Chapter 3- Does time knowing someone influence what you can learn from them?

I was just sitting here thinking. There are many times when you run into someone--maybe at the grocery store, at the gas station or possibly at work or school--and you wonder why they came into your life at that precise moment. That led me to ponder--does the amount of time you know someone influence how much you can learn from them?
In Chapter 3 of my book "Sensitivity 101 for the Heterosexual Male" I introduce you to "Julie" a friend of mine from fourth grade. She had moved from Wyoming to our little town and no one seemed to accept her. After a week of questioning myself, I finally approached her and we became friends. Lucky I did...I learned number 4 of my lessons from her. She taught me to "see the difference in everyone and celebrate it." Julie was only in my life for a few months, but without her I would have never learned that special lesson that I use all the time, even 40 years later. I wonder, how often does that happen to you?
This same basic incident happened just last month to me again. I met a young girl who had just graduated from college and majored in marketing. I met her in a coffeeshop as I was re-writing another one of my manuscripts. She asked to read my book and then decided that she wanted me to be her first client. Without her and her expertise, my book would just be sitting on Amazon getting no playing time...she has helped already with generating a buzz here locally. She is using ideas I never would have thought of. All just by meeting someone in a coffeeshop and starting a conversation. How many of you would have just pushed her aside?
So again I ask, like I do many times in my book, is someone or sonething else running our lives...are we just playing out parts in someone else's manuscript of life? Why do these people continue to "pop up" in our lives and just how many of us really listen to these strangers that come to us from elsewhere?
Listen, I don't know about you, but I look for these special people to enter my life and I thank God everytime one of them does. The time I know someone means nothing to what they can  teach me. Keep your eyes and ears open for those that are sent to help you. They're all around...do you know how to spot them?

Till next week,

Phil