The Gift of Belonging to Each Other

I spotted her at the bimonthly Food Truck night in our village’s small downtown. I wasn’t sure how to approach this student who I had come to know within the walls of the classrooms where I substitute teach. It’s a funny thing when we see people outside of our expected landscapes. We are reminded that we are all more than our labels: teacher, student, receptionist, doctor, coworker, etc. Despite our seemingly defined transactions, with each other, we are impacted more than we realize.

As a substitute teacher, I come in contact with many students on a daily basis. Some repeatedly. The blessing in repetition is the opportunity to build a relationship. Those brief interactions which can seem like shallow small talk make deep imprints on our beings.

Seeing me, she ran up to me, her voice speaking with an excited tone. But, in the midst of our interaction, the reality hung in the air-for both of us. She graduated. Our life together, as we knew it, had come to and end.

It wasn’t the first time, I encountered this moment of bittersweet human connections. Once, after a long term sub job for a class of seniors, we each bid each other well wishes of a good life.

I still grieve the loss of relationship with the nurses who sustained my very life during my hospitalization after my accident.

Those moments, cause us pause. We go about our season of life together without really thinking that the day will come when our paths diverge. But we leave changed.

We often take for granted those people we do life with in the ordinary moments of life. The staff at orthodontist appointments, regular servers at a restaurant, neighbors, and students. They provide opportunity for human connection, insight into different narratives, familiar rhythms to our days.

Then one day, we leave each other, knowing that we might never see each other again. Yet, we realize in some way, we were better for our interactions, regardless how brief.

Tim Quick, in the movie “About Time”, reminds us “”We‘re all travelling through time together every day of our lives. All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable ride.”