When we were little kids the world seemed so very big and immense.
We tried but we couldn't possibly know everyone. But then as the years go by the friends
we knew in our "yesterdays" seem to have gone their own way and we
don't hear from them much anymore. And yet, so often we find reminders, connections,
and sometimes even the people themselves…
In my own life there have been so many coincidences where my
"yesterday" becomes part of today. In the past few years my husband
and I made a move more than 100 miles away from where I grew up (not far from
where he grew up). Since living here I found that among my "new"
neighbors was an acquaintance from around the corner in my childhood
neighborhood and even more recently I found that one of my NOW neighbors is the
nephew of my next door neighbor when I was all of five or six years old. Not
quite as close to where I live now, but still quite local, is a woman who lived
in the same community that we raised OUR children in.
Although it isn't coincidence at all, it still is sort of
mind-boggling to find distant relatives (many you never even knew existed!)
after doing a DNA test; I did 23andME. The few I have been in touch with have amazingly
similar attitudes and views… so much so that one 2nd cousin who lives
more than 2,000 miles away, someone I have never met face-to-face and only
learned about recently, agrees with me that it almost sounds as if we grew up
together! (Genetic memory?) It is ironic to find these long-lost relatives and
find out how much you have in common.
Another amazing small-world connection occurred nearly 50
years ago when my soon-to-be husband and I were planning our wedding. I was
getting our important documents together for the marriage license and such when
I noticed that we were BOTH born at the same hospital and BOTH delivered by the
same obstetrician 16 months apart! — no, our moms did NOT know each other, and
our parents did not live in the same neighborhoods.
My husband and I raised our children in a suburban community
more than an hour and change from where we were born, so imagine my surprise
when I went into a local pharmacy and noticed the pharmacist's name tag, it was
the same last name as the obstetrician that had delivered us. I jokingly asked
the man if he had any relation to the doctor, and it wound up that the man who
delivered me (and my husband) was the uncle of this pharmacist!
Six degrees of separation refers to a theory that all people on Earth are connected to one
another by no more than six separate individuals. A theory that parallels the
idea that “it’s a small world,” it maintains that, through a series of
connections or steps, all people have the potential to know one another on a
first name basis through mutual acquaintances. (wisegeek)
You never know where or when the past and present are going
to collide. Don't be surprised, it is, after all, really a small world.
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