14 April 2011

Spaciousness

Spaciousness.  Rest.  Love.  Forgiveness.  These are the graces I ask for in my day today.

Yesterday at the train station, I found an ipad.  I looked down at my feet and there it was.  At first I thought someone must have dropped a cover but when I nudged it, it had definite heft.

I was of course, tempted, like anyone else to think maybe this was my lucky day to welcome an ipad into my life.  But when I opened it up and saw the person's name that it belonged to, I knew I needed to find a way to reunite her with it.

I emailed her and we decided to meet at the train station on my way back home.  She greeted me at the cafe with gratitude and awe and gave me a gift bag with lifesavers, two pens, and a card.  When I opened the card, she told me about how the ipad was more than just an ipad; it had been a gift given to her by a leadership development program at her work and symbolized much more.  And then she went on to praise me for my honesty and my integrity and ended by saying, you are an angel.  Along with a $50 note.

That encounter with a woman I would have never met taught me so much.  When I found that ipad, I was worried and anxious about money in particular, about scarcity and uncertainty.  And at work, I had a hard day, one of a string of hard days where praise is few and it seems like my work is constantly misunderstood.  She praised me and it felt so good to be recognized for something so simple.  It felt like the most lavish gift.  And the money--it was like a sign--that sometimes in life, we are given what we need from sources that we can never imagine.  It comes to us as gracefully and abruptly as finding an ipad by your feet.

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