In All Things

A facebook friend of mine - more of an acquaintance, someone I know and like and respect from the Seattle theatre world but with whom I have probably never had a one-on-one conversation - threw this prompt on my wall after I commented on her fb Status:

Hi. Tell me something amazing - something inspiring that I won't believe at first. Go.

So I wrote about something that happened to me last week.

Last Monday I was having a really hard time making a decision about something in my life and was edging into dangerously woe-is-me territory around the whole thing. After going out to get quarters so I could do laundry, I entered my apartment building at the same time as a short, wiry African-American woman who appeared to be in her 80s. She wore a black turban on her head, a jacket, and pants. Walked with a cane. I opened and held the door for her. She thanked me. Then she said something else I didn't hear but kinda pretended to. The lady knew I was bluffing though and as we rode the elevator up, she explained, "A lot of people go out and don't get back home again. So I thank god every time I get back home." "That's true," I said. "That's a good thing to do."

I could feel my own self-pity falling away - and a bit of shame creeping in where it had been. Then she said, "God said, 'In all things give thanks'. Not just the good things. You have to thank him for the bad things too. The hard things." "You're right," I said, my shame giving way to wondering: How?

"There is blessing in the bad things too," she said. "I know. I proved it today." We hit her floor and she left before I could ask. 

I kept her words in my mind all day. Yeah ok, so she calls God "him," and she's probably a Bible-believing Christian at a church whose doctrines I deeply oppose. But in those moments, she shook me like Buddha: a sharp sliver of awareness that pricked me awake.

All day I washed, dried, folded, and hauled, thinking of my elevator guide and her words.

Later that night I made a decision. Not an easy one, but the best one. And thanked God for the problem. For the trouble it took.

I've been in a state of joy ever since.

She responded:

immediate tears. and understanding. and relevance. and, and, and... Wesley - would i even recognize you if i saw you on the street?? would it matter? thank you thank you thank you.

Of course I had to thank her because she had given me a huge gift: a nudge/reason to write the story that had been swirling around my mind for days.

Here's to those moments of beauty and connection that emerge when and where we may least expect them.