Happenstance My final August piece for the 3H's

 

Interconnectedness

I have always believed that one could find something in common with anyone if one dug deep enough.

Somehow we all share some type of connection although it may not be apparent.

As I enjoyed a second cup of coffee yesterday morning, I was thinking of a person I hadn't seen in several months. At the very same and exact split second, my phone dinged and I had a What's App notification. Telepathy maybe?

"I understand you know this lady," was Ian's text. The picture download was slow and it took several minutes. I was curious by then.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"Kyrgyzstan!"

I know very little about Kyrgyzstan and would have difficulty pinpointing it on a map. It is a landlocked country in central Asia with modern cities contrasted with mountainous hillsides where people still live a nomadic life.

When the first photo popped up, it appeared that he was in a structure like a yurt. 

"Are you on vacation as a tourist or a mission worker?" I asked.

"A little of both," he replied.

"I've met someone you know. You should come over!"

"Sure," I said thinking 'yeah it is at least 20 hours by plane' (6418 miles from Toronto)

When the next photo popped up, Ian was sitting on a couch in the yurt. Seated beside him was a childhood friend. Her face had aged but I knew it well from days of elementary school, riding the school bus, Sunday School and Church.

She was in Kyrgyzstan doing mission work that involved orphanages, community, teaching, church work and farming rural plots for self-sufficiency. We were old friends that took different roads in life.

"You should come over!" Ian said again.

"Yeah, maybe someday," I thought.

The interconnectedness of the life of a mission worker, an old tired farmer from Centreton and a working tourist named Ian kept me smiling all day!