Everyday Interactions

I have a black lab named Henry and I meet more people walking him than I ever do on my own.

Twice a day we walk around the block and those strangers have become familiar faces.

People stop us all the time, whether they have a dog or not. Kids’ faces light up, and adults smile.

Henry takes it in stride, sniffing everything (and every person) on his path.

I find that I know the dogs’ names (and their quirky habits), before that of their owners’.
It’s in these daily patterns of walking the dog, buying a coffee, taking MUNI to a meeting, that a community begins to take shape. I don’t think we always realize, or maybe it’s that we’ve forgotten how the low-stakes interactions of everyday life, one built on top of the other, bring us closer together.

They happen in neighborhoods, but they can just as easily happen in downtown shopping areas or along commercial corridors. The places of routine that people inhabit and visit again and again: the gym, the yoga studio, a favorite restaurant, or a niche grocery store. A much-loved dog park. The places and spaces where those small interactions turn into real connections.