Today I’m thinking about what a small, wonderful world we have. Ray and I were in Butte, Montana most of the week to visit the places where he lived many years ago. He left in the mid 1960s when the copper mines closed and there was no work – that’s another story. But on the way home we stopped to visit Laura, a good friend in Missoula. At a local restaurant we ran into Gordon and Linda, friends from Spokane. It was a delightful surprise!

I was thinking about our “small world,” and it reminded me of a favorite story. More than twenty years ago a colleague from the literacy world, Taylor Willingham, was doing some community work and conducting workshops in Russia for the Kettering Foundation. She told me that during a break in one of her workshops, a woman approached her and asked, “Do you know Cathay Reta?”

Now what are the chances of that!!  This woman had toured U.S. library programs with a group of international librarians a few years prior. U.S. State Department staff escorted almost a dozen of them to visit American libraries. Somehow, they chose to visit the City of Commerce Public Library in California to learn about how we provide adult literacy services. I was the literacy coordinator and presented a program about what we do, and I gave each of them my business card. It amazes me that she would hold on to that card and then even think to ask Taylor if she knew me.

That’s really given me a sense of how small the world is and how easily we connect. We never know how we might influence someone or say something that stays with them. Our words can travel all around the world without us even knowing it. I think it’s a good thing to keep in mind. We all are connected and you never know where your name will be mentioned.

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Meanwhile, I hope you’ll connect my name with the revised edition of Keep Walking, Your Heart Will Catch Up. I invite you to my book launch/birthday party on August 5 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. To attend, please register on this link:  Cathay’s book launch & birthday party