It’s a small world…
Hello dear readers…
Aren’t we all reminded, from time to time, what a small world we live in?
Not in the literal sense… like my tiny feathered friend, the humming bird (pictured above)… but a small world in the “Six Degrees of Separation” sense. Where everyone in the world is “connected” to everyone else, at most, by six steps. The old “friend of a friend” statement.
Camp plays a big part of that in my life… and I am sure, in YOURS too.
I am constantly coming across folks in all sorts of odd places that have some connection to our place out here in the woods.
If you haven’t yet… mark my words… you will bump in to someone somewhere that will say “I went to Camp Ockanickon too!!” or “My family spends Memorial Day Weekend there every year!” or “My mother used to be on the Staff at Camp Matollionequay!” or “My sister and I went to Lake Stockwell Day Camp together for years!!”
This past weekend we had a group of Girl Scouts staying with us. One of the mothers from the Troop grew up right around the corner from me!! We were friends in our youth and her parents still live a half of a block up and a half of a block over from my parents.
Rewind for a second… to last Fall… It was this Girl Scout Troop’s first trip out to visit Camp. I had the “small world” moment when I saw this young lady come in to the Dining Hall with her daughter. That was the first time I saw her in years but I recognized her immediately.
Before their trip this year my old friend and neighbor emailed me to say they were coming so it was no surprise this time around. I almost expected to see her and the Troop again sometime because they had such a wonderful time last Fall.
If you are wondering where this is going… just bear with me.
This past weekend, I greeted my old friend and her Troop again. I had the pleasure of feeding the girls all of their meals on Saturday.
At Dinner time I thought I recognized someone else in the Troop… another one of the mothers looked strangely familiar
I said nothing to my friend and went home for the evening.
The mystery bothered me all night. “Where did I know this person from?”
At breakfast on Sunday, I had to ask.
My friend and this mystery woman were at the counter getting a morning cup of coffee. I approached and said… “Excuse me… but, I think I know you from somewhere.”
She looked puzzled and showed no signs of recognizing me right away.
Then it hit me… like a bolt of lightning… I asked “Are you, by chance, a Nurse?”
She answered “Yes I am.”
I asked if she worked at certain local hospital to which she positively confirmed.
I proceeded to tell her that, at the end of November… on the 20th to be exact… my wife and I had a baby girl delivered at her hospital and I am pretty sure she was one of the Nurses who cared for us post-delivery.
I gave her a hint about some exacerbating details that would surely jog her memory and…
…POW!!!
We both had a classic “small world” moment.
Then I found out that this young lady and my old friend are best friends!!
Here we were… back in November… in the same hospital room… sharing a friend AND Camp in common… and we didn’t even know it.
It’s a small world folks… get out there and be kind to one another. Pay it forward.
Do a good deed for a stranger… because you’ll never know when you might cross paths again.
Be good…
Chef Jason
P.S… for anonymity sake I omitted names and such from this Blog entry… but Yes… that is a photo of a humming bird visiting a feeder on my porch here at Camp!!
Let me tell you… not an easy photo to take. Those birds are QUICK and they scare off easy too!!