This is what made me happy today.

This morning I went to the fitness center for my morning run and about halfway through I got a side cramp. It was sudden and sharp, and I had to stop. I left my iPod on the treadmill, then got off and sat down for a minute (and took off my shoes, but that's another blog post for another day), and then got back on the treadmill. The guy on the machine at my right turned and asked, "Are you okay?" He gestured at the iPod that I'd left sitting on the treadmill. "That's unlike you."

I told him I was fine, that I'd gotten a cramp but hopefully it was gone now, and I went back to my run and ran the second half faster and better and more enthusiastically than the first. It may have partly been my bare feet (I swear I run better when I take my shoes off), and it may be that I'd taken a breather. But honestly, I think most of it came from the uplift of having someone notice me.

This guy is one of a couple regulars. He's an Indian man, maybe in his early 40s, and we have been on friendly terms since before the break when I showed up at the gym about an hour earlier than usual.

"You're early today," he said to me when I saw him at the door as he was coming in and I was going out.

"I'm flying out to California this morning," I told him, "so I had to get an earlier start." And he wished me happy travels and I wished him happy holidays. We had been frequenting the gym at about the same time for a month or two by that point, and it felt good to acknowledge each other. My first time back to the gym after my trip, he smiled at me and said, "You're back from California!" and it made me happy that he remembered.

I don't know his name. We don't really exchange any more than a smile and a hello, and we probably never will, but every time we do I feel my mood lighten.

I just wrote a long blog post on Sunday about the people in my life and the shared moments that are so significant to me, but I didn't really talk about the people who are there for just a moment, and only a moment. They may be only at the periphery of my life, but brief interactions with people I barely know can brighten an hour, or even a day. I think of the guy at the fitness center, or the self-scan attendant at Kroger who I always hope is on duty because she is so genuinely friendly and cheerful, or the woman I talked to in line at Universal Studios last week who I will never see again, or the crossing guard who used to work on the corner by my old apartment and always seemed happy to see me, or the salesperson at the outdoors store downtown who chatted it up with me about barefoot running the other day, or the older man with the dog who would call out a hello from all the way across the street if I passed him running in the morning.

I love the almost-strangers in my life. We are not in this world alone.