I ran into this phrase on the Linkedin page of Jeremy Watkins while surfing online yesterday and found it interesting. He says:
"We may like to think that we've mastered perspective because we understand the concept intellectually, yet how many of us consistently allow ourselves to be fully open to new and alternative perspectives by seeing things through the eyes of others.
Sometimes a subtle change of environment is all it takes to make us realise how stuck or fixed we’ve become in our approach.
These moments began as we were escorted, in the dark, along a natural bushland track just outside of Shark Bay by our cultural guide, Capes, to a special site where he'd set up a small camp-fire.
These moments began as we were escorted, in the dark, along a natural bushland track just outside of Shark Bay by our cultural guide, Capes, to a special site where he'd set up a small camp-fire.
As Capes was explaining the story of his people and their connection to the sea and the land, he was also drawing their storyline in the sand to help us to not only hear his story, but to also see it evolve in front of our eyes.
“We are all students", he explained “and at the same time we are all teachers. I teach you and you teach me. We come together as strangers, but we leave as friends. That's how life should be.”
It was a beautiful moment and one that will stay with me as a lasting reminder to always maintain an open perspective as to how I approach life, leadership and performance.
The next day Dave and I ran the same track again. This time it was different. We were more connected to each other. More connected to the land. It was if we had come as strangers to this unfamiliar land but left better friends."
I also found the phrase very fitting, as we will be welcoming a couple from US tonight. I "met" the wife on WXC blog. Her posts moved me so I left comments there which in turn moved her, and we became good "trusted-net-friends" since then. We have a separate suite on the first floor of our house which is normally vacant in the summer months for visiting families and friends; and they have a vacation condo in a city in California. So we decided to do suite/condo exchange for one month, with them coming now and we will go there in the fall.
People come to WXC for all different reasons. I joined WXC in Feb 2023 to improve my Chinese and to find friendship (ie. "以文会友，以友辅仁"), and friendship I did find. I also met a good WXC "trusted-net-friend" and had her family in our home for dinner last year when they were on a break from their one-year travel and visiting their relative here. And I have made some close friends on WXC blog with whom we can "laugh" and "cry" together and be there to support each other whenever needed, even though we have never met. Friends in need are true friends indeed.
So it's possible and true to "come as strangers, leave as friends" online or offline, virtual world or real, and I feel the same here in APAD. 
Thanks for reading and have a good Friday (even it's not "the good Friday" ;-) !
