getting knocked out of the daily routine...

[granfire]

So here I am...after getting stuck by the cactus I purchased a couple of times, deep in thought about the general state of things, namely the assorted jerks and dorks that cross out paths on a daily basis. I am trying to asses the best way to load the truck so the doughnuts won't be squished...

When I am being called out to:
Voice: "Hello, Ma'am"
me (looking around in bewilderment): Huh? (I am sure I looked intelligent enough to pass for human...)
Voice - actually a lady getting into her car across from mine:"Jesus loves you"
Me (still not looking any smarter): Huh?
Lady: "Jesus loves you"
Me: Oh, thank you (somehow avoiding the sarcastic comeback always somewhere in the back of my mind, you know, like 'I know he does, but I am sure a bunch of people think I am an a-hole')
Lady (as she gets in the car): Have a Happy (or was it blessed?) Easter
Me (still puzzled): Thank you, same to you

As she pulls out of the parking lot, I turn around and stab a splinter from the Easter basket in the ring finger of my right hand, unsuccessfully trying to pull it out...

So now I am pondering.

The odd interruption of my daily rut.

 

[Flea]

In the nightmare summer of1992 I had a big blowout fight with my live-in boyfriend and stomped out to pound pavement that never should have been pounded by an unaccompanied young lady at that hour. Some big dude was headed the opposite direction toward me on the sidewalk. He took one glance at me and blurted ...

"Smile, it could be worse."
Religious context notwithstanding she gave you a gift. In mybusiness we call it compassionate distraction. Pass it on.

 

[granfire]

Yes, while not religious in that manner, I do consider myself spiritual.
There is always a reason for the odd encounter. Sometimes we don't know (or won't find out until much later)

A friend of mine had a somewhat erie encounter of this kind.
She was sick with the flu and I had taken her to the doctor (that's another story though, dealing with the offices that handle the state paid cases...) and then to the store to get some essentials to hold her over until she could drive herself again (I kid you not, she looked rough) So as she cruised around in the electric buggie and I dart around collecting her stuff A lady approached her, requesting to pray for her.

now, my friend has been burned by the organized religion, mind you, but too weak to fight it she let it happen.
Later she wrote about it in her column she writes for a weekly publication (the free stuff you overlook most of the time). How it was though she didn't see it at the time the exact thing she had been asking in her own way of praying.

Sometimes we are a little stubborn to see the little blessing off the bat.

 

[Flea]

In 2003 I was very much your archetypal Stranger In A Strange Land. I had outfitted my pickup truck as a micro-mini RV and I was driving the Rt. 66 circuit. I was having a ball, except that a tiny case of the sniffles I left home with had really taken over my life. I had terrible insomnia to the point that I had barely slept for more than a week. Thanks to that I also had a fever, a gruesome cough, and all the other things that go along with feeling like death warmed over.

The AAA travel guide pointed to a nice state park near Branson MO but I couldn't find it. I did, however, luck into the local Salvation Army parking lot late one night. I'll never forget lurching into their office the following morning apologizing for sleeping in my truck in their lot without permission. I could barely complete my sentence before they handed me a plate overflowing with stew, cornbread, jello salad, fruit salad, macaroni salad, and a PBJ. Coffee? Fruit punch? Milk? Don't mind if I do.

I stayed there for three days. It wasn't a shelter, but they pointed me to the nearest pharmacy where I invested in an OTC sleeping pill. And to the YMCA where I indulged in several endless blazing hot showers. The steam worked wonders for my cough. Between the sleeping pills, the Y, and all the food, I slept for three days straight. I felt a phenomenal sense of relief at giving in when I had no choice, and being nurtured by strangers when I hadn't even asked.

On my second day there, a kitchen volunteer asked permission to pray for me, and I said yes. I was raised Mainline Protestant, so to me that meant a quiet mutter several hours later at bedtime. Imagine my surprise when she immediately smothered me in her ample embrace and shouted "Lord Jesus we pray for Flea's recovery so she may travel to California, and we REBUKE these cold demons from her body!!" Several other hands were laid on me in the process and I turned as many different shades of crimson. I'm just not used to that kind of emotional display when it comes to God. She sensed my discomfort and backed off, but said that that's how we do it here in Missouri, honey!

Maybe that's why I made such a quick recovery. Who knows? Either way it was a sincere gift of love and compassion and I'm grateful enough to write about it eight years later. At the time I insisted on paying them back with some volunteer hours, so they manufactured a task for me. I straightened a few stacks of cans in the kitchen closet and went back to sleep for several more hours. When I got home I sent them a check with a thank you note. When I told my parents the story they did the same.

Love and concern are a universal language, even if they're expressed in very different ways from one circle to the next. I've made a point of trying to see past my own biases to see these gestures for what they are. I don't always succeed, but I'm getting better.

 

[granfire]

They probably shocked those Eastern cold demons out of you!

Does a soul good to know that there are still good people to be found!