Day 17 - Making a List
Today I am challenged with making a list of 40 people who have had a positive influence on my life. This is one of those challenges that appears difficult at first, but once I got started it moved much quicker than I might have imagined.
I’ve been the happy recipient of so many positive influences throughout my life, from classmates to family members to complete strangers. As my list began to grow, I made the decision not to publish it here. Instead, I will share an example of the meaningful ways in which individuals continue to help shape who I am.
For the past two months, I’ve placed an emphasis on maintaining physical health. I no longer suffer from pulmonary embolism and would like to keep it that way. I try to get out of my house before it gets too hot to walk and I take a stroll through Riverside.
Some days I listen to an inspirational book as I leisurely walk through my neighborhood and other days I play 90s techno, a quickened beat to help speed my steps. Many mornings, I encounter the same individuals on my path. They are on their own journeys yet our paths cross again and again. We sometimes exchange a kind “hello”.
There is a group of older individuals, not old, just older than me, that meet at a local coffee shop each morning. My favorite thing about this group is that they often bring their dogs along. The dogs are special because they get to be seated at the table alongside their humans. It’s an adorable sight.
This group of individuals are all strangers to me. I don’t know much about them, and they don’t know much about me. Yet, several times a week, our lives converge for the briefest of moments as I walk past the round table filled with laughing people and their joyful canine companions. We make eye contact, smile, and nod at one another.
I pass this group when I take the longer path. They always smile and wave at me as I walk by. I usually have my headphones in so I don’t hear if any of them speak to me but today was different.
Today as I passed by, they collectively began to cheer and clap for me. I removed one of my ear buds to hear them shouting words of encouragement. One of the older men said with a great big smile plastered to his face, “you’re making me look bad!” I couldn’t help but laugh in response and shout, “sorry!” over my shoulder as I strode by.
They have positively impacted my life simply by existing in an overlapping space, where I get a glimpse inside their world and they into mine. Today’s encounter was the culmination of weeks of smiles, nods, waves, and “hellos”. My footsteps felt a little lighter on my way home, thanks to the spontaneous encouragement of a handful of strangers. Perhaps next time I pass by, I’ll stop to introduce myself.
Stock image provided by Unsplash.
