You sit down at the local diner long enough to grab a bite and peruse the ads in the paper, an eye out for your next potential job. It’s not an immediate need, but you wouldn’t turn down the right opportunity. A table over, a young couple has found time to sneak in a quick meal together, talking about their plans for buying their first home. At yet another tabletop a matriarch meets with her friend to swap stories of times not so far gone. Such is the scene at local eateries both past and present.

This street dining image is visually entertaining with colorful sun-shade umbrellas lining the top and people in all states of dining, relaxing, working, and talking. It’s when you look longer that you see the true spread of lives and stories collected in one place, developing in rhythm together.

It’s easy isn’t it? To feel the weight of our own life story resting on our shoulders? To be wrapped up in the way our personal narrative is playing out, and forget about the other ones building right alongside ours? That is, until an image like this spreads out and shows it to us.

We could live our lives in solitary performances with a star of one, but the magic of being human is in our ability to connect when allowed the chance. To see pieces of someone else’s story and relate them to our own. We can imagine the older woman at one table overhearing the excited conversation of a nearby younger couple and sharing with them her own memories of such a time. A bond, no matter how temporary, formed from soul to soul.

And even when we feel that we are all alone in our journey, a scene filled with people can remind us that perhaps the connection we need to make is with someone in the seat right next to us. Many people here will eat their meal and continue on their way without a second thought, but it sure is fun to think how most of us are just one or two chairs away from someone whose story might just weave with our own.