The serendipity in saying hello to strangers

There is a certain serendipity in saying hello to strangers.

Serendipity is a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated.

I wasn’t consciously looking for anything when I said hello to Sam when we were both visiting a Starbucks but our conversation helped me to discover something. Sam was there with her month old daughter, sitting across from me and we began to chat.

We had a great chat and I reflected on one of comments later in the day. She told me that I had been helpful in explaining some web related things to her and that should offer my service to people. I have been told this many times over the years by friends and acquaintances that I have chatted with.

After talking to Sam a day or two later a friend said “You are such a great sounding board.”

I thought about this as a I went to sleep and the next morning Sounding Board Services was born.

I happened to see Sam again in Starbucks and thanked her. She told me to visit her blog because she had written about our meeting. Here is what she wrote:

A man sat down across from me and made some sweet comment about my daughter. Now, most people would smile and bend their heads back towards their work. Not I. I am awful at ending a conversation and worse at not engaging with someone who’s sitting directly across from me. Now, most of the time, the stranger and I will chat, and inwardly, I’ll be groaning about the lost time. Not this time.
Within ten minutes, the stranger at Starbucks had me running my own successful business and being a published author. I was staring at my books on the shelves at Indigo, spending my days in front of a bay window writing, and all it took was someone making me believe in my dream again. My strange and rare talent led me to a job coach, an inspirer, someone with his own very interesting life story and exactly who I needed. Life is extraordinary, and we can do anything we want with it, but sometimes it takes an odd encounter with a complete stranger to remind us of that.

Thanks Sam! You are an inspiration!

Visit the blog of Samantha Bailey and read her blog posting The Art of Meeting Strangers.

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Copyright © 1981 to 2023 by Richard E. Ward. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 1980 to 2023 by Richard Edward Ward. All rights reserved.