That Space Between Us

Have you ever made eye contact with a random person and, for a split second, felt something there?

It's quick, almost gone before you can name it, but you feel it.

Something passes through, and for that moment there's a connection you can't put into words.

Maybe it's nothing more than a glance.

Maybe it's a nod.

Maybe, if time grants you, it's a half-smile of acknowledgment.

Then the moment passes, and both of you continue on your way.

I've experienced those moments throughout my life.

A brief exchange where something in them meets something in me, and I recognize it without trying.

For that brief moment, my soul recognizes yours.

That's the soul, at least how I understand it.

Not something you think about.

Something you feel.

A brief exchange where something deeper reminds us we're all carrying far more than what can be seen from the outside.

At the same time, there's another part of me present.

The watcher.

A silent observer.

Like a bird on a branch, still and aware, watching everything as it happens.

Seeing what I see, but from a different place.

I can catch myself in that moment.

See my face.

My posture.

How I'm standing.

How I'm moving.

And sometimes I adjust based on what I feel inside.

That's awareness.

That's spirit.

And then there's the body.

The vessel.

The bodysuit carrying all of it.

Every mark.

Every reaction.

Every habit.

Everything I've lived through and everything I express runs through this thing.

It holds the tension.

The memories.

The patterns.

The way I show up without even realizing it.

The difference now is I can see it while it's happening.

From the outside and the inside at the same time.

I can feel the connection.

I can watch myself experiencing it.

And I can feel this body standing right in the middle of it all.

Not perfectly.

Just enough to keep me from moving through life completely asleep.

One day this body goes back, and I'll thank it for the service.

For carrying everything it carried.

For showing up every day whether I appreciated it or not.

What stays is what was moving through it the whole time.

The soul recognizing.

The spirit observing.

And the body carrying both through this life for as long as it could.

Until then, I keep paying attention.

To the people who cross my path.

To the moments that can't be explained.

And to those brief encounters, in that space between us, where for just a moment, something deeper is recognized.