What does it take to connect to someone?  Is it a shared ideology, a physical attraction, a knowing glance…what is it?  Can it be all or any of the above?  Is it as individual as two individuals can be? Does it require shared experiences, lifestyles, goals, language?  Does it have to last a lifetime, years, months, weeks, hours, moments?

Have you ever connected ever so briefly with someone…shared a nod or a smile?  An acknowledgement that you were noticed by another human being in the hustle and bustle of every day comings and goings…have you experienced this?  I suspect we all have had moments like this.  These type of connections – little connections that are part of daily experience are part of what I strive for during my day-to-day life.  My mom taught me to do that, not by actual instruction but by example.  She would connect with folks wherever she went just by making the effort to be nice.

I have a bigger personality than my mom and tend toward incorporating my connections with others into the complex tapestry that is my life; but, down deep I am nothing more or nothing less than my mother who recognized the impact people can have on one another.  Little things can make a big difference…little things like small connections that remind us of our overall connectivity to each other.

The other day at breakfast there was a dashingly handsome man sitting within feet from me.  We were sitting in a location that caused our eyes to meet every few moments as we engaged with the folks we were dining with.  At some point I became aware that these momentary forays were more than a casual scanning of the environment – they were a little connection, a decided flirt and acknowledgement that we are both alive and well.   The final look and smile that we exchanged as he left that morning was one that recognized the fact that we would likely never cross paths again in this lifetime. Make no mistake about it though, I will never forget how intense that connection felt or how powerful I felt realizing that I could experience that with him with no other expectation than there was in the moment.

No words were spoken between us, indeed he spoke only French as best I could tell…yet, we completely communicated…we connected.  It was perfect and complete as it was – it was a testament to the power of connectivity and a reminder that it is other humans that make this life worth living.

I know it all sounds very Harlequin romance novel-ish…very exotic; but really it happens all the time in life.  Certainly not necessarily with a handsome stranger speaking French in a café in another country…perhaps it happens at the grocery store or at work or at the gas station in your normal stomping grounds…perhaps it leads to more than just a moment in time – a friendship or a love perhaps.  The point is we have to be open to the connections however fleeting they may be.

If this were a Harlequin romance novel I would be finishing out my encounter with this man with breathtaking romantic moments and mind-blowing sex.  I’ll admit, that would have been quite a nice ending as well – undoubtedly one that I would have had to bring down to a PG rating to share on my blog.  Alas, seeing as this is real life I will take the ending I lived and always remember it with a smile.  😉

Day seven hundred and twenty-one of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C