Expect the Unexpected
Have you ever had those times when all you want to do is cry? And maybe you don’t even know why you feel that way, but you just do? (I’m asking, but I know we all have had those times.)
Well, that’s how this morning began for me. I woke up that way. I’ll call it a blue Monday and maybe it was a low after having a very busy last week. For every high, there’s got to be a low, right? Whatever it was, I was feeling down and out.
Come mid-morning, I’m at work and still feeling blue. I’m doing computer-related stuff, my surroundings are quiet, and I’m continuously telling myself (inside my head, of course) to cheer up.
And that’s when it happens.
A familiar customer comes over to the counter where my desk is situated. Familiar meaning I’ve briefly talked with him a couple of times before, and have laughed at a few of his jokes, but that’s about it.
“I’ve come to visit my author friend because the last time I was here, I didn’t see you,” he says.
I smile, despite my low mood, and we engage in a little chit-chat.
He is an older gentleman and he does enjoy being comical, but he gets serious all of a sudden and starts telling me about all of the friends he’s lost lately and he even shares some of his favorite memories of these people. He tells me how it breaks his heart to be without them and I listen. I can understand, in my own way, how it feels because I’ve lost people I love. I miss them, too.
A few minutes go by and I know I can’t talk for long with him because I have to get working again, so I rise from my chair and tell him I’ll walk back with him towards the exit. It seems like the right thing to do.
While we’re walking down a hallway, he takes my hand (after asking if he can) and says jokingly to my co-workers, “We’re going steady.” I find this funny and more like something he’d do.
We stop a few feet from the exit and I thank him for coming in. He gets serious again, and then, right before he leaves, he lightly touches my cheek in a very kind way, and looks into my eyes like he’s looking straight to my soul and says . . .
“You are beautