It Only Takes One

I had a really great conversation with a woman last night named Marty. Typically I'm the one trying to explain my family but I quickly found out what it was like to be on the other side of the conversation when she said that her dad is also her uncle and her brother.

Wait... What? There's a riddle for you.

Her mom was unable to raise her so her grandparents legally adopted her, however, her uncle was the one who ended up raising her. That means that her biological uncle is the one who she calls dad because he raised her but he is also her brother because her grandparents legally adopted her.

We talked about numerous different topics leading from our buses (since we're at BusFusion) to parenting (since we both have kids) to the education system (since she's a school teacher) to travelling (since her and her partner just got back from a 6 month trip) to meditating (since part of that 6 month trip was spent in an ashram) to health (since she cured herself of cervical cancer without using western medicine).

It was an amazing feeling to sit around that camp fire last night. Numerous conversations were being had about god-knows-what, marshmallows were being roasted and people were jamming and creating some amazing music. (There was even a guy who pulled out a flute!? When was the last time you saw somebody pull out a flute around a camp fire!?)

What hit me was the diverse group of people all coming together for one common interest, the VW Bus.

Just like Marty and myself, everybody around that fire had their own story. People aging from 2 to 82 (give or take). We have all come from different backgrounds. We have all experienced pain and we have all experienced love. We have done things that we are proud of and things that we are not so proud of. And somehow we have all been brought to this one location.

Never underestimate the power of one common interest. That's all it takes to connect.