simple encounters

Today I was thinking I need to tell you about Williston. This is quite a town and it isn't actually that SIMPLE to explain. Depending on where you are from, you will have a different concept of Williston.

• If you are from out of this country you might not think anything except where the heck is that. Ok, Williston is a town in Vermont, a state of the United States of America, about 35 minutes away from the Canadian border. North baby north.
• If you are from this country, you might think Williston is just one one more rural and bucolic Vermont town. You are right, in part.
• If you are from Vermont, you might think Williston is the town of the big boxes and chain stores. You are right, in part, too.
• If you are from Williston you should know the truth: Williston is that rural and picturesque Vermont town AND the commercial hub people know so well. Indeed, Williston has about 80 percent of its land categorized as rural and about 20 percent categorized as commercial/industrial.

Williston is where I've lived for the past three years. This morning, as I drove home after covering a story for the newspaper and getting veggies from the garden, I decided to stop in one of my favorite spots in town to take photos for you, for this blog. I wanted to get a nice shot of the white steeple of the Williston Federated Church, which in the summer is all surrounded by green. And it was then that I had one of those simple encounters that make you think about the complex things.

I was coming down Oak Hill Road as if returning from Lake Iroquois to the village and I stopped the car on the side of the intersection with South St. It's a pretty hight point and the views of the Green Mountains in the back and the Interstate to the southeast are amazing. See:

Suddenly, I've heard a bike approaching so I quickly moved to the side realizing I was kind of in the middle of the street. "Hey girl," the biker said slowing down. It was Amy! You know those persons you don't befriend directly but you know through other friends? Well, that's Amy for me. I always bump into her in different times and places, God only knows why. She's so cool.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Last time I've seen Amy, a few months ago in a park, she was very pregnant and there she was today, her perfectly back-in-shape and healthy being on her bike hitting the roads of Williston (she lives in Essex). First thing we talked about was of course her baby, who was 8 weeks old, she said, and then continued talking about the two babies our friends in common had over the summer. I told her I had not been in touch with them since before they had their babies because I was waiting to tell them some sad news. My dad had passed away in between the births of the babies of our friends.

I explained to Amy that my dad passing had been very special for me, not only because we got closer during the last 6 months of his life but also because he died on the day of my birthday, July 7. Her eyes got suddenly big. That was the day her boy had born. I got the chills. I knew then why we keep on bumping into each other.

Amy is a devoted believer and she belongs to a church. I am one of those 'undecided voters,' as I believe in God but not that much in churches or organized religion. But we both agreed that her baby and my dad crossed paths and that they were part of a perfect equilibrium. All of a sudden I felt it was time to tell my friends the news. Life and death are happenings of an instant and parts of an eternity that we are unable to comprehend but of which somehow, through simple encounters, we feel some piece.

Here is Amy, continuing her bike ride after our brief encounter