Have you ever been somewhere, a party, a classroom, work just anywhere and you are standing by yourself then all of a sudden someone just comes and casually starts a conversation with you? Back in the day when I didn't have a car my mode was public transportation. I would always be waiting for the transit in the 'hub'. While just standing there minding my own business someone would casually walk up beside me and just start talking. Talking about their life - not about the bus they were waiting on, if any. I never would encourage the conversation along by nodding in agreement or saying um hum, nope, nada only until I got on my bus was I freed. It was always someone, at least my impression, on their way to work as well. Maybe there was a lesson that I was suppose to learn but I must have missed it because I can be walking to my car with my cart and someone will be right beside me and until we go our different ways I hear some portion of their life. Has that ever happened to you? What do you do?
One of the strangest experiences I have had with people is that many times while in a store people will come up to me like I work there and ask for help. I guess I must just fit the generic prototype of a shopping clerk. I will help people if I can and perhaps thats what they pick up on. I have never been to sure why, but this has happened ever since I was a very young woman. I also get people that want to strike up a conversation and tell me all sorts of things, usually it is older people or children. Children especially fascinate me because they tend to be quite candid and always seem to trust me. One time I had this kid ringing my door bell and I came out and he tells me he has this baby squirrel in a box and he is wondering if I could call someone to help him save it. In fact now that I think about that I have actually had a few instances where people wanted me to help them save something, either a creature or in more then one case themselves. Perhaps there is something motherly about my vibration? It also seems to me that people tend to ask me very honest questions about things they are experiencing. I recently had a man confide in me out of the blue that he wanted to give notice at work and wondered what I thought. I don't know him but I listened anyway. You get used to people asking you in stores if something like a blouse looks nice to you, but I never really got used to people that will tell me in detail the things they were planning to do. Twice I have had someone tell me they were going to die and they did. I have had many bizarre conversations with strangers. The best was a young man in the 80's that actually whipped out a ring he had bought for a woman he wanted to ask to marry him (it wasn't me but the ring was gorgeous) he told me all about all his thoughts and fears. I always wondered if she had said yes.
I ws walking along a busy street in town one day when a man walked up to me and asked me if I knew that women were the biggest cause of trouble in this world. I told him that he was not the first man to think that and walked on. I think it is the same man who has approached me on other occasions complaining about immigrants and making racist remarks. I just move away as quickly as I can when this happens. In the years when I was working in book stores I became used to people coming up to me and start telling me all about their life. I would never think of going up to someone I don't know to talk about myself, but usually I don't mind when people start talking to me about their life experiences.
My friend asked my several times how come he could leave me some where to wait on him while he ran an errand and when he got back I was deep in conversation with someone like I had known them all my life. I told him I guess I have that face that people are comfortable with and they start to talk to me.
If we all get one gift from God, I guess mine is that people seem to be drawn to me and vice versa. I seem to meet somebody new almost everyday and some do become friends and some are in and out of my life in 30 minutes or so. Perhaps I am just a non stop chatterbox! But the people that I stay with must be positive or they may bring me down and I don't allow that! If they have a sad experience and want to tell me about it, that is fine, but if they expect me to take a dim view on life, NO WAY!
I don't generally get a lot of total strangers doing it, but people don't seem to need to really know me before they start telling me their life story. Confessing, even. I guess I look like I have a sign on my forehead that either says "Good Sounding Board" or "I Won't Judge". I don't mind, though. I've definitely heard some interesting things; and even if it's not so interesting I don't mind listening if it makes someone feel better.
I guess I'm still waiting on that one gift from God. No one talks to me or want to so I'm either extremely lucky or a natural loner.
I seem to draw to myself people that can chat a lot and tell me a lot about themselves. This is great, because those are my favorite people, and because I love to tell all sorts of stories to people. I also love listening to good stories, even if they are fabricated or not.
Funny thing is that though people tend to open up to me I really am a sort of natural loner. My husband calls me antisocial and says the same of himself, but really I think we're just more introverted than most. Not exactly antisocial. Just quiet and tend not to like being in large groups as well as having the ability to be perfectly contented alone. I never feel alone, though, so I guess that's part of it.
I don't get out in public much anymore as I am a self-styled hermit, but when I do I usually attract bus-loads of wild-eyed fanatics that babble about alien invasions, chem-trail tracking and their Uncle Herbert who was locked away in an asylum 20 years ago. In other words, my kind of people.
@Sifu Phil Bonifonte, we keep running into each other it seems. Yvonne gave me the heads up, so I thought I would give you a bit of welcome. I've been wondering what you might be up to. So how is the pirating these days? Again welcome
@Sifu Phil Bonifonte, I had heard that you were ill, so it is good to hear you haven't lost the sharpness to your 'pyratin' sword. That wit of your's is an interesting part of your personality. Me? I'm starting to get a handle on my life again. In 63 years I have never been single, or without dependants, so of course I am finding it takes a totally different way of thinking and viewing this world. I've decided to sell everything, move up to the Sam Houston National Forrest, and see what kind of a life I can build for myself.