Creating Connections

It’s been a busy couple of weeks with travel, in-person shows and getting ready for upcoming holiday shows. Throughout all the hustle and bustle, however, it occurred to me how many connections we create along our journeys.

Sometimes these connections are with other people and sometimes these connections happen within ourselves. Regardless of who the connections are with, I find myself being grateful for all of them. Yes, you read that correctly, all of them.

We have connections with people we see every day, like friends and family. We have connections with people we may never see again, like I did over the past weeks with the airport and hotel staff in Idaho, Asheville, Knoxville, Chicago and Denver, when flights were being cancelled and some people were getting very intense. I’d like to think the connection I made with these folks was something as simple as not reacting harshly towards them when travel plans had to be changed, because let’s face it, they don’t have any control over the weather or an airport’s decision to cancel or ground flights.

Connections can be something as simple as a smile, or as long and true as a long-term friendship or relationship, and everything in between.

Often, when people think of connecting, they usually think of it being with someone or something else. But, every once in a while, the connections we make with or within ourselves can be just as important - and in my opinion - more important, because they influence the connections we make with others.

Connecting with ourselves might mean taking a walk and having an “ah ha moment,” or sitting quietly with ourselves for a moment to contemplate a person or a situation and how we’re best going to handle it. It may also be just realizing that we deserve the time to create ideas, write and listen to what we need to tell ourselves.

When I’m providing instruction in a class, usually fiber/sheep/spinning-related, the connection I make with my students is extremely important. They have paid for a service and have expectations of what they should receive in a classroom setting. What they don’t know walking into my class is that we already have a connection. It’s the topic of the class. They wouldn’t have signed up if it wasn’t something they were already interested in. Well, usually anyway.

But once they walk through the door to the class, I have the opportunity to create a strong connection, or a not very good one. I also have an opportunity to connect them with classmates. You can see almost instantly which students are drawn to other students because of a shared interest in a breed of sheep, type of fiber or processing goal. They often come to the class as strangers, and bam, have connected with someone they may become friends with.

If it hadn’t been connections like these, I probably would never have been drawn into - and as interested in - the things I now teach.

Another way I’ve been able to create connections is right here, though this little column. I’ve had many of you reach out to me to express your like of a particular topic; or to have more in-depth discussions about them because our beliefs or opinions differ. Thanks to some of you, this column has been reprinted in newspapers in parts of Texas because you chose to share it. That has given me even more of a connection with people I probably don’t even know, and I appreciate it.

As we move closer to Thanksgiving during this season of gratitude, I invite you to connect with yourself and connect with those around you - friends, family and strangers alike. Talk to someone you don’t know, attend an event you normally wouldn’t. Think outside of yourself and the beliefs you hold strong to and connect with someone else to hear theirs. You may find the open mind and connection you create leads to a beautiful new friendship. It may also be that the kindness you showed towards a stranger will connect them to something and leave with them a memory that someone cared enough to connect.