R and J in the USA

One of the fun things about this trip is how quickly relationships can seem to apparate out of anonymity into a feeling of familiarity and camaraderie in mere instants.

When conversational flow leads us to mention our trip, people’s eyes often light up. Between curiosity about what we are doing and an eagerness to share their own hopes, dreams, and histories, we have often felt right at home and among friends, no matter where we are. Julie’s conversation with Brianna and Candice in the Northern Roots Coffee House in Greensboro, North Carolina, was one such experience.

We had been in the middle of an enthusiastic chat with Glenn, the coffee shop owner’s husband (and subject of another People Along the Way post). Our chat was occurring in the middle of the open coffee shop and stretched across ten feet of space between us, creating an automatic invitation for others to listen in or join in if the urge struck them. Brianna soon accepted this open invitation.

At first, Brianna’s interest in our conversation was the status of the roads between Greensboro and western North Carolina, which she overheard us discussing with Glenn. Western North Carolina was still experiencing road closures from Hurricane Helene damage. Like many North Carolinians, Brianna was eager to know when she could start heading west to visit the mountains.

Julie and Brianna split off into their own conversation as Ryan and Glenn continued to talk to each other. When Brianna learned about our trip, she dove into the conversation with an enthusiasm that Julie was eager to return. 

Brianna asked if we were working along the way. Julie explained that we had closed her business before the trip and would being diving into our next career moves on the other side of it, perhaps building on things from the trip itself. Our approach to this mid-career step was half calculated risk, half leap of faith, and another half carpe diem. 

“That is so great!” Brianna said, “I love that, that you are moving forward with faith in the future and your future prospects.” 

We also love that, and it is nice to run into others that ALSO love it and are encouraging and supportive of our leaps of faith.  

“We are both writers,” Julie continued, “so we are doing a lot of writing while we are on this trip that we hope we might someday be able to turn into something.” 

Julie mentioned that we are recording our adventures as best we can during the trip on our blog and are considering writing a book about the trip after the fact.

Brianna’s enthusiastic support continued. “You should definitely do that!” 

She began turning her encouragement into expertise and ideas, giving us input on opportunities we might want to pursue and ways we might want to pitch our writing in different places. Brianna had some experience and knowledge behind her suggestions.

“I’m actually a writer too,” she said. 

She had studied communications and was now channeling her skills into her work for Budderfly, an energy efficiency company based out of Connecticut.

This was the first of several synchronicities that popped up for Julie during the conversation. Julie had typed the word ‘sustainability’ just moments before Brianna began talking about the energy efficiency company that she worked for.

The conversation continued on like a ping pong ball of excitement, each piece of the exchange adding a deeper sense of camaraderie as it sailed across the distance of the room, bouncing back and forth between Julie and Brianna in turn.

Brianna described the company’s business clientele, all big businesses with familiar names.

“Wow!” Julie exclaimed. “That’s so great that all of those companies are pursuing energy efficiency! I didn’t realize they were all making that a priority.”

“It saves them a lot of money. And, we don’t charge them for any of the upgrades. We make all of our money on their savings.” Brianna continued.

Julie nodded in excitement. Way back when Julie first started studying sustainability, she had brainstormed that exact business model. She was struck by it coming up in this immediate moment, right as she was revisiting those thoughts from years ago. It felt like a nice welcome back to the topic.

“That is so cool that exists now,” Julie remarked, enjoying the sense of synchronicity.

Brianna shared her admiration and appreciation for the company’s CEO and his attitude of “make mistakes, fail fast, learn and move forward”. 

It didn’t take long to get the sense that Brianna probably brings intelligence, enthusiasm and creativity wherever she goes. 

“Do you ever write for contract?” Brianna asked, explaining that she occasionally hired writers for contract work or blog posts.

Julie’s eyes opened wide, not just for the potential opportunities that might follow, but for the synchronicity of the question itself – the second synchronicity to bounce across one side of the coffee shop to the other in so many minutes.

