A CHANCE MEETING HELPS ME FIND MY PATH ANEW!

OH!! THOSE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD AND THE TRAVELLERS THAT PASS THROUGH THEM. SO MUCH CAN BE EXCHANGED IF TWO PEOPLE HAVE THE WILL TO COMMUNICATE! Post No.26 (A 7 minute read) 

And so it was, I put my book writing ambitions aside. I knew no one would support me! I knew in my heart of hearts that my partner would not support me but I was still entertaining thoughts that he may read my book and so left out one of the most important happenings of my last twenty-five years. As it transpired, HE does not know that I even finished that book. HE has never so much as referred to it again.

So, I began my second book and this time, I was going to give credit where credit is due and I did. But I am going to bring that chance meeting into my review of my first book because this is just when it came about. 

TRADITIONAL CELEBRATIONS IN KANO, NIGERIA.

I had ventured out for the first time after the easing of the first round of COVID-19 restrictions but we did have a fifty euro fine for being outdoors without a facial mask. I knew that as a whole, we were in a bad way. We had millions of families lining up for food parcels from aid centers, it was dramatic. What six months without an income can do to reduce a family to their knees!!

I approached my local supermarket and saw a sight that stopped me dead in my tracks! An African man was sat with a pot on the ground, asking for money. He held a book in his hand, I knew what that was. "OH, NO!" I said to myself. "THIS MAN REALLY NEEDS HELP!" I went to him and said "Hello" and asked if he knew about our COVID-19 situation and the dangers of being without a mask, plus the fifty euro fine for not wearing one.

He knew of the virus but not the fine. Straight away he got his mask out of his bag and put it on. No, he had not been following the local news, no, he had not. He had been far too busy trying to keep himself with enough food to eat and get enough money home to his family to keep them fed each day too. All of this under confinement and then tight restrictions. My heart went out to him. He could not have found a worse time to chance his luck abroad.

I bought him a bag of food that day and we continued to chat for a while as I filled him in on all that I knew of COVID-19 and our current situation work wise. No, it was not going to be easy for him, it was not.

I went out shopping far more often than I needed to and in short time we were becoming familiar with each other. We began to meet each other for longer chats and I told him of my writing. He was not surprised at all. No, he thought that I was making great sense. There, I knew it. I am not the only one in the world but I am an African out of Africa. Yes, that is what I needed to clarify and here was my proof.

In a matter of hours spent in conversation with this man, I had shared more with him than I had with my partner of then twenty-five years. Intimacy, trust, understanding, listening, caring, sharing, all that was missing from my relationship was being clearly defined by this chance meeting of a traveller from Africa. This was the kind of communication that I needed. Honest, sincere, non-judgemental, reciprocal and yes, there I hit the nail on the head! RECIPROCAL! There was the difference.

I so enjoyed listening to his stories and learning of his life and experiences. We became FRIENDS! I had found a friend or maybe my friend found me! Even as we were moving into autumn, we could see that once the holiday traffic was finished with, we would have to start controlling our movements again.

"Did I think he had any possibility of finding work?" he asked me. "NO!" I was obliged to tell him. "We need to get you home before all goes absolutely crazy here for Christmas!" And so, a fraught plan was made to get him back home. Plan A fell through, Plan B fell through, Plan C fell through!! My goodness, that African resilience is so remarkable, so tough. Eventually with the snows falling heavily in Madrid, Plan D saw him get up into the air as one of the last flights that was able to take off before the heaviest snows that Madrid have ever known came upon them!

Even in his dire situation, I had helped restore his faith in the human being. Do not ask how but I found the money for his flight and I was so happy to do so. It was a human act and that is what I miss being. HUMAN!! His disbelief when I started making flight plans was quite something. "Why are you doing this for me?" he would ask. "Because you are a truly righteous and worthy human being. You are in my land and you need help. Your people have given me help and advice travelling around your lands. They did not need any reason for doing so my friend. It was a human act just as mine is a reciprocal human act and I am proud to be a TRUE HUMAN BEING who can FEEL in this way! You deserve help my friend, you are in distress and you cannot help your family from here!"

In my next chapter of ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN, I begin my travelling days and as you will find out maybe, I have enjoyed the company of so many different peoples along the way. Quite the most wonderful times shared that I have in my memory banks. This man brought all of those pieces that I loved back into my foreground and reminded me what it is to really feel reciprocity again. RECIPROCITY, yes, reciprocity was missing from my life. Sincerity was missing from my life. A shared purpose was missing from my life.

It was when he arrived safely back home again, that in my now very lonely state,  I decided to hey, you know what? I am going back to Africa. I cut off from all around me and I went into a trance daily and literally walked through my life, step by step. I was gone for a full seven months and I only just brushed the surface!!!! I would burst into laughter as I was writing. I would get choked up with tears as I was writing. It was an emotional business for sure.

That is all to come and I remember my new friend with much fondness, we shared some dramatic days together and that is bond building stuff! We speak regularly by phone and I know that I wish to help him and his family further still. It was two years ago now that we were tussling with flight cancellations and PCR tests in private clinics but we managed to get him home. His mother sadly, died just a few weeks after his return and I was so grateful that we had got him back, to be by her side when she most needed him.

You may notice the number of times that I have said WE in this blog post. How quickly a relationship can build where there is sincerity, honesty, understanding, warmth and affection and reciprocity!!! I woke into the new me! The one who was mostly happy because I was responding to my intuition, my FEELINGS and using MY judgement based on what my inner eye could see! That is how I wish to live, in tune with myself first and foremost, not having to struggle against a flow that is not mine. I had escaped that only to find myself being jammed into a mould that I would never have chosen!

Have you crossed paths by pure chance and found that that chance meeting has had a great influence on you? Do you have trouble trusting unknown people? Do you find reciprocity in your relationships?

Thank you all for reading and please FEEL welcome to comment below or make communication by e-mail, I have a contact box in the right-hand panel as well as a follow tab, if you would like to keep up to date with me. I would love to hear from someone somewhere. Next post I will get back to my book and continue reviewing my trains of thought for you all. Until then, happy learning. 

My book is available on Amazon, these are the links for you: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN e-book and ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN Paperback

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