deliriouslove1970. The life & times of Gary and Denise Flanders. (Free and worth every penny. If you would like to compliment the editor, send to garytheflan@deliriouslove1970.com. If you would like to complain, call your mother.)

We call our travels: Adventures. There remains an element of, ‘we have no idea what is going to happen’. Looking back there could be a searching for reasons, I wonder why that happened? If I hadn’t looked in that direction…if I hadn’t sat there, would this not have happened? ‘It is all a random coincidence’.

What if coincidence is a myth? What if the hard work of thinking into a situation, searching for the reasons is not only futile but…well, pointless? What if instead it is more of a matter of gobsmackery and you should simply appreciate/love that it did happen?

When James Finley describes Christian Mysticism he concluded he should accept the washing over/engulfing of the situation and be amazed/awestruck to realize: “look at what love has done to me.”

After going in the tower at Hallgrímskirkja church to see the sunrise, we entered the church to watch a pipe organ and piano concert. While sitting in the front row we saw an elderly gentleman walk in with two walking sticks. He maneuvered his way into our row and sat next to me.

I have decided long ago that my public default should always be a smile. I smiled at the man to acknowledge his presence, he smiled back. In a few minutes he said through a heavy German accent, “It is warm in here, they must heat the church, in Vienna all churches are cold.” I replied, ‘Aha, geothermal heat.’ “Yes.”

After the Bach concert he turned to me and said, …”I am most unlucky…my wife died this year and…” With that he began to sob. I reached for his hand and Denise put her hand on his shoulder. We let him cry. As the church emptied we held him. Eventually he said, ‘It is too hard for me to talk about.’

We made our way out of the building and bid farewell to the Lief Erickson statue before crossing the street.

Once across the street we saw the man sitting on a bench by himself. Denise is so good at seizing the moment and said to me, …’we should ask him to go to coffee with us.’ He looked up, “Yes, Yes, I would like that!”

We sat in a cramped little coffee shop and he began to pour his life out. “My name is Tony, you will probably remember me as crying Tony”. He took out his Samsung phone to show us photos of he and his wife traveling all around the world. He laughed, he cried, he was excited, he was quiet then talkative. All with the heavy German accent occasionally halting searching for the correct English words.

Denise: ‘Where did you meet your wife?’ With a twinkle in his eyes, “Oh…in a crowded restaurant, I looked across the room and we locked eyes”. “We loved to travel, here we are in India…Kenya…Egypt…she always wanted to come to Iceland – now I am here by myself”(more tears).

‘Do you have children?’ “Yes, but there has been no contact with my son for many years…it is a long story…”. Quiet. ‘Back home in Vienna, do you have friends?’ “No, there is no one. I realize now at 78, I worked too hard. I was too busy running my business to have friends…” Quiet.

“Here is my wife and I at the base of Mount Everest. We didn’t climb it but we were there.” Quiet…”When the doctors gave us no hope, it went so fast…when she died I held her face in my hands and watched as the light left her eyes it went out…(more tears)…”. More holding his hand and putting an arm around his shoulder.

After a period of time Denise excused herself to go to the ‘water closet’. Tony turned to me and said, “You know when I met you in the church I was trying to decide if I wanted to continue to live…I decided I did not…you saved my life…thank you…” More arm around the shoulder.

“I must have a photo of you”. After more conversation Tony said, “I must go to my hotel to prepare to go home…”. We walked through Reykjavík and he said, “My hotel is down this street.” He put down his walking sticks and grabbed Denise and hugged hard. Next he grabbed me and held tight as he whispered, “Thank you for saving my life…do you use What’s App…send me the photos.” With that he turned and labored down the street. We stood and cried as we watched him go.

Therefore, spending no time wondering, what and why was that…we allowed that grace filled moment to simply be: Look what God’s love has done to me. Amen and Amen.