Alan Watts called the universe a ‘peopling’ universe.
What he meant by that was that each one of us, running around as individuals, doing whatever it is that we each decide to do with our lives; go to school, get a job, get married, join the army, become a pirate … whatever …
… whatever we each decide to do with our life is just one possible form, one expression of the universe (from which we come) experiencing itself (in exactly the way that it needs to, through you or I, right now).
If that’s true then nothing on your path of life is accidental or random; it’s a choice (on one level or another).
Similarly, when we cross paths with each other midstream, that’s no accident either. And that may be just as true for both the people you know most intimately, as well as those who seem to be strangers.
I find this to be uplifting, inspiring, and profound.
This is not to say that every interaction can be explored to the depths of its root connection; we don’t have the capacity for that.
But we do for some.