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Making Friends in Days of Uncertainty

It all started out innocently, as many friendships do. I was exiting my local fabric store, as someone else was entering. She was wrangling her handbag, and a sturdy-looking sewing machine apparently in need of repair, so of course, I held the door for her. Such a nice way to start a friendship, with a small act of kindness.

We struck up a chatty conversation, commiserated about broken machines, the cumbersome shape of a machine that seems to expand as we squeeze it through doorways, the machines’ habit of an untimely demise in the middle of a project, and so much more. The kind of conversation only a couple of fellow stitchers can have in a fraction of a minute. Such a nice way to start a friendship, with a friendly conversation.

As I was about to let the door close, I realized I had thread rubbing against my leg.

“Oops, oh well,” my newfound stitichy friend said, grabbed the thread, cut it with her hands, and continued into the store.

We shared a giggle. Such a nice way to start a friendship, with a giggle.

I headed to the car, noticing that thread was blowing in the wind, and when I sat in the car, and buckled up, I realized that thread, quite a bit of it, had wrapped itself completely around my legs. So much thread, oddly, that I would have needed scissors, to free myself from it, so I pulled my legs out of the web, and started to roll it into a ball. The thread lead me back out of the car, around the car parked next to me, and finally to the wayward spool. Such a nice way to start a friendship, getting tangled in each other’s problems and being okay with the inconvenience.

I picked up the spool and took it back to the store. There was my friend, with an apology, and thanks, and another shared giggle. Such a wonderful way to start a friendship, with a shared problem, shared solution, and a ready apology (even though none was needed).

Back in the car, I headed out of the parking lot, thinking about making new friends. I’ll never see her again, but the exchange felt like a part of a larger community in which we share interests, are ready to help, share a giggle, solve a problem which isn’t our own, offer apologies, when none are needed, and enjoy our shared moment. We probably don’t agree on everything but we’re willing to look past that to enjoy what we do agree on. Such a nice way to start a friendship.

I wonder if we have forgotten how.