circles of influence

I am fascinated at how circular our world is.  We move in the same circles throughout our lives, bumping up against the same people time after time, and only just missing others by days or metres.  Sure there's the obvious things - like shared interests or mutual friends, but I am amazed by how often one or two people turn up in more than one of these eddies of connection.

I have recently come into contact with someone whom I have never met in person but have about a dozen connections in common with (over several different groups of people).  We have a number of shared interests and life experiences and yet have never physically crossed paths.  There have been a few occasions over the past several years when we may have had opportunity to meet but for some reason it has never come to pass.

Is this co-incidence?  Fate?  Fluke?  Bad timing...good timing?  Just as well...?

Much as a good novel draws together seemingly unconnected people, I love to see how each of us has the potential to share a section of each others lives and experiences.  It reminds me that the world is a big place, but also a village, where each of us has the potential to draw from and share from each other.

Even if we never actually meet in person.