We have met before.

Close your eyes and look within.

There you will find all of your life.

You will see every moment that you have lived.

In there, you will find every person you have crossed paths with.

That coffee you had with someone ten years ago.

That person you sat next to in class in third grade.

Your sister you no longer live with but spent 18 years sleeping next to.

The kid in your neighborhood who always came to play with you.

Your mother waiting for your to come home every night.

Your first boyfriend.

Your first love.

The first person who asked you out.

Your daughter as a baby.

Your son as a toddler.

Your neighbor.

Your best friend in high school.

 

All of the people you experienced in your life, all of them make the picture of you.

And no I am not asking you to look inside your past.

I am asking you to see that the world around you is timeless but it does not last forever.

It is only present in the faces of new people.

When your kids grow, when your sister is no longer in the same room, when your first love married someone else, when your husband leaves you, when your third grade friend is not sitting by your side… know that you can open your eyes and look for them in others.

I had a coffee with a new friend yesterday.

It felt familiar.

Not because I have met him before.

But because he has sat where so many others have sat before him.

Journeying with me in my life.

Without all of those who are no longer with me, I would have never been witnessed.

Without the thousands of people who have journeyed with you, you would have never been realized.

They might not be here with you today, but someone else is.

Look across you at the person who is sitting there and you will see all of the people who have gone before him.

He is them.

They are him.

They just crossed paths with you at different times in your life’s journey.

There is no time.

No true loss.

Just a journey made of love.

Today smile at the stranger you are passing at the street, go for a coffee with a new friend, date again, love again, laugh again.

Let them back in. They are all the same, just visiting with you at a different time.

Be ok with that and open your heart again.

Walking with you,

Christina Rasmussen