The right place at the right time

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I have always liked traveling. Still do.
On my journey, every once in a while I find myself in a place thinking, how did I get here? What is here for me? Why....

The interesting thing is that, although for some places these questions never get answered, there are also those places that, when I look back at my stay there, bring up ideas as to why I did end up there...
And in those cases, it always has to do with being at the right place at the right time. But for what?
That too is a question that only seems to have an answer after the fact. Sometimes even years later.

Looking back at the times in my life this happened, it always had to do with discovering something about myself I wasn’t aware of before. This discovery often occurred through a ‘chance meeting’ with someone I had never met in my life. Very few of the people I met in this manner I ever saw again ~ and for those I did meet again, it was usually years later under totally different circumstances. Only to find that this ‘chance meeting’, years ago, had left an equally as big impression on them as it had on me.

There are also times when we meet people, strike up a conversation and may even give advice to them, where when we meet again I hardly remember anything about the meeting ~ or what I may have said at the time. Still, the meeting may have left a big impression...

The one thing these meetings have in common is that in some way they have been life-changing events. For me, for the other person, or for both of us.
Through a ‘chance meeting’ we changed our direction through life. Altered our goals. Ending up achieving different, maybe even bigger things in life than we ever held possible.

It all seems to be a matter of being at the right place at the right time; doing the right thing ~ and as such it really isn’t as much a ‘chance meeting’.
However, it does leave me invariably with a great sense of fulfillment. Even when I can’t quite figure out what it is I have done to give me this sense of fulfillment until much later.

And this is the very trigger for me to become more aware of the instances when I am at the right place, at the right time. It is the trigger for me to be willing to spend time with someone I have never met before, and may never meet again. To listen to their stories. To help lighten their load.
To answer the question as to why I am here...

Whether we are traveling or not ~ life is a journey. An intricately woven pattern of people and places. What we do with it, is up to us.
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