Relationships fascinate me. How new people come into our lives. How some people help us to grow by being supportive whilst others appear to teach us life lessons in the most unexpected and hurtful ways. How someone you were once best friends with is now on a completely different wavelength. How in your hour of need exactly the right person shows up, as if by magic, helps you and then disappears before you've had a chance to even say thank you. Or how you can no longer bear to be around people you once so loved and admired.
Sometimes you might connect with a person you've just met like you've known them all your life. On the other hand you might have known someone all your life and never felt remotely connected with them.
I'm particularly fascinated by the role strangers play in shaping us and helping us to view ourselves and the world through a fresh pair of eyes. It's often strangers who are catalysts to challenging the status quo we've begun to view as our comfort zone. They invite us, sometimes force us, to look at our own life through their eyes.
It's a travesty that so many of us take the "don't talk to strangers" warning we had as children all the way to our graves. Amongst the billions of people we don't yet know are future friends, life partners and kindred spirits. A handful may go on to become an integral part of our life. Yet so many more are left undiscovered.
Connections not made, conversations not had and communities left unbuilt. At least in the real world outside of social media.
Everything in our Universe is connected through energy. We are all connected. But this energy can only flow to and from you if you open your senses, and your heart to the world around you. People come into our lives for a reason, season or lifetime. When you discover which one it is, you will figure out what to do for that person, why that person is in your life, or indeed why they suddenly left it.
You can read this wonderful poem that may just change how you see all the relationships in your life. It is a philosophy that has helped me to deal better with broken friendships, past relationships and unexpected encounters with total strangers.