A Book And Its Cover

Why is it that some lessons in life must be learned and relearned? Repeatedly. Yesterday was one of those times. My husband had a very long dental appointment. It was a rare, beautifully warm day, so I was sitting at a bench outside the dentist's office. I was absorbed in my ipad games, when a voice from the balcony above started speaking to me. I looked up, and there was a person whose appearance was, shall we say, scruffy. Not being rude, I responded to his comment. But as I spoke I realized--there are "I'm interested" responses and "Please go away so I can get back to important things" responses. How many times on an airplane have I been a recipient of the latter when I had the audacity to say, "hello"? So I gave him my friendliest, "I'm interested" smile. And we chatted happily for half an hour. Like new friends. When we parted,we waved good-bye, wished each other well, and meant it. I was left with several thoughts, "Even if someone is only in our life for a few minutes, we can enrich each other's day". And I thought of what I would have missed if I'd persisted in being ipad-absorbed.

Questions of the day: Did you ever have an experience like the above, where you delightfully surprised at something or someone who was so different from your first impression?

Thought for the day: Let's all be open to life's real (versus virtual) possibilities. Yes, there's a place for social media, but can any virtual world ever replace the beautiful real one that surrounds us?