NICE TO MEET YOU

I met someone in late summer of 2019. A new friend. It was a chance meeting, repeated in the exact same place at the exact same time over the course of multiple days. We exchanged email addresses and like so many things in life, if not immediately acted upon, the opportunity to reconnect and keep in touch as promised slips through the cracks. Sadly, it happens all the time.

Four months later, at a random beach restaurant in Mexico, coincidence or fate or destiny, or whatever you fancy calling it, reunited us. Under the shade of a palm tree, laughter, followed by apologies for the unintentional "ghosting," this time we kept our promise. 

Our first conversation only a couple weeks later was so fast-paced and electric it was like talking with a lifelong friend. It was the kind of frenetic exchange where you jump in feet first; no back stories necessary; no lulls or awkward silences emerge; no panicked searches for topics of common interest whirling in our brains cropping up; only a sudden sense of being known coupled with the constant blurting of, "Yes, totally! I get that! Me too!" I have to confess that I love, love, love these types of conversations! In fact, I CRAVE connecting with people whose energy, intensity and veracity feel so familiar. It is so invigorating and rare and so deliciously entertaining (I must note, we are both Geminis). Suffice it to say, we had quite a bit in common, most predominantly the fact that we are both writers. In fact, the seed and consequent blooming of this friendship was initially based on accountability. We committed to a weekly/sometimes daily check in with one question: "Did you write today?" 

In the short months since those first dusty and sandy encounters, big, unanticipated  things have happened. We have wrestled with anxiety, loneliness, a pandemic, isolation, loss, reflection, enlightenment and everything in between. Too often we don't get second chances at meeting someone for the first time but sometimes the universe provides the people we need at the time we need them; to remind us that we are never alone - not in our emotions; our struggles, our thoughts and not even in our embarrassing, albeit amusing, experiences. That's the stuff fortuitous reunions were made for. To have someone's back and let them know after a month of quarantine, "Hang in there. We can FaceTime and talk it out. I've got you."

For me, this person has become a trusted sounding board; someone so like-minded, authentic, present, and often brazenly honest that I have found myself turning to him in times of immediate need for encouragement, advice; mortifying confessions, understanding and sometimes even just a hearty laugh.

It all started that simply. A meet cute; a connection; spirit, vulnerability, sincerity, relatability, and accountability. It all started by opening up and not taking off a mask but walking in to a situation completely UNmasked with a relative stranger and together owning and acknowledging weighty, sometimes even painful experiences; verbalizing, "This happened and it broke me," and hearing back, "Yeah, I know. I felt the same when this. . .and also this." It has been freeing and invaluable and I believe this type of bonding is one of the most beautiful sides of humanity.

Since last summer, with hundreds of miles between us, many a new friend and I have kept in touch but this particular rapport has bred both light-hearted banter and heavy discussion; it has provided profitable contemplation, solidarity, support and empathy where so often those things feel impossible to unearth with even the neighbor next door. Was it love? No. Business venture? Come on. Burgeoning friendship? Abso-freaking-lutely.

So, "Hey, New York, yeah you. . .did you write today?"