Last night, some neighbors and I were discussing the world. About how big it is. And being a continent or day away from family.
It’s true.
But I got to thinking a bit more about the topic this morning. And I’m totally doing an about-face. After discovering a shared connection among some friends.
The world is small. Very small. It may be vast but it is a very small world.
One past example. Some months ago I was visiting with a neighbor (here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) on my front patio. She would soon be moving back to the States. Houston was home although I don’t think her family was originally from Texas. I had mentioned the name of the town where I had lived for twelve years. Usually I just say “Dallas” because everyone gets that. But for some reason on that day I mentioned the actual town in Dallas County.
The neighbor says, “My sister lives there.”
Well, you know me. Of course, I asked more questions!!! What’s her name? Does she have children?
She told me the last name. And it sounded familiar. I asked if her niece ever played soccer. She said, “No, I don’t think so.”
Sounded like maybe she was more into the arts. But the first name was nagging at me. It wasn’t very common.
That evening I checked Annie’s first year soccer team photo. When she was four years old. I sent a copy of it to my neighbor asking “Is your niece in this photo?”
She immediately responded,” Oh my goodness! YES! That’s her.”
So weird, right?
Annie and her niece played on the same soccer team. More than ten years ago. And just maybe this neighbor and I crossed paths in that suburb.
Here’s my very recent example of the small world thingy.
This morning I hop on Facebook to read who is doing their usual kvetching and whining.
On my main page (Facebook is always wanting me to update my personal information) it says, “Mary, where did you go to school?” And it shows schools that groups of my friends have attended.
Appeared that three of my friends attended St. Agnes Academy in Houston, Texas. Two were no surprise to me. I knew they were in high school together and that they both ended up moving north to the Dallas County suburb where we happily resided.
But the third one is a woman who I met through mutual friends here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She used to live here but now lives in Dubai. A friend had shared this woman’s blog with me. And also shared my blog with this woman. So we were introduced on-line. I finally met her when she visited before the holidays. And we are back and forth on-line about various things.
Today, Facebook tells me that she went to school with two of my friends. A woman who was in my monthly book club and also a woman who was my dear neighbor.
Isn’t that the craziest thing? Me from Rhode Island. Moved to Texas. Make friends with a couple of Houstonians living in North Texas. I move to California after twelve years. Then few years later move to Malaysia. Get introduced to a Texan that used to live in Malaysia and now Dubai. Who loves Rhode Island. Her daughters attended/attend college there. She even spent Xmas in Rhode Island while I was sweating in Asia!
And I find out that the three of them were in high school together more than thirty years ago.
Ummm, can we all repeat after me? Small world. One big circle.
Isn’t it just fabulous????
It is just fabulous! I’ve come to expect the intertwining of lives because of the expat thing but I am as surprised as you were with the crossovers in Texas. Seems like we were destined to meet someday. What took us so long?
Yes! What took us so long? I guess the powers that be felt we just weren’t meant to meet before this. The expat world is a small one….visit any airport and run into three families….but I was really surprised about the Houston connection since it was so ex-expat…love it though..I keep feeling like a lot of the right people cross my path. #fortunate