We would have been a cute couple
but when I met his racist friend, I exited gracefully. And I’m good with that.
I don’t need that stress in my life. I also didn’t want to have a conversation
that went, “Hey, I think you’re great and I like you but your racist friend makes
me very uncomfortable…” Passing on a guy who seemed cool at the moment was
something I wrestled with, but life is too short to wrestle with that kind of
uncertainty. Plus, I couldn’t ignore the confirmed evidence, reservations, and
warnings from people who gave me a heads up. “I don’t know if you want to date
someone white. Because even if he’s not racist, you know some of his family and
friends might be.” I didn’t completely agree with that statement at first, but
I started to wonder. Sometimes you have to cut your losses and move on. It’s
odd and scary, but truthfully not at all surprising, that race is still an issue
for some people. And while I’m still open to dating across all kinds of racial
lines, I don’t want or need to complicate my life. The silver lining in all
this was catching and cutting things early before anything got too serious. And
just another sign that God has something else better in mind, so all is not
lost. I’ll be just fine.
About a year ago, I had a dream my dad wanted to talk to our family about something serious. I wasn’t sure what he wanted to discuss, but I knew it was something I needed to prepare myself for. Around the time after I had this dream, I remember stopping by my parents place and sensing something was going on that they weren’t telling me. I tried to dismiss what I’d been feeling, but I couldn’t shake it. Something serious was happening. As I returned to my home after visiting them one day, I was in my kitchen washing dishes when a heaviness hit my heart like nothing I’d ever felt before. Something’s wrong with dad. That’s what that dream was about. God, what’s going on? As I continued washing dishes, I started crying and praying. Then in mid-spring, my dad held an unexpected family meeting that would change all our lives forever. He hesitated at first, and as his voice started cracking and he started crying, he said, “Well, I wanted to talk to ya’ll to tell you that I have kidney disea...