Boarding Other People's Lives

    Consider living in eight states.   You pick up an interest or a hobby.  You take a class or join a club.  You serve on a board or open a studio.  You begin a new job.   You join a parish.  And then you meet people.  All sorts of people.  People who steal your heart, people who break it.  People who stay on your mind, people who get on your nerves.  People who bring out the best  in you and people who bring out your worst.  People who freely give, people who freely take. 

    Always different, yet somehow the same.  And the people come and go, countless and fleeting relationships built and abandoned, because you are the intruder, the outsider, the newcomer and they may no have room for you.  But you do not weep at this because you know, that if you remain patient, and have a heart that sees, somewhere in the sea of strangers there is one, or if you’re really lucky two, who will take you by the hand and call you friend.

Maybe we are all [Beth’s, ] boarding other people’s life journeys, or letting them hop aboard ours.  For a while we ride together. A few minutes, a few miles.  Companions on the road, sharing our air and our view, our feet swaying to the same beat.  Then you get off at your stop, or I get off at mine.  Unless we decide to stay on longer together.

from Riding the Bus with My Sister: A True Life Journey
by Rachel Simon, Houghton Miffin Company,© 2002