shrinky dinks, light and kevin bacon.

My friend Tammy said this in a post from late last year on her blog Raggle Taggle: “I’m leaning into belief and drawing near to grace. I will let myself be loved. That’s my broken hallelujah.”

i am awestruck by the beauty of those words.

and it got me thinking…that every time i read something truly real from someone, whether on facebook, an email, a blog post, etc… it makes me feel more connected to them, to their fibers, to their soul.  it could be hilarious, painful, uncomfortable, uplifting, and perhaps sometimes TMI (think bodily fluids – ick!).

now, don’t take this as a negative thing, or that i’m super soberly serious (alliteration nation y’all!), but what binds us together as a community of humans, what makes us relate to the most opposite of others, is our fibers. our stories.

you know how everyone has heard of six degrees of kevin bacon? you haven’t? oh, my assumption is that you have.

and you know what they say about assumptions. 😉

it is a silly game where  kevin bacon is related to some actor, whatever movie that you name, by a connection of six or fewer people. example: movie actor apple starred with movie actor banana, who is married to movie actor carrot, who used to babysit for movie actor donut’s kids, who was an extra in a movie with actor eggplant, who was the (fill in the blank) in footloose with kevin bacon.

and now i’m hungry.  🙂

what the point of  it is:  that the  little silly game is that everyone is connected to everyone somehow, and the world keeps shrinking down like a colorful version of a shrinky dink. (and if you’ve never heard of shrinky dinks, then that right there is reason that this generation should put down their iThings, and get outside, or go bake an incredibly small cupcake in their easy bake oven).

the world gets smaller, more intimate, more saturated with beauty, with each and every conversation you have. with that coach of your child’s ping pong team, with the pharmacy tech who is jam packed with orders, with the elderly man working at the car parts store, with your memaw, your neighbor’s dad, your vet.

we all have our stories.  and you know what i’ve found after my 3 + decades upon this spinning sphere of wonder?

that i have more in common with those folks, than i ever thought possible.

duck dynasty anyone?  YES.

mac and cheese lovers out there?  YOU BET.

sunrises or sunsets?  NOW WE’RE TALKIN.

hot chocolate after sledding with plastic baggies in our boots?  OH THAT WAS JUST ME.  🙂

people are so very VERY similar.

any frustration that i may have on being “misunderstood” seems to disappear when my selfish ideas of what that person is thinking (sometimes without even speaking to them first!), or feeling, or knows, just by the Gucci bag they carry, or the smart phone that they don’t.

i assume that just because i think of myself a certain way, that that is certainly the way that others would think of me too.

i wrote a post a few days ago, and published it.  some of you may have read it, but i chose to take it down for being misconstrued.  misunderstood.  misheard. because, i had not thought about the consequences that it may have rippled to those i love.

i don’t want that to ever be something that happens again.

this space is about the light that we need to shine onto others when we see them weeping, and, basking in their light when they are projecting it everywhere, happily dancing along in their sunbeams.

think about that.

we are the same.  when we hurt, we lash out.  when we are happy, we shout it on the rooftops.  when we wear oversized sunglasses in a photobooth? well, we look like pretty rocking superheros.

the world is MUCH smaller than you think.  it is smaller than polar opposite viewpoints of political, best dressed, university driven or lack thereof – minimum wage, or maximum tax.

i want the mirror that i hold, to light, to project, to shrink myself into each conversation, each oreo cookie shared.  so i can SEE what the world is trying to say, each story at a time.  mirroring ALL ITS LIGHT.

there are a lot of things you can see in a mirror.

but, mirrors don’t work in the dark.  mirrors don’t work when it’s dark.

who can you spread light to today?  who can dance in your sunbeams, or use a little warmth from your glow?  go out there and strike up a conversation with someone.

for starters?

hey, have you ever heard of shrinky dinks?  Or how about:  name a movie with kevin bacon?

i bet you’ll be surprised how warm six degrees feels.