Someone pulled a me on me today. To say that work has been a feat of athletics in the last few days is an understatement, right up there with mentioning that lightning wakes you up. I was hurrying back into the building and someone stopped me to talk. 

It wasn’t one of those polite conversations or one filled with superficial exchanges. 

To say that it was probably exactly what I needed is another understatement. He offered his personal insight about one aspect of me and my life. Where it told with any more authenticity, the air might have been permeated with static.

Though I was past due back in the mayhem of my job, I stood outside in the chill weather and listened to him. We exchanged more words today than we had in the sum total of our being acquaintances. 

I learned an awful lot about him, both through words spoken, and words not uttered. 

Whatever idea I had of him shifted from a casual one to a complex astonishment that someone with so much story had been right in front of me for a long time. 

Though I was tardy in my return, I would welcome such a conversation each day to remind me that people are much more than they seem and that most of the time we don’t make the effort to get beyond the surface of our interactions. 

That he approached me changed the tenor of the day for me. The hell of work was still upon me. But I got a reminder of what life and conversation can and should be like if someone reaches out and creates the opportunity.

PS I took a picture of my view, using one of my beautiful hanging prisms on the landing. Considerate it a beleaguered metaphorical attempt to reveal the filter that each of us carries inside our head as we walk around the world.

Love , X