Taken Aback

Do you ever have those moments, whether it's listening to a song, or smelling a particular aroma, or seeing a beautiful landscape, that take you back to a time in your life when everything seemed nearly perfect? Or maybe it wasn't perfect, but your memory of the time is perfect. I'm having one of those moments right now.

I am listening to my all-time favorite CD - Bebo Norman's "Big Blue Sky," one of his earlier albums. It became my favorite CD sometime in the early fall of 2001, when a friend introduced me to it while we were working at Northwestern Bookstore. I had just moved to the Cities and was enjoying nearly every moment of my life. At some point during that first year, my friend, Bradi, came to visit me and we went to Stillwater to go shopping on a BEAUTIFUL bright, crisp autumn day - you know the kind - they're native to that part of the country where the sun shines off the quickly changing leaves and it's warm enough for just a sweater, and not so cold you need a jacket over that sweater. The air is clean, and cool, and so inviting that you really feel as though its kisses are a faint taste of heaven. Bradi and I walked into the Dream Coat Cafe, only to hear this same CD playing from the speakers in the cafe (it had just been playing on the speakers of my favorite car). I sipped on a frozen raspberry mocha and marveled at the simplicity of how happy I could feel in such an every-day place. I remember walking around the cafe, dreaming of having my own someday, basking in the relaxed atmosphere, and reveling in it's deliciousness. At that moment, I realized how mesmerizing life can be, how beautiful, and yet how simple. It was perfection.