Spiritual Hyperlinks

AKMA suggested a very interesting notion in his Sunday morning BloggerCon presentation, which by the way, was excellent. Each friend, family, colleague, neighbor and all the people we connect with make hyperlinks into our world in a spiritual sense. When we lose one of these hyperlinked people to death, we are diminished, just as our network is diminished. I loved the notion.

Sometimes in the past few years since I've lost both parents, as well as gotten separated and divorced, I will travel somewhere distant and instead of arriving and calling my mom or dad or husband to let them know I arrived safely, I will find that I don't know who in particular to call. I have a bunch a sisters, brothers-in-laws, a brother, a sister-in-law, many friends, co-workers, but still there are times when I don't have anyone to call. It's a surprising place to be. It is sometimes exhilarating to be on an adventure and feel so bold and brave, but often as not, you can have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach and a thought, "Nobody knows or cares where I am," which is really something to grapple with, especially as I've been part of my big family since birth and then a marriage after that for nearly my whole life.

Strangers extend kindnesses at unlikely times and can make you feel so good. Once I was arriving to meet a new friend I'd never met, or even seen, in Europe and he had told me his height in meters to help spot him in the crowd and I realized I had no idea what that might mean, as we were beginning to descend. There was a tall guy in the airplane next to me with his wife and I explained my metric predicament and they were so helpful. He stood up and told me how tall he was in meters -- he was quite tall -- and therefore what to expect my friend's height to be (also tall).

A small spiritual hyperlink and I thank them for it today. They never saw me again and I never saw them, but they took a moment to be kind and I really appreciated it. I am often stunned by how people think their acts of helpfulness and kindness don't matter. Often they matter a great deal. Sometimes we feel shy about being helpful or friendly, but I think we should always reach out and take the risk of connecting with someone.