The sweet fruit of connecting with strangers

I’d had one of those mornings full of minor annoyances that, if left unchecked, can turn into a whirlwind of ohmygodIhatethisdayandeveryoneinit.  Those days happen to me a lot, and I could already tell I’d be in for a pisser.  But I dropped off my husband, threw a letter in the mail, checked out a library book, and headed to the farmer’s market for some last-minute groceries.

I breezed my way down the long ramp to the lower level to find my favourite lettuce vendor (yes, those exist) and dis...