The first time I saw them was when my daughter tugged on my shirt sleeve in church.  She nodded slightly to the row over from us or I wouldn’t have noticed.

Everyone was seated, and in the middle of a row of college students, one young lady was discretely using sign language to interpret for the young man sitting beside her.

He was a tall, slender guy, maybe twenty years old, with tiny hearing aids perched on each ear which were almost completely covered by his hair.

He watched her hands from the corner of his eye as she interpreted in sign language to him for the rest of the service.  She nonchalantly signed the words occasionally moving her fingers in rapid succession to spell out a word or name.

My daughter commented after the service how seemingly natural they both were, as if completely in a comfort zone.

She was right.  They were tranquil, and their body language was relaxed and normal, as if everyone in the world signed and communicated exactly like they were.

In the parking lot after church they were with a group of college students and their behavior was the same.  There was a group conversation going on and the young man was fully engaged and involved, even it was by sign language.

That was several years ago.

I recognized them recently in town.  They were walking side by side wearing wedding rings and she was obviously pregnant. Just makes you smile!

Life, or so it seems to me, should be that way — natural, comfortable, relaxed, even if everything is not “perfect”.  Maybe some of the biggest obstacles in life, and we all have them to one extent or another, are our biggest opportunities. I don’t know, but it could be.

He who has ears to hear, or signs to see, may it be so.