I missed a few days of posting this week due to traveling with my mom. Have gotten better about not beating myself up about it.
At the airport, a woman standing behind us in the security line noticed my mom’s luggage tag and exclaimed, “Audrey??!?!” They hadn’t seen each other in years, but recognized her (in spite of our masks) and confirmed her suspicion when she read her luggage tag.
I introduced myself and then faded back while they exchanged pleasantries and caught up. My mom retired from the hospital she’d worked at for over 30 years, but this running into either staff or patients that knew her was no new phenomenon. And in that moment, half listening to them talk about mutual acquaintances and getting together with old colleagues, I realized this was a common thread running through her, as well as her dad and myself. The way we tend to draw people in, not with effort but through a kind of warmth that permeates the defensive walls people can use to block strangers off.
And I realized that maybe that’s the thread that ties us all together. The instinct to connect. The willingness to look up, meet a stranger’s eye, and make the world feel a little smaller for a second.
Missed a few posts, sure. But the story kept writing itself anyway.
