We hired a new employee at work and he worked with me the other day. He made some comment about how crazy it was that I had all these connections with a customer, she works in my home town and we visited the same chateau in the Loire at the same time. I wanted to say, "oh, stick around, this happens with everyone."
The thing about traveling, it makes the world so small. All those years following my nose and I seem to connect with everyone.
Now that I have my bags in storage, nestled in to a small northern California spot, the connections come to me. This is Mark. We met 12 years ago when Kiara and I rented a house in a surf village on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. We called Mark the camp activity director, he was always gathering the troops for an adventure, as a proper Leo should.
Kiara and I were an almost impenetrable force that not many could join but Mark did (so did Canadian Pat). Maybe we were only together for a few weeks but my memory remembers it as a life time. He's always been someone I considered a good friend even though I never saw him until he came recently to NorCal.
Mark hopped on a plane to volunteer for the wildfires and came over one night. The people who travel are a different lot, a different breed. And we all, us nomads, bond instantly. We take risks, we love life, we love connection, we seize the day, we embrace culture and uncertainty, we're romantic and hopeful and when we are on the road, we make friends for the rest of our lives.
I forgot who I was for a little bit and then Mark showed up one cold night and we stayed up all night talking and talking and talking. It felt good to be understood again. I was so inspired by Mark. He helps people, he saves lives by compromising his own (giving part of his liver away recently), volunteers around the world, has become a nurse and not in a martyr sort of way but because he honestly believes in giving back.
Like any traveler, he went with the flow, sleeping on my janky futon and dealing with my lack of food and other good host things I am lacking and totally happy and stoked.
I feel blessed for the people who have come to me in this place. And a little part of me longs to pack my bags and go back out there, to find the magic. But then the magic comes to me to remind me, it never left.