the enchanted stranger

and sometimes we are visited by earth angels

There was once a man who was having a rough go in life. He was contemplating ending things permanently, and running through possible ways to do so. In the middle of his internal ruminations, he stopped at a crosswalk. A woman driving her car paused at said crosswalk, made eye contact with him, smiled, and waved her hand for him to cross the street. The man was moved by her smile and the eye contact they made and decided not to end his life. That moment of genuine human contact changed him.

That woman could have been you.

Apart from the many archetypical energies I embody in this life, including the seeker, the wounded child, the poet/artist, the scribe, the one archetype I love playing with is the enchanted stranger. The enchanted stranger is the chance encounter you have with someone you will likely never see again that has the potential to change the moment, your day, your whole life. I believe this is an archetype we are seeing increasingly, especially as social media introduces us daily to strangers from all across the Earth. People we will never meet, but whose quirks, advice, or stories impact us. And this makes sense. As much as we may like to think ourselves as individual, free-willed folk, we are impacted by so many things, including the people whose faces we may never see again. It is a farce to that one’s decisions are completely objective and devoid of influence or consequence. We are part of the infinitum of life itself. Every thought, every small decision we make causes a ripple throughout the cosmos. Just as we are a part of said cosmos and the ongoing product of the thoughts and small decisions of every other being on the planet.

I love to engage in secret adventures and engagements that I will never see the outcome of. To heartily compliment someone by saying something specific about how I perceive their energy. To listen to my favourite music through my headphones at the airport terminal and sway unabashedly, then noticing others subtly do the same. One day, I got the brilliant idea to withdraw five $20 notes, stick them into random books at my local library complete with a note of goodwill and encouragement. Mostly the notes said, “yes, this is for you! have a wonderful day!” My heart received so much imagining who might pick up that fated book, read my handwritten note and receive the money. The stories I concocted in my head!

The beauty of the enchanted stranger is that a life can become animated. That said stranger may never have any idea the impact of their words or deeds, seemingly apropos of nothing. There seems to be no motive, no reason. And as quickly as they sweep into your life, they are carried away. And you are left to wonder whether you had, in fact, been visited by the heavens.

It is a kindness to be visited by an enchanted stranger. It is a privilege to be the enchanted stranger to others.