To the happy runner!

Dear 'lady-in-the-beautiful-blue-running-top-running-happily-with-you-dog',

Today we met twice, and you changed my thoughts, you helped me to smile and appreciate the moment. The first meeting was unexpected, you appeared down the lane, running towards me, with your dog happily bouncing along attached to your waist by his lead, You were running along, smiling, with your hair swishing, wearing a beautiful blue running top. We passed, you grinned, I had a moment of your music and your energy as you swept by me! Then I felt sad, I did not have a beautiful blue running top on, I had no dog, I was not grinning and my hair was not swishing. But, I knew that I WAS calm, peaceful and thoughful as I ran, I was listening not to loud happy music, but to my Wayne Dyer audiobook . My thoughts drifted from my podcast and I gradually remembered that I don't know you, I don't know why you're running, I don't know if you were grinning because you love to run, or because it was your favorite song, I have no clue what thought process I might have triggered in you; I highly doubt you ran past me than had no thoughts about me! I smiled at you simply because I was happy to meet another runner on these quiet country lanes. I realised that the greatest joy of that shared moment was just that - the shared moment - the connection between us that existed simply because we were both running in that place at that moment, and we were both happy.

Then we met again, and the moment was different, I was actually walking by then. You cried out "we must be crazy!", I replied with "but it's such fun!", and you ran off calling out "yes, you feel so great for it".....

And that was it. I finished my run feeling happier, calmer, and a little more at peace with myself because we shared a moment of joy, a moment of sharing, and we both SMILED AT A STRANGER!!!

My learning.... it's impossible to know the life that lies behind the strangers we meet everyday, but it IS possible to have a connection, to open up and share a moment of something - anything, fleetingly and briefly. Remember how much we don't know but enjoy the moment that we DO know. Remember that how YOU react is what affects how YOU feel, create your own karma.