The People We Meet by Chance or Choice

I stepped out of the port terminal in Miami ready to hail a cab. Signs pointed me in the direction of the taxi stand and as I approached, an older man standing outside his cab waved to me. I nodded in agreement as I walked around to meet him, navigating the people control barriers.

As I asked him if he would be willing to take my daughter and I on a little tour of the city before heading directly to the airport, another cab driver belligerently interacted with our chosen cab driver. The younger man was angry because he felt that we should be his customers. It was going to be a sizeable fare. However, as we are all well aware, you take the first cab in the lineup, and Charles’ cab was the lead.

I understood little of their interaction as they spoke in a French Creole commonly spoken in Haiti, and my high school Canadian French didn’t help much. No merci beaucoups to my younger self.

Settled in to our chosen cab with our bags neatly stored in the trunk, my adult daughter and I gave each other a look that said, maybe we should have organized an Uber instead. An idea we had considered, but I dislodged, as Uber pricing can be unreliable in big cities.

I had a good feeling about our decision anyway.

So here we were, my daughter and I on a birthday trip she gifted me. ready to sink into this final experience before heading home. We were ready for a slow tourist level adventure, and I began pulling up my list of sights to visit, prearranged on Google Maps. Charles Jean happily agreed to be our guide.

Little Cuba. Wynwood Walls. Miami Beach. Ocean Drive.

And at the top of the list, the Art Deco District, especially along Ocean Drive.

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We visited all these places, and Charles also took us to a couple of other gems along the route that we did not have on our list. What a bonus.

Beyond his knowledge of the city and the golden nuggets of history he shared with us, we had conversations about the economy, inflation, taxes, the state of his country, and ours. And a connection of gratitude and appreciation was built.

Regardless of the sightseeing and the fabulous places we visited. Regardless of the added memories and depletion of iphone storage. It was the joy of the experience of meeting someone by chance, someone you’ve made a choice to put your trust in for that moment, someone who you’ll most probably never cross paths with again.

And I wondered how many people we encounter in a life time. People we have limited interactions with, and yet appreciate for that brief moment in time when our journeys intersect. Charles was one of those people. And I felt grateful to have met him.

In his book, The Five People you Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom writes,

“Each affects the other and the other affects the next, and the world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.”

Mitch Albom

It illustrates that we are all connected. The choices we make impact others as much as they impact ourselves. And our stories intertwine like embroidery floss, stitching together a colourful work of art. Each thread woven into the next. All assembled for one purpose. All significant and full of meaning. One story. And the image is altered as each weaver makes his choice on how to weave his own thread.

We all play our part, even the young man yelling at Charles at the Miami port terminal was playing his. His choice to behave the way he did, confirmed mine, to choose Charles. And I was grateful I did.

If you ever need a cab in Miami, give Charles Jean a call. He said I could share his number on the internet, 786-395-7162.

Hopefully no spammers read this. That too is a choice.

I continue to think about those chance encounters. Here you and I are, in this virtual world, on this platform, connecting, making our choices, weaving our tapestry. And it all seems so perfectly synchronized. This is where our journeys intersect and I’m grateful to know you.

Are we here though by chance or choice?

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Write a post, like a gratitude journal about something joyful you’ve experienced on this journey to joy. Link your post in comments by next Friday, and I’ll share it in my next Saturday’s post.