Connections

I was having a conversation with someone about spirituality a couple of weeks ago. He asked if I ever feel so connected to people around me that it is like there is no separation between us. And I do, and maybe I think I feel that more than other people do, and maybe I feel a connection that other people simply don't feel with me.

Do you have those friends where you start to say or do something at the same time? Or, there is something you feel you need to say, and hesitate, but say it anyway, and then find out they were going to say the same thing?

This happened tonight. I needed to tell an author I was concerned about the title of her book, only it wasn't really that simple. My timing was horrible and I ended up upsetting her, and then over-explaining that more often than not, I was wrong. And subsequently not to base any decision on what I said without getting a lot of other opinions. Fifteen minutes after she left the phone rang. It was her. She had thrown her hands up in the air (figuratively, she was driving), then, starting with the "so if you really exist" question, she challenged God to make it clear to her what she should do. And then she thought about things in the book she really liked. And it popped into her head, the title she had previously considered, but decided against. So she called me. Sure enough, it's perfect. Absolutely perfect. So much better than the other title, it says what the book is about and it also tells everything about how the book is written. It's just perfect.

Then followed a conversation about how she knew, and I knew, and how funny it was that so many things happened this way with the book. Whenever I struggled to tell her something, she would tell me it was something she wasn't happy with either. This happens about a hundred times on a day we're working together. It's such a great thing.

AND THEN, there are other people who think they have a connection with you, or you with them ... and you simply don't. Really tough. Because I'm not the kind of person who can fake it. I know I can't sound sincere, so I don't even try. Or, when the other person says something about "your great connection," you think they can't possibly be sincere, because you don't feel a "great connection" at all. Hard to know how to handle it when it happens.