The Conversations That Change Everything

Kelli
Aug 4
2 min read

❤️🇬🇧 I didn't expect Liverpool to stay with me like this.

I rode the double-decker buses 🚌, took the ferry across the Mersey ⛴️ (and yes...there was absolutely no way I was making that trip without Gerry & the Pacemakers playing in my head 😄🎶), wandered through the city, and spent hours in The Beatles Story museum.

I thought I'd come away humming the songs.

Truthfully...I still am. 😊

But somewhere between the ferry ride, the museum, dinner with my English friend Janet Baker and her family, and wandering the streets of Liverpool, I found myself thinking less about the music...

...and more about the stories.

One story, in particular, has stayed with me.

On July 6, 1957, a 16-year-old John Lennon was playing with his band, The Quarrymen, at a neighborhood church fair. After the performance, someone introduced him to a 15-year-old Paul McCartney. Paul borrowed a guitar 🎸, played a few songs, and before the afternoon was over, John invited him to join the band.

Then there was another story I'd never heard.

Paul attended the Liverpool Institute. George Harrison was a year younger and went to the same school. They got to know each other on the bus ride home because they shared a love of guitars and music. That friendship eventually led Paul to introduce George to John.

I couldn't stop thinking about that.

A church fair.

A bus ride home.

A simple introduction.

None of them knew they were living a moment that people would still be talking about nearly 70 years later.

As I rode those same buses through Liverpool, I kept thinking...

History is full of moments that almost didn't happen.

A conversation.

An introduction.

A bus ride home.

Most of us will never know which ordinary moment we're living through while it's happening.

Maybe that's why it's worth slowing down. 🌿