My Happiness Project blueprint suggests that I talk to strangers more.  You never know where it might go…..but to do it well, one has to engage the stranger in a way that starts a dialogue and then enables you to sit tight, observe and enjoy.

This morning Abby and I made a trip to the post office downtown and afterwards we decided to stop nearby at the Commune Community Coffee Shop for some dark roast ice coffee and a blueberry muffin.

Seating was tight but for the comfy leather chairs in the right side window area.  We sat down and exchanged greetings with what proved to be an interesting woman named Susan, wearing a long red summer dress, wide brim straw hat and sandals.

I’d noticed her in the same spot many times before and wondered why she or anyone would spend the day plopped down in a coffee shop…guessing she might not have an internet connection at home.. But, isn’t it a good assumption that everyone on the planet has internet access?

Although she looked ready for business, laptop open, phone plugged in and charging my guess was that she was more whiling away her day leisurely looking busy.  Anyone wearing a wide brim straw hat inside on a sunny day to me is more about leisure than labor.

Making ourselves comfortable, I cut the muffin in half and then cut one of the halves into quarters.  Before I could quarter the other half Susan said “the muffins here are excellent …  to which I asked..Oh would you like a piece?  She paused…looked at me, smiled and said “why yes, I’d love some, why not”?

I lifted the plate for her to choose a slice.  She started to choose one of the quarters ….hesitated ….then reached over the two quartered sections and snatched the whole half of the muffin.

Abby and I were both left smiling  ….what an interestingly unexpected move she made, one as skilled as any play I’d ever seen dealt in Three Card Monty.  Without skipping a beat Susan proceeded to hijack the conversation…she literally did all the talking as we listened to her life as an artist/photographer/art studio proprietor/ friend of a friend of Mick Jagger….

Abby and I sipped ice coffee and nibbled on our 1/4 segments of blueberry muffin …like parents playing tea party.  I think I even lifted my pinky as I munched on my muffin sliver.

Meeting Susan proved to be the highlight of our morning.  We laughed about our encounter with this fascinatingly wonderful stranger all the way home.  She was interest, funny, and entertained us with stories of her very colorful life experiences.  She gave us what I consider three dozen muffins worth of fun in our very short interaction.  We laughed, dined and sipped together whiling away the hour…

As Happiness blueprint items go Talk More to Strangers is a good one.  It’s full of surprises depending on who you meet.  As we said our good bye’s…I thought about what had transpired during this process;  My takeaway from talking with Susan the Stranger was:  In life it’s not so much the size of the muffin a person takes that counts….. it’s the crumbs they leave you with that brings happiness.