This is...Well...Wow!

[Star Poet]

Back in 2005, I made some friends online when I first got on the internet. One of them was a lovely Finnish man - an artist/photographer/graphic novelist whom I had a lot in common with. We would have long chats both on the phone and Windows Live Messenger. We sent each other e-mails - with one of his being my absolute favorite e-mails from anyone I'd ever received. It was brief, but beautiful and brilliant. We would talk about meeting - him coming to visit me in California or me coming to visit him in Finland. It was more platonic at the time as soon after I'd met him, I'd gotten into a relationship while he was having a couple of flings. In between relationships with others, we'd flirt some but mostly we just talked and talked and talked about life, spirituality, our passions, his art forms and my stories, poems, my book - shared our art, shared photos, etc.

I then met someone, moved to England and got married. My Finnish friend and I stayed in touch - though less often. Once I had a child, I had less time and so our contact dwindled until it was occasional and then non-existent as of 2016. My marriage has since fallen apart and we're separated.

This past July, I became nostalgic and started looking at photos of the little California town I was living in back in 2005/2006. I then began thinking of the friends I had back then - including my online ones and thus, also my friend from Finland. About a week later, out of the blue, he wrote me asking me how I was doing in this 'crazy world.' I wrote him back and told him I'd actually been thinking of him the week previous. He then wrote me and said he'd seen pictures of where I'm from and thought about me a lot that week, wondering what had become of me.

It gets MUCH more astonishing...

In his second e-mail he mentioned living where it is I am currently living here in England. He'd put it in a funny way and so I thought he was joking and dismissed it. I was not sure he'd known I'd move to this part of the country - if I'd told him that. I know when we'd last been in contact, I'd told him I was looking to move back to America which I had been at the time. Then in his third letter, he spoke more of living here and sent me some beautiful photos he'd taken of the island. He then asked me where I was now living in America if not where I come from. He then joked about sending me a red fox (which happens to be my totem animal, but he does not know this.).

In short, I'm stunned. I wrote him back telling him I thought he'd been kidding, that I now realized he was serious and that I am living here too - that I'm not back in America. I'm currently awaiting his response (which could take some time as he tends to check his e-mails less often than most people.).

I know I can't know what all this possibly means just yet, but this is astonishing - especially considering the fact that this is a man who would often flee the ice and snow of his home country for the sunnier, warmer countries of southern Europe as well as Africa. I never imagined he'd live in England with all its rain - and also because he would say he was not so fond of this country. IO do know he misses his travels as he said as much, but that the pandemic is keeping him stationary. So, I'm not hear asking what anyone thinks this means, I'm just here noting this down.