A beautiful and annoying thing about being a person

a true story

I was sitting alone in an airport terminal.

My chair began to shake.

My drink wobbled, then spilled all over my pants.

I looked around to see if maybe it was some sort of earthquake.

No. Just a man a few seats down bouncing his leg like it was late for a flight. A solid bounce keeping time to a drum only he could hear.

In that moment I realized with frustration, awe, and coffee-stained pants just how connected all those chairs were.

His motion was my motion. His jitter, my spill. His thoughtless action, my annoyance.

Bolted together so tightly that his jitter traveled to me and probably to the woman behind her magazine and the boy curled up on his backpack and the weary man asleep with his mouth open, all of us jolted by one man’s leg shaking mindlessly.

And isn’t that just the truth of things? What one of us does rattles through the rest. We are connected in ways we barely notice until the coffee dribbles down our wrist, until the song in one leg wakes another heart, until the small shiver in one life shakes loose something in someone else.

We shake each other without knowing it.

We spill one another’s drinks.

We annoy, unsettle, disturb.

We steady, surprise, bless.

What happens where you are does not stay where you are.

We are connected, whether we notice it or not. I was reminded in the most ordinary way that there is no such thing as alone, even in an airport, even among strangers, even when I am lost in my own thoughts and my coffee cup is mostly empty.

We are all traveling together, even when we think we’re flying solo.

All of us annoyingly, beautifully, unavoidably connected.

1. BRAD’S VERY PROFESSIONAL PLAYLAB! I spent last week leading a workshop in Montreal. Excited to share some pieces from these new adventures with you soon.

2. STORYTIME FOR GROWNUPS! This Thursday I’m in Birmingham, Alabama for STORYTIME! supporting Small Magic, a nonprofit making sure every child has the best possible beginning. They’re building a future where Birmingham is the best place in America to raise a child under five. Get tickets here.

3. STORY CONFERENCE! Truly one of my favorite events of the year and a community I adore. Join me in Nashville October 9-10. Tickets on sale now!