The Night We Met
Our Origin Story
That’s him, that’s the guy from my dreams and that’s who I am going to marry.
The other night someone asked Liam and I how we met. I took a deep breath, grinned, and asked Liam which of us might tell the story. ‘Well, how about you share from your perspective and then I’ll share mine” suggested Liam.
In 2012 I was on a whirlwind clearing out of the self. I was eating healthy and going to bed early. I was rising at 5am to climb Canberra’s Mt Ainslie and was back at home by 7am to make my spirulina smoothie before my housemates surfaced. I was meditating whenever I could. I was saying no to drinks with the girls.
I was too busy dating myself to think of dating others.
On a cool April night in 2012 I found myself volunteering at the local food co-op at the university I attended. There was an event on that night called ‘Acoustic Soup’ where bands would play and the audience would have a bowl of soup as part of their ticket. The food co-op was buzzing as I was poured soup and chatted with the audience packing the venue.
I watched a few of the bands from behind the soup counter, but when the last band was about to come on, my housemate and dear friend Jessie called me over to sit next to her.
I squeezed through the crowd and found my place, right in the centre of the audience, and just in time to join in the claps as the band entered the stage.
When the band began to play, I was immediately captivated by their folk and acoustic music. It wasn’t until the front man began to sing, that I felt the goosebumps cover my skin.
I had seen Liam around campus over the years, but I had never truly seen him before. We had never spoken but did share some mutual friends. Watching him in flow with his artistry and his band, I felt a knowing feeling come over me.
I knew this was my person.
I took Jessie’s hand and whispered in her ear. “That’s him. The guy that I’ve been having those dreams about. That’s the guy that I’m going to marry.” She hugged me in closely and asked, “Really?”
In the months leading up to that night, I had been having a recurring dream. In my dream, there was a young man who stood before me. He had a slim build and shaggy dark hair. In the dream, we would stand facing one another and I had an overwhelming feeling that we found our home in one another.
Even though we never spoke in my dream, I knew that he had a creative spirit that understood mine. We got one another.
This dream came to me three times over the span of two months. My friends all giggled at me and it soon became a running joke. “Well, if you want to meet this mysterious creative- you should give the mountain runs a miss and come out with us!” They exclaimed.
What surprised me was that I had no desire to go out and find this person. The dreams did not serve as a catalyst to change my behaviours, but a soft reminder of the magic of possibility.
A few months later, as I sat before Liam in this intimate, yet bustling gig, I had no doubt in my mind that he was the person who I had been dreaming about. It was him. I didn’t care how cheesy it felt… I had an inner knowing.
As he spoke and sang to the audience, he was looking directly at me. It felt as if every word he sung was directed straight into my ears. Our eyes were locked. I didn’t have butterflies or feel a rush. I felt calm, like I did in my dreams. The feeling was the same. The feeling of home.
“So, are you going to go over and speak to him?” Jessie said with a playful nudge after the audience had finished applauding their encore. I looked over to him and saw that there was a group of young women, slowly starting to surround him. He was smiling and giving bashful nods to the compliments that were surely pouring all over him. I didn’t feel jealous or envious, I liked that they were giving him attention. It felt well-deserved. A precursor of things to come perhaps… but it was attractive to me that other women were gravitating towards him.
“No, I don’t think so. Not now.”
“But isn’t he the guy from your dreams?!” Jessie said, shocked at my nonchalance to neglect this opportunity to speak the man of my dreams.
“It isn’t the right moment. I am not worried. I know it sounds crazy, but I know that he is my person and whether we talk tonight or not, it doesn’t change that.”
As we linked arms and walked through the brisk autumn air Jessie asked, “Well, how do you know he doesn’t already have a girlfriend?”
“I just know that he doesn’t. I can’t explain it. But the timing is right. I know it’s him.”
——-
I found him on facebook the next day and decided to send him a message.
Hey Liam, I saw your gig last night. You performed so beautifully and from the heart. I just wanted to reach out and wish you all the best with your creative endeavours.
Abbey x
———
Hey Abbey, thanks so much for coming. I thought that it was you in the audience and I wanted to say hi but I think that you may have left quite soon after the gig. Funny thing, one of the stage lights was broken and pointing out into the audience and it lit up your face in the crowd. Yours was the only face that I could see in the audience.
——
Oh wow, that’s crazy!
Would you like to catch up for a coffee or a drink sometime?
—-
I would love to. When are you free?
