A small world of happy coincidences

Here we go again, I bump into someone I know in a small (yes, very touristy though) village in Chiapas, Mexico!
Two days ago I was walking up the trail along the Agua Azul waterfalls with Mamà Rosita and... POW! 'I know that girl! she was at Uni with me, a good friend of my sister's good friend!', so I go to say 'hi! how is it going? where do you live now? so long it's been after the last time I met you in Genova...'

Rosita couldn't believe this was happening again.
She knows about my serendipitous encounters.

And every time this happens I think of each past encounter and I wonder how many friends and acquaintances we cross our paths with in unusual places everyday, but we don't even notice...
I confess: I look at the people around me a lot: just like others look at monuments or window-shops or the clouds, well, I observe the fellow humans around me, to see how they look like, if they smile, if they're in a hurry, how they dress, what they do, how they speak...
This habit probably increases my chances of bumping into some old friends, but hey, it does feel so weird each time, I try to visualise the world in its grandness and no, the world when this happens appears just so small!

The first time I was on a bus in Estonia. With the group of kids I was working with, we crammed the bus heading to the beach near Tallinn, I boringly sat down, staring at the door, when in the middle of the forest this girl I knew from my first days in Denmark 4 years before appeared in front of me, got on the bus and wow! we couldn't believe that was real!
She was going to visit her sister. We met up in the following nights and hung out together, yay!

At that time Facebook wasn't probably existing, surely it wasn't as popular as nowadays, and definitely smartphones were not in use yet.

Two months later I was going to Argentina, to spend 6 months there.
My first intercontinental flight, my brand new passport in the bag and lots of excitement and confusion, so, a bit lost in Frankfurt airport, I look for my gate number on the big screen, not many people around, 'strange, - I think - I really hope I'm in the right place', just one guy who is also looking at the screen, and that was actually one of my best class mates from my course in Denmark!
He was on the same flight as me, he was moving to Buenos Aires for a while...

Then later on in Australia, on a desolate Sunday afternoon in Newcastle I bumped into the guys from Adelaide who played with my Italian friend on his Australian tour! A dull rainy day turned into a friendly one and I ended up following them to see Propagandhi that night.
That day I realised that vegans are actually very nice people and I convinced myself I would have considered that choice more seriously.
The year after I went vegan. It's now been 4 years.

Now that I think about all these coincidences, I can recall more, less significant perhaps, still remarkable when considering the amount of space and time we move into.
That exact moment in that same place, a matter of seconds or minutes.
It's crazy shit, really.

Some weeks ago a good friend of mine from Uruguay happened to be in France at the same time as me. My original plan was to spend the long week-end in Paris to visit another old friend before she would move South again, but I hadn't seen my Uruguayan friend in ages, so I went to Bordeaux first, caught up with the people there and headed up North for the week-end.
The day I arrived in Paris my house-mate's very good friend walked on the same side of the same pavement of the same bridge as me on the Seine River.
Now, there are many bridges in the small area joining the left and right banks of the river, in the mental map I had drawn for myself, I should have had crossed the other bridge, just to pass by Notre Dame to recollect the memories of the last time I'd been there, to give a quick look to the cathedral, in a sort of compulsive ritual, although this time I wouldn't have had the time for a hummus baguette picnic on the quai: I was in a hurry, my friend got me a ticket for the theatre play she was working on and I was well aware that I always manage to get lost in the area around the Odéon.
It was a Saturday afternoon at 6pm.
Possibly the busiest time in St. Michel.
Pavements are huge on that bridge.
Adrenaline was high. Yes, it was him with those same guys who played at my house four weeks before the most moving music I haven't heard in a while - at least since living in the UK.
Accordion, sax, friendships, the moon and the smiles.

They were playing the following evening not far from my friend's house. Just in time for me to catch the night bus back to England.
More beautiful music and friendships, coincidences and smiles.
And the moon again, shining over that place I also called home for a while.

In those moments I feel immensely lucky and happy for being alive.
Some days ago I met up with my good Mexican friend from Melbourne here in Tulum, he had already visited me a couple of times in Italy and in England in the past 5 years, now it's been my turn. He is actually the one who gave me the roadmap for Mexico that I'm carrying in my rucksack: realistically I don't think I will ever need it, but it's for me a symbol of the way in which everything is connected, so I keep it.

I know, or at least I have the hope that many other amazing coincidences will take place in the time ahead and this is enough for feeling excited about tomorrow.

Although tomorrow it's the last day with Mamà Rosita, and I think that somehow I will miss her continuous presence at my side in these Mexican lands full of colours, coffee and beautiful eyes.