Sometimes the most amazing things happen during a workshop that I just have to pull up my journal and write it down.
We were making Paper Everlasting Daisies at King’s Park Festival when three ladies, complete strangers, sat down together and started chatting. Swept up in running the class, I didn’t catch much of their conversations till right at the end.
Having made their beautiful paper flowers, they came over and indicated wanting to book another workshop to learn more flower-making techniques.
Everything up to this point was pretty normal so far, but what happened next took me by surprise.
They began comparing dates in their calendars, looking for a time to attend together!
“Wait… did you ladies know each other before you got here?” I asked, confused.
“No, we just met!” they replied, before exchanging Facebook details and booking their next creative catch-up!
I couldn’t believe that these three ladies, who were strangers just an hour before, had found such a connection that they wanted to make sure they had their next catch-up sorted!
One of them even wrote a review that shed more light on what that experience was like for her:
I so admire when people take that really brave step. I’m even more impressed when they strike up a conversation and show kindness to the strangers they’re seated with to make that new experience a little less scary.
Something incredible happens when we take that risk to sit across the table from a bunch of strangers with nothing between us but crepe paper, glue and scissors. Funnily enough, that was exactly what got me through meeting my in-laws for the first time, making some of my best friends, and even how I got my first corporate job (a story for next time)!
We were made for community and there’s nothing like Art to cross cultural barriers and be a bridge when our words fail.
So go ahead! Take that step, do that thing you’ve always wanted to do but have always been too afraid of.
You never know, you might just end up sitting next to your new best friend!
