For finding love, sometimes the timing is all wrong. The attraction is there, but one person, maybe both, is just not ready or free. How many romances never get off the ground because of this? In "Heartbeats, Personal Stories of Love," the "David Elaine Story is about love and timing.
The year is 1987. Elaine comes to work as a graphic designer for the California State Compensation Insurance Fund in San Francisco to work with her friend Judith. "An early project for Elaine is to lay out the newsletter for the National Association of State Funds. As she reviews a stack of photos to go in the newsletter she wryly comments to Judith that all the photos seem to be of the stereotypical insurance man: pasty-faced, over-weight, middle-aged white guys. But she finds one that doesn't quite meet that description."
"Great name - Dave West," Elaine says, as she checks out the photo caption.
"He works for us," Judith replies. "In fact, he works on this floor."
Elaine is really interested, but finds out that David is married. "This last detail squelches further inquiry."
"Flash forward several months. A graphic design request of David's lands on Elaine's desk, so she drops by to discuss it. Several things happen in that encounter: David immediately notices Elaine's beauty and charming personality. Elaine inquires about David's sailing posters and comments on her general, and her brother's specific, love of sailing. After a relaxed conversation about same, social radar screens flicker brightly, and an extremely boring design project is set on its way to completion."
"Flash forward another seven years to 1994. After occasional casual contact in the hall, the radar screens have gone dim. David is now managing a department in another building across town, and Judith is one of his best and favorite direct reports. But there's trouble in his life: he is splitting up with his wife of ten years. Realizing he's out of sorts at work, he decides to tell his direct reports what's going on to free them to work around his distractedness. A few months later Judith attends a typically challenging, rewarding and fun meeting in David's office. On her way out, she stops at the door."
"I have two words for you," she says. "Elaine Zapf," then exits.
Cupid has launched an arrow, and one radar screen flickers back to life."
Do things start to move forward for David and Elaine or do more years go by? "It's now early 1995. Along with nearly 400 other people, David and Elaine are both at an annual corporate party in San Diego." He sees her and asks her to dance.
"At the end of the evening, David asks if he can call for a date when they are back at work."
"Each of them is pleased at this start, but only one of them acts on it." How does love ever blossom between these two?
I believe that love is what we're here to learn. It is who we are and the most important thing in life. The "David Elaine Story" is just one of fifty wonderful stories about love that others have shared with me from a deep heart place. The stories in "Heartbeats" are about romantic love, family love, love of friends and love of the wonderful animals who give us such joy. These stories are uplifting and inspiring with many lessons learned. They are in a book called "Heartbeats, True Personal Stories of Love" which will be published as an E book on Amazon this fall. If you have any questions about "Heartbeats" please contact me at
manyheartbeats@gmail.com