her dark sienna colored hair.  She had a pair of expressive eyes, like a happy child who knows only their mother's love.  Her smile spoke of kindness and laughter.  I could tell she loved to laugh by the small trace of her laugh lines as she spoke.  Mind you no one is perfect, but as I watched her she remained this perfect vision of beauty.  The breeze again took off and slightly rolled over her hair, lightly brushing the strands.  The strands went across her face and I found myself in tears.  The mixture of the breeze and her hair was like the strokes of a painting, delicate and divine.  I could see the workmanship of a creator who took his craft and elevated it to an art form.  The little things in life are those that shine the most, and this was a little thing that nearly blinded me.  I felt overwhelmed as I stood there watching the dance of hair and wind.  My eyes welled up with the insurmountable emotion I felt.  So much of what I felt then cannot be said in words.  At times like this words fail me and I am reduced to the pure emotion.  This simple dance of hair and wind now engulfed me and it was all I could do to wipe away the tears from my eyes, for my tears prevented me from staring at what I could only name as God's masterpiece.  Fate, or whatever you want to call it, placed me in this exact moment in time and space to experience this epiphany.  The tears continued to flow from my eyes.  I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes again.

I wondered for a moment if it was not better to be blind to such beauty, for I felt that I could not see the world again knowing that it was all around me.  Because suddenly I noticed so many more things that I hadn't before.  The blades of grass were defined and I could smell its fresh cut scent.  I hadn't noticed that before.  A pigeon flew over my head like so many other times, but this time I watched it as it caught the breeze and flew out of my view.  It was majestic and quick on the wind.  The rustling of the trees drew my attention towards them.  I had seen and heard all these things before, but somehow they were more there at that moment.  I became aware of them and so they all sang to me.  It was overwhelming.  I closed my eyes and as if to shut out the world, and to regain some sense of sanity.  Yet, the images of beauty had been burned into my eyes, and even with them closed I could see traces, reminders, of what I had seen.  I began to wonder if it was not better to have never know her beauty and so to have lived in ignorance, like the rest of the world.  As the images slowly receded into the blackness of my closed eyelids I thought of that question.  I was blind to the world around me now, could I live like this forever?  I tried to imagine my life if I had never seen anything.  I came to the realization that I would not miss the images that were fading away in my mind if I had not seen them, ever.  However, I had seen them, and they were now beckoning me.

At that moment an image popped into my mind, the image of my red fire truck that I had growing up.  I could see it, red as could be.  Even more red than I remembered it being.  The scratches that I inflicted on it popped out and I could see every detail as if I was looking at it through a microscope.  I saw my grandmother's hands.  They looked so delicate, but strong.  I had never noticed that about them before.  Don't ask me why, but I saw cotton candy being made.  I could see how fluffy it was as the larger bits of sugar caught the light and glistened in a pink explosion.  I could almost taste it.  I saw the first girl I ever liked.  She looked so young.  I was so young.  Her eyes were like a pair of marbles, bluer than I ever imagined anything ever being.  I couldn't get the images to stop.  My life is full of images, ordinary things that were now extraordinary because I chose to not see them.

I opened my eyes and looked at her again.  Now she was more beautiful than ever.  She looked to me as if she had been sprinkled with stardust and moonbeams.  She was touched by that special something that made her radiate beauty, like the sun radiates heat.  When I looked at her I saw a spark in her eyes, and a glow to her skin.  She had a lovely face, for God in his mercy had lent her grace.  If I were in a sentimental mood I would describe her as my savior from the unrelenting loneliness that I felt at that moment, for I alone noticed how beautiful the world was.

Being lonely might be the hardest thing to deal with as a human being.  We're social animals by nature and we driven by a need to find that person who completes us.  I felt so alone in the world.  In my solitude I was haunted by the images of beauty all around me.  I felt that I had to know this woman who showed me something I had failed to notice before.  I would have never thought that the day would come that I would find someone who made me feel this way.  It is strange and wonderful how things work out, almost as if there's an invisible force that bumps us around like pinballs in a pinball machine.