In an instant, life can change and we can lose everything: our health, our jobs, or the people we love. But, on this rainy afternoon in Costa Rica, I can’t help but think about how much we can gain in an instant too.

Did you ever see the 1998 Gwenyth Paltrow movie where her character gets fired from her job and we get to watch her parallel lives unfold, based on whether she made it into the tube before the sliding doors closed?

Have you had any sliding door moments in your life? Moments where you now think, “what if I had never decided to go to that particular restaurant on that particular night and I never met my husband or wife? Imagine how different my life would be.”

If you have recently reinvented yourself, maybe you can relate to how movie-like it feels to have a life so different that you can’t remember what it felt like to live your former one. A life where you look back in wonder at all of the little decisions, people, and “random” events leading to this exact moment.

Over the last 18 months, I’ve stopped believing in coincidence. The universe has served up such powerful moments of synchronicity, I can’t possibly subscribe to the randomness of it all.

When I arrived in Costa Rica, just over a week ago, I felt heavy with travel exhaustion and had to dig through my energy reserves to find my put one foot in front of the other mentality. I figured after the connections I had made and the unforgettable experiences I’d had around the world, Costa Rica couldn’t possibly live up to the past 5 months. Although I felt grateful to experience a GVI Program, a piece of me wanted to fast forward through it, so I could get back to North America and unpack my bags for longer than 10 days.

But, in a perfectly executed drop-kick from the universe, I met someone incredible. Over the course of only one week, we formed such a soul to soul bond, I can’t imagine my life without her friendship in it.  If you read, Meeting The One, you know about my philosophy when it comes to this notion and how I believe each of us can experience multiple connections that change us forever.

For a single, homeless, global drifter in my early 30s who has an ongoing love affair with the people and places of Africa, a passionate belief that we are all connected, and plans to keep dreaming big hairy audacious dreams, it can sometimes feel a little lonely out here on the road. So, to meet someone who uses the same lens to view the world, who also has a dream of adopting a child from Africa, and who builds community and connection where-ever she goes felt an awful lot like coming home for me.

On Sunday, we both bawled like babies before she boarded her bus, but I feel so damn grateful my Adventure of Hope brought me to Costa Rica in time to meet her. If I had started my GVI Project on June 16th (the original plan), our paths would have never crossed. Now, I know I will see her again and am already scheming about how to get to South Sudan where she will be building programs to quite literally revolutionize lives in the name of peace.

When I packed my bags over 5 months ago, I could not have imagined I would meet so many soul sisters, but I believe that each and every one of you had a lesson to teach me and I am so grateful I stepped through my fears and listened to my intuition about each country I felt compelled to visit. Every stop on the journey brought us together at the perfect time and even though the goodbyes leave pieces of my soul scattered across the continents, I will carry each of you in my heart forever.

Now, it’s your turn to share (if you want to). Are you standing outside your own sliding door, biting your bottom lip and digging for the courage to step through? If you are, I promise you the powerful connections waiting on the other side make the first terrifying step 100% worth it.