Everyone's Journey is each others

Everyone's journey in life is connected.  We may not each feel it as we stand alone in this over-populated world, but if you sit and listen you can hear the loneliness, the pain, the anger, the joy, the pleasure, or the gladness of life.

Most of us want to feel something different than how we already do, but somewhere, even in the same room, someone is wishing they felt like you.

I've been going to new places, watching people, learning from them:

The lonely man smoking and drinking in the corner with all his burdens out for all to see, even in his silence.

The young woman with the shrill laughter that is filled with an unmistakable insecurity and phony fun as she complains about anything to anyone who will listen to her grating and unsettling voice.

The small groups of young men out on the prowl for something they think they desire as they brag about their meaningless accomplishments to each other if no females will listen. 

The young women are out for attention in search of some idea of this elusive falling in love with a man at a bar who sounds so accomplished and looks pretty in his neatly pressed clothes.

There is the bartender doing her job, smiling, putting up with the irate drunks who hound her and bother her, yet she puts on the face of a professional, works hard and fast.  She listens, multi-tasks and gets the job done.  The bartender's job isn't just to serve drinks.  Her job isn't necessarily to listen to sob stories, but she gives people what they ask for without outward judgement.  She is like the figurative psychiatrist dispensing the liquid drug to her patients. In this case, the patients just tell her the concoction they think will do the trick.  I find this woman to be impressive as I watch her work and deal.  She has her own story, yet it doesn't show. Steadily she works in her friendly manner as the patrons make demands.

As the night wears on, the real faces, without the masks, start to show on the customers who just don't want to go home, or haven't found someone to go home to.  Sometimes the people just give up, walk away, and leave to go back to the world they were escaping from.  Sometimes they leave because the lights come on after the final last call and they go somewhere else to locate their wishes they have for themselves.  When they don't find it, probably because they don't know what the really desire, they come back night after night. 

The same people in the same place makes it almost like a family that is accepting of them as they/we go through our journey making turns and getting lost along the way.  It always feels good to walk in and be given a warm friendly welcome.

No matter where you are in your journey, someone else is right there with you.  Your journey is theirs and their journey is yours.  We are all connected.  We just hope to connect to each other on a deeper level and really feel the way we desire.