I know the earth is round and the sun rises and sets with our rotation. I picture the difference between my high sun and a sinking sun farther east every time my daughter calls from London on her way home from work and I’ve barely finished lunch. I picture the pre-dawn glow in Oregon every time I refrain from calling my sister before noon on the weekend. Time zones are an intriguing, but familiar, concept.

But that did not prevent me from being blown away last week.

While on a video call with a coaching client in Australia, the sun poked through my window and lit up the side of my face. At the exact same moment, the side of his face lit up as well. It was as if we were in the same room, facing each other, being lit by the same rays. But in reality, my sun was setting and his sun was rising. I felt like Google Earth grabbed me, zoomed me out, and there we were, almost 10,000 miles apart, both facing south, lit up by the same sun.

That illusion that we were face-to-face reminded me of all the times we are quick to assume we are in synch with another person when the reality is that their thoughts, experiences, and concerns are 10,000 miles away and rooted in an entirely different day. This is a reminder we probably can not have too often.