The Hello Stranger Launch
I’d like to speak to the experience of the Hello Stranger Launch and the active role that the universe plays in setting our journey.
Hello Stranger was a podcast project initiated by Andrew Riis, and launched 18th June 2020. I hardly knew Andrew – we got connected by chance, and only communicated when I saw him post about finding a virtual assistant in a Sydney Startups group.
After learning of the huge overlap between Hello Stranger and the thoughts I’d had about my own podcasting with everyday people, we connected and he invited me to be part of the launch.
An AirBnB in Bondi
An airbnb apartment in Sydney’s landmark suburb of Bondi was the setting, a quirky little apartment where eight complete strangers were gathered to experience the launch together.
The Hello Stranger Launch Party
As the motto for the experience would come to be, ‘Hello Stranger… Goodbye Friend’. People from all walks of life came to stay together and connected straight away. Andrew, Kathryn, Marvin, Jordan, Georgia, Gab, Colin and I.
When you are open to experiences and people, it does not take long at all to befriend someone and form an intimate relationship with them. When you think of things that way, you realise that maybe every person you walk past is just one hello away from being a significant and meaningful friend to you.
Does that change how we look at our fellow people?
Anyone who is open and enlightened to the most basic degree sees that there is no advantage to be found in fighting, quarreling, complaining, resisting, harbouring grievances or erecting barriers between ourselves and so-called strangers.
After all, what is waiting for us on the other side of hello? Anything can happen.
The second, interrelated message of this experience is the guiding role of the universe. After seeing Andrew’s journey, how randomly it came to be that we would become connected, and how other serendipitous moments have played a part in the Hello Stranger experience so far, the role of the universe has become clear.
To borrow a thought from Jack Delosa’s book Unwritten – when we are doing things that align with who we are, the universe appears to be helping us on our way through the trials that come.
when we are doing things that align with who we are, the universe appears to be helping us on our way through the trials that come.
What an important lesson – not of completely letting go per say. No the image that comes to mind is of us captaining a boat through the storm. We cannot change the wind, but we can adjust the sails, and when we do, we will find the place we are meant to go. Thank you Hello Stranger.
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