EPISODE 112: “The Strangers Who Become Family” Podcast By cover art

EPISODE 112: “The Strangers Who Become Family”

EPISODE 112: “The Strangers Who Become Family”

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 Welcome back to Infinite Threads.I’m your host, Bob — and today I want to share a story that keeps unfolding in my life.Not one single story… but a pattern.A beautiful one.It’s about how strangers — people we’ve never met in person, never shaken hands with — can become something far more meaningful than we ever expected.They can become family.We live in a time where we’re told to be cautious of people we don’t know.We’re told to stick with our own kind.But love doesn’t listen to those instructions.Love… finds its own way.It travels through letters.Through email replies.Through Substack comments.Through quiet, thoughtful messages at just the right time.Some of the most powerful relationships in my life right now… began with words.Not handshakes. Not face-to-face moments.Just words — spoken from the heart.I want to tell you about a few people.One is a dear friend I met through Writer’s Corner, on Substack.She’s 87 years old, originally from Sweden, now living in Canada.She has this gentleness in her words — this incredible mix of strength and softness — and when she writes to me, I feel like I’m hearing from a guardian angel who walks in shoes made of stories.She found my work… and instead of just reading, she stayed.She encouraged. She reflected. She shared her own soul.She became someone I care deeply about.Someone I’ve never hugged, but whose words have hugged me many times.Then there’s Pepper Miller.He’s 80, living in Greenville, South Carolina.The kind of man who makes you feel like you’ve known him your whole life just by the way he says your name.He has this warmth — this genuine curiosity about the world, about people — and he’s shown me, again and again, what quiet support looks like.And then there’s Howie Fox —The wit behind The Joke’s On You.He brings joy.Real joy.The kind that doesn’t just distract you from your pain, but helps you carry it a little lighter.His laughter has often come right when I needed it most.Not just as a joke, but as a lifeline.These three… they are not anomalies.They are reminders.Reminders that love doesn’t require proximity.Only sincerity.And they — along with many of you — are proof that family isn’t always born.Sometimes it’s written.Typed.Spoken across time zones.And still felt just as deeply.Some people might look at a podcast and say,“Well, it’s just a guy talking.”But I know better.Because every time I sit down to write or record, I think about you.About the ones who are listening from far-off places.About the ones who don’t comment, but feel it in their chest.About the ones who do reach out — with courage and kindness — and offer me a piece of themselves.You are not just listeners.You’re not just followers.You’re family.I want to expand this idea beyond me.Have you ever welcomed someone into your life that you didn’t expect to?Someone who showed up at the right moment — not through bloodline or marriage, but through life’s strange grace?Maybe it was someone who needed a place to stay.Maybe it was a refugee.A foster kid.A lonely coworker.A neighbor you barely spoke to, until one day they knocked… and something inside you said, "Yes. Let them in."These moments — they are sacred.Because they show us that love is still willing to cross borders.That it doesn’t need permission to open doors.It only needs your heart to say yes.I’ve had people write to me from all over the world.And I can tell when it’s not just a comment… but a connection.When someone says,"Your words reached into something I didn’t know was still hurting."Or,"I cried in my car listening to your episode. I felt seen."And I want to say this back to all of you:I see you too.Even if we’ve never met.Even if we never will.Because love doesn’t require a shared zip code.It only requires willingness.Willingness to care.There’s a saying that blood is thicker than water.But I think that saying has a part we’ve forgotten.The original version was:"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."Meaning — the people you choose — the ones you *bind yourself to by choice and love and experience — those relationships are just as deep, if not deeper, than the ones you were born into.And I believe that.Because I’ve lived it.Because I’m living it.Right now.With my friend from Sweden.With Pepper.With Howie.With you.Let me ask you something today:Who has become family to you?Who snuck up on your heart and made a home there?And maybe even more important —Who are you becoming family to?Because love works both ways.It doesn’t just find us.It invites us to become someone else’s safe place.Someone else’s soft landing.Someone else’s “You can stay.”I hope today’s episode stays with you.I hope it makes you pause before you scroll past the next stranger.Because that person might just be your next great love story.Not romantic — but redemptive.Not expected — but ...
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