I play hide and seek with people and they don’t even know it.
On Christmas Eve while visiting California, I saw a man I knew in the grocery store. He didn’t see me though, even when he walked past with less than four feet distance. Granted, I was wearing a hoodie which supported my undercover intent, but I had several chances to say, “Hello.”
Instead, I passed.
I don’t enjoy stop and chats, and he never knew we almost had a meetup.
Was my choice wrong?
Was it correct?
What would I have spoke if I engaged?
“How are you?” I could have said.
“What’s up dude?” he may have replied.
“Great! See you again someday!” I would have ended.
“Cool. Or maybe fornever,” he would have agreed.
I thought about that decision from late 2019, and now with 2020 half over, I’m once again pondering how the New Story must begin.
Doesn’t it start with my own interactions?
What if a smile could have changed his day?
What if he could have made my day?
Am I selfish because I enjoy practicing invisibility mode?
Am I supposed to challenge myself like never before? Was I supposed to uncloak in the refrigerated aisle?
Maybe, but I’ve done the stop and chat thing so how would that have challenged me in new ways?
Ya know, I know that small connections can impact humans in dramatic ways. Words can stick and become something more than they were meant to be.
I know firsthand because people have said simple things to me that influenced my ways of being and thinking.
Maybe I need to see the world different again?
Maybe I need to start conducting stop and chats?
Maybe I need to invest more in others?
Maybe I need to remember that’s it through each other that we begin the New Story.
Hmm, it seems ending these secret games of hide and seek will be uncomfy for many including me, but maybe that’s just a part of the process?
Maybe that’s how we finally make progress?