A world full of stories.....

John and I were talking at the dinner table last night, joyfully and non-stop since he'd been gone a week and we had much to catch up on. We talked about his seminar he'd been to, the neighborhood, things happening at school, things happening in the families of our dear and near friends and of family and friends far away. It was a delightful dinner (a simple plate of spaghetti--comfort food). We learned from many years apart sharing visits only every 4 months or so, that the one thing we missed the most in those separations (and in the last week), was sharing dinner, sitting across from each other after busy days and talking, laughing, enjoying the company of someone who means the world to you, looking across the table and without saying a word feeling love, warmth, comfort....home.

One of the things we talked about and that I constantly have rolling around in my head (because I want to write a piece about it, but haven't figured out yet how to make it flow smoothly) is that as we sat there enjoying a simple, but delicious dinner and engaging in a lively conversation.....at that very minute..... somewhere a baby was being born, taking its first breath, somewhere a person was dying, taking their last breath, somewhere there was a party going on, a bird snuggling into its nest, a fireman fighting a fire, a 911 call for help from a frantic caller being taken over a phone, someone looking up in amazement at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, someone contemplating suicide, a runaway teenager scared and cold with nowhere to go, some beautiful person celebrating their 100 birthday.....someone being beat up for not having dinner ready, someone drowning in another drink, someone at an airport getting ready to board a plane to go to a business meeting or to bravely go to meet someone they've grown fond of on the Internet. Somewhere it's raining, somewhere the sun is shining, somewhere it's hot, somewhere it's cold; somewhere someone is in a church praying, somewhere a seeing-eye dog is leading a blind person across a street.....someone is taking a bow on a Broadway stage.....and a million other things are happening while I was sitting down to dinner with someone I've missed for a week....

I find it fascinating to think about that....it makes me feel small and relatively unimportant in the big picture and yet it makes me feel important for the tiny little slivers of gems that John and I are in the mosaic that makes up this world. For every second of every day, while the small little space of "my world" is evolving and ever changing around me, the small little space in the world of someone else across the sea or down the street is evolving around them....mine important to me and theirs important to them.

Think of all the thoughts being thought in some other situation....as you sit reading my thoughts that I've chosen to share with you.

We each have a story, as simple or as complex as it might be; some happier than others, but not one more important than the other.

Mitch Albom wrote in his book called "The Five People You Meet In Heaven"........"and in that line now was a whiskered old man, with a linen cap and a crooked nose who waited....to share his part of the secret of heaven: that each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one."

Sometimes you never know why people come into your life....even if just for a fleeting moment.... while others stay for a lifetime.....Did you ever look at someone and wonder what their story was? I'm a firm believer that we are all (each) here to teach lessons and to learn lessons....

I hope right now your world is beautiful. Have a wonderful day!