holding my camera out at arm's length to self document these new locations

I love very, very few things more than the feeling that I am a part of my whole race, over all the Earth; that I am experiencing things that other people are, that I am seeing things foreign to me but old to other people, etc. etc. etc. I don't really do the idea justice. And I don't think this is me saying "I love realizing how small the world is." And it's more than loving to travel. I can't say it! It's just, that I am a part of this race, and that I am not just moving in my own circle. Or if I am, my circle is large enough to span oceans. I think this is why I cry during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, when my planes take off and land, and why I love reading biographies (about people I'm interested in, anyways).

Anyways, I sometimes peruse Tumblr for kicks (I don't use it to blog or reblog things, I just like to look around) and while I was passing some time on that website this week I stumbled across a picture of four glass jars holding stained paint brushes. At first it was just a picture, but then I double-took it and with a flash of inspiration, I realized I had seen that exact same picture. It's a studio window in Montmartre, in Paris, but it's by no means a famous studio (I think). I saw it when I was lost trying to find the Sacre Coeur. I had been lost that afternoon for long enough to feel slightly exasperated and hot in my sweater, but I saw that dirty window with the dirty brushes in it, and I thought it was romantic, so I took a few pictures.

The pictures I took were all micro shots, so there's no way for me to look at the jars and prove that they are the same, but I know they are. Out of the half dozen I took, this one seemed to prove it all:

Notice the far left dented bronze tip, the pink hairs in the middle, and then the yellowing tip on the right with relatively clean hair that's dark at the base and light at the top. Now, the picture from Tumblr:

My circle covers up a bit of the left bronze tip, but regardless, those three brushes are in the exact same order. I know there are such things as coincidences, but this is too good to be one.

DO Y'ALL GRASP THIS? I was a lost American girl that day, wandering around very far from home trying to find something very big and famous that would add a pin on the map of my human experience. Some one else, I have no idea who or when or why, was also walking on that same sidewalk, and looked up at just the right angle, and liked the small thing they saw. Maybe because it was romantic. I made a connection and added a pin along with some other brother of my race, and I wasn't even trying, over the smallest of pictures! 

I wish they could see this. I want to meet them, all of a sudden. Maybe they were there before or after me, and maybe they only took this picture because they wanted it to be famous on Tumblr. But I bet they're cool. 

I made a connection. And that is a beautiful thing.