Unordinary.

“We meet no ordinary people in our lives.”

― C.S. Lewis; Inspirational Christian Library

My mom’s father, Grandpa Cordts, “knew no strangers”.  Whenever I was with him out in public, at the store, getting gas, buying worms or playing putt-putt, everyone within sight and sound seemed to know him. 

That isn’t to say that he or they did.  It is just that EVERYONE he encountered each day, no matter the circumstance, investment or need was approached as a friend.  Someone that went way back. The one in the back row of the picture.  A compatriot. 

Was not aware of it then, but as I go about daily life now, how he went about life left an impression on me.  As it stands, I don’t know any strangers either. 

And when you go about it in that fashion, you cannot believe what you learn.  

Once they recognize that they can just be open, all sorts of things flow out.  Not that they are meant to be sewed all over.  Just that they want me to hear and know it.  Shared as a friend. With trust and an understanding that it was in some sense collaborative, restorative and affirmative. 

And is ain’t all one sided.  You share as well.  In an equally genuine fashion.  Maybe you only see them the next week, month or year.  Perhaps never again.  But they did.  You did.  

And it was something.  

Maybe substantial in certain situations.  Maybe just the spur of the moment.  

But again, if you think about it, not really ordinary.  In all actuality, those chance moments become special.  Not because they were designed that way.  But simply because they were.  

Unordinary.  

Like them.  

And what we – and they – chose to make that encounter to be.  

Unordinary.