Just thirty minutes prior to coming into the shop Julie had written down the sentence, “I’m not interested to actively pursue writing for hire at this time, but if opportunities come to me naturally in the course of the writing I am doing, that would be great and I’d be interested to consider them as they come.”

Having just written that sentence down just thirty minutes ago while thinking about her writing intentions, it felt as if Julie’s thoughts had been a phone call Brianna was just getting around to returning. 

It is hard not to feel a sense of being surrounded by some kind of ethereal encouragement when synchronicities like that show up. Whether or not they have any grander meaning, they sure do feel good.

The conversation continued to buzz along, with Brianna and Julie showing equal curiosity and enthusiasm for each other’s endeavors. Then Candice arrived.

Sharply dressed and carrying herself with energy and confidence, Candice’s eyebrows raised with excitement when Brianna clued her in on our trip.

“So cool!” Candice said. “I’m that girl that says, ‘I want to live in a different state every year.’”

She spoke with the passion of someone who dreams it mixed with the seriousness of someone who means it.

Brianna and Candice both radiated a glow. They carried themselves with the strength that comes from knowing who you are and moving about in the world with your sense of self intact. Such people are often curious and attentive, engaged and engaging, collaborative and generous – qualities Brianna and Candice would show in this random crossing of paths in a coffee shop in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

 “People in central North Carolina say, but I can drive three hours and be in the mountains or another three hours and be at the beach, why go anywhere else?!” Candice continued. “Fair enough, but there are fifty states.”

We ourselves understand both sides of that coin. Our home state of New York offers so much within its borders – two different mountain ranges, the Finger Lakes, the Thousand Islands, Niagara Falls, a bunch of medium sized cities along with one of the most famous cities in the world, and a touch of ocean if you are willing to venture far enough. Still, there is a pull to explore the other 49 states. Hence, this trip. 

Brianna and Candice shared why it wasn’t currently feasible for them to roam the land for ten months without much of a care in the world – kids.

“Honestly, that’s one of the reasons we are on this trip,” Julie replied. “We don’t have kids and we don’t take that for granted. We want to live our lives like people that don’t have kids – to take advantage of the freedoms that affords us.”

“Yes!” Brianna and Candice were all for it.

Julie continued, “In a way, I kind of feel it like a responsibility. Not everyone can do this. As people that don’t have the gift and the responsibility of children to care for, we need to get out there and do the things that those with kids can’t get out and do, and then write about it and share the experience.”

“Yes!!” they both echoed.

They talked about how they love being mothers, but also need this sort of vicarious experience. 

We discussed the tradeoffs of life decisions.

“The flip side is we don’t get to have the joys of having our own children,” Julie said. 

“Oh, I can send you plenty of pictures! Go on doing what you are doing!” Brianna exclaimed.

Julie suddenly felt a sense of team and camaraderie with the mothers (and fathers) of the world. We are all in this together. Though we don’t have kids ourselves, we could contribute to the hard-working mamas and papas of the world by sharing our own experiences while they take on the joys and challenges of parenthood.

Don’t worry. We are not getting too proud of ourselves, or in any way thinking that what we are doing approaches the level of challenge or self-sacrifice involved in parenting. But the thought that what we are doing could contribute to that group effort was very heartening.

“Seriously,” Brianna said smiling, but not joking. “This conversation will feed me for a week!”

The feeling was mutual. 

It’s a neat feeling when doors between people open and camaraderie and enrichment flow in both directions. 

“As far as those pictures of your kids, you go right ahead and send ‘em!” Julie said. “We may not have kids, but I take being an auntie very seriously and try to be a good auntie to as many kids as I can in my life!”

Eventually, we all realized we needed to stop chatting and get back to the work we all came to the coffee shop to do. We released each other from the open channel of communication that had stretched across the coffee shop and returned to our private bubbles.

Our zones of individual focus returned at the conversation’s end as quickly as they had dissolved at its beginning. A quiet and lovely sense of camaraderie and synchronicity filled the air with encouragement as we each went along our way.