April 8 – Sent

Mondays, I begin with good intentions. I go into the office with a mental to-do list. There are a few well-defined tasks to be done early in the week. I really like to have that structure on a Monday. But I always think these tasks will go faster and smoother than they do.

So by the time I get them completed, I feel like I’ve spent all my focus and intention for the day. I sit at my desk with a pile of papers and books, stare at my computer abstractedly, thinking that there must be something more that I need to do but too unfocused to find it.

Today, however, was an exceptional day, weather-wise, and I began the day determined to spend part of it outside – even if I didn’t have any particular purpose or direction. So out I went. Where would the Spirit send me? 

To a new coffee shop in town. There was a woman there waiting for her coffee. She told me how great this place was. She showed me all the reward points she has earned, because she goes there pretty much every day. She pointed out everything on the menu she has tried and how good it is. She needs her coffee boost this time of the afternoon, she explained. She has two kids at home, so when the workday is over, she starts the second shift, right? My kids are great, she said, I’m raising them the old school way. I knew what she meant.

I took her recommendation and ordered the Downtowner. I took my coffee outside and found a bench to sit for a while. After that, the Spirit sent me to the hospital to visit a friend who has been there longer than she expected to be. This is wearing on her, even though she is where she needs to be. In the time we visited I received the gift of her story. She shared with me how she met her husband. It reminded me of the short episodes in the movie When Harry Met Sally, where couples tell the stories of how they came together. My friend and her husband were fortunate to have many happy years together.

She also told me she reads my blog, which is nice to hear. But she needs more reading material, because the days are long in the hospital. I promised to get her some.

On my way out, I stopped in the bathroom where a young woman asked me for one dollar – she needed it for a co-pay, she said. I happened to have exactly one dollar, I already knew, in my wallet. Without hesitation, I gave it to her because the Spirit must have sent her to me.

Walking back to the church, I stopped in the Langeler Building. We have been having a problem there recently, something of a recurring nature, about which I won’t go into detail. I had been wanting to talk to some of our tenants there to see if they could shed light on the problem for me. I felt a bit like Harriet the Spy, although I’m sure Harriet would have been cleverer than I.

Driving home, I thought about these things. I am a slow learner sometimes, so today I am grateful for the word of the day – sent. It inspired me to let myself be sent out and see where I ended up. Nothing earth-shaking happened, but I had some lovely encounters, making it a much richer afternoon than it possibly could have been had I stayed at my desk.