Hello Again, Stranger!: Tiptoeing Back Into Small Encounters

How I've missed you, person I meet by accident. We've been in our caves, zooming away, and hiding behind our masks for too long.

Cheers!

Yesterday my daughter Ali and I went took her three little munchkins out for ice cream at a local shop located on a family farm. Afterwards we went out to see the donkeys (gotta get fertilizer for the corn crop from somewhere!), and in the blink of an eye our 5yo made instant friends with another little girl named Emily, and (blink again) suddenly our kid troupe of three was a horde of five kids - Emily had a little brother - running around as if they'd known each other forever.

Being able to go out somewhere and accidentally meet and talk with someone random is something I hadn't even been aware I missed so much.

Ah, people.

And, as moms of any age do, Ali and I started to chat with Emily's mother. They don't live in our town, so it's unlikely we'd run into them again. Still, what a nice ten-minute conversation - we covered sleep training, school in a pandemic, sibling rivalry, and ice cream flavors.  And then we each went home to our separate lives.

But - oh, how lovely. For the past year, most "meetings" with people outside our pods have been carefully orchestrated, sanitized, and/or with a computer screen between us. Being able to go out somewhere and accidentally meet and talk with someone random is something I hadn't even been aware I missed so much.

Ah, people.

• Ah, little child sitting next to me on an airplane who gives me a sticker from her collection to put on my iPad case.

• Oh, couple we chat with at the bar, talking about our families, our work, even (sometimes) politics.

• Oh, woman behind me in the produce section who shares exactly how she can tell a melon is ripe. (thank you!)

• And -for me - oh my audience members how I miss you. The exchange of energy, the shared laughter during the show or presentation, , the small chats afterwards.

How I've missed you. How I treasure you. These small encounters are little gifts from the universe that we didn't know we needed, experiences to remind us that we don't have all the answers, and that some of our plans need to be flexible.

Because: life.

Let's inch out of this pandemic together, probably on tiptoe, but let's never forget how much we can meant to each other - even in ways we took for granted, or didn't remember to treasure, before we were isolated from them.

Stranger: welcome back. I appreciate you as never before.