February 10

I made a new friend yesterday. Oh, we’d met before, in the way we meet so many people these days – online, through mutual friends who kept saying, “Don’t you know her?” But this was real life, face to face, and there is really something special about that.

We have common interests and a shared passion for helping each other out, and the first few minutes were an almost comical exchange of “I want to hear your story!” “No, you first!” The walk and talk settled down to an animated discussion that ranged from childhood to marriage to travel to fitness.

Like the other day, the subject of how we managed to take the kids and go off for 9 months came up. I was reminded of something that stuck in the back of my head after the last time, namely that attitude is definitely the key in making some adventure like that happen. It’s only impossible if you make it out to be when you start.

If you go at an idea with the idea that it’s possible, and you’re willing to think out of the box to get there, and you throw up all ideas for consideration without hearing them with an eye to why they might not work – a lot can happen. Or if you search for ways they MIGHT work instead of the other . . .

I think for us, our decision to go sailing came about because we asked the question WHY NOT instead of the question WHY. Small difference in wording, big difference in result. Instead of trying to convince ourselves why we should take off, and shooting down all the reasons in the guise of “responsibility”, we took the other tack. Those challenges, the reasons not to go, dropped.

That “Can Do” attitude (a phrase way too bandied about, I know. Sorry.) pervades into everything. With unexpected results.

Back to yesterday and my new friend. (Bear with me. I think I’ll be able to link this all up!) 2 small things happened when we were walking. We ran into a pair of people who asked if one of us would take a picture of them together. Of course! She showed me how to work her phone, they posed, I snapped, we all went our separate ways. No big deal. And then, a little ways later, when we were headed down the path, I mentioned that I just needed to take it carefully as I have a bad knee. Again, no big deal.

Later in our talk, both of those “no big deals” came up. They were indications of my character, of my attitude toward life and other people (and myself) that are so natural it never occurs to me to notice. A possible way of the two of us working together was mentioned, and one of the reasons was, precisely, the way I had handled both of those situations.

It would be easy to throw up barriers. To say no. I’m choosing to to the opposite, to think with an open mind. I have no idea if anything more than a good friendship will come of it, but kind of like not knowing what might happen when we chose to go sailing, the possibilities are endless.

So be yourself, I suppose, is my advice for today. You never know what will open for you when you do that.

Oh, and friendships rock. That's all. :)

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