Connections...

How is it that we form the connections that we do with the people that we do? Is it just chemistry? Is it similar personality traits? Can we make a connection happen or must it happen on its own? I'm not sure what the answers are, but it's certainly a mystery to me.

I spent a few hours at Sarah's earlier this week with Sarah and all three of her kids. I don't get to see her oldest Jones that much lately, but up until the twinklets came along I spent a good bit of time with him. He's now 18 months old and has lots of relatives in his life doting over him and I figure that I'm one of the many adults in his life. Imagine my surprise the other day when Sarah said that Jones was looking all over for me when he got up from his nap. I explained my surprise to Sarah by telling her I figured that I was just one of many adults in the crowd, and she corrected me by saying that he can and does differentiate from the people that he feels connected to and he is drawn to me. Hmmm, interesting. There's certainly no doubt that I love him, but so do the others in his life.

Sarah will be bringing the twinklets to work tomorrow. I'm starting to see the differences in Malone's and Ripley's personalities. Malone is very mellow and Ripley is a bit high maintenance. On paper one would be drawn to the more mellow Malone, but I have to admit that I am drawn to Ripley. Or as I call her, Pipper. And she is a pip! I certainly love both girls, but right now I'm especially drawn to Ripley. And I'm not really sure why.

What draws us to some and not to others? I've met people that on paper would seem that we should be great friends, yet in reality feel no connection whatsoever.

Even animals do it. One of our cats is definitely Erik's cat which for a cat to be connected to a person let alone one particular person is amazing. Whiskers absolutely adores Erik and quite literally follows him around like a puppy. His room has become her room. We now have a third dog because of this mysterious connection thing. Sam was rescued by my sister and lived with her for several months while she tried to find him a home. He's a young dog and a bit on the rambunctious side, so finding him a home was difficult. Nickolas spends a lot of time at my sister's and whenever he visited he and Sam were drawn to each other. Sam would be so excited when Nickolas arrived and Nickolas felt the same way. Finally after several months of this Nickolas asked if we could keep Sam on a trial basis. Guess what? We have a new member of the family. That dog adores Nickolas and the feeling is mutual. He even sleeps in Nickolas' room and when Nickolas goes out, he sits by the window watching and waiting for his boy. I guess connection knows no bounds.

Connecting with another soul. It's quite an amazing mystery to me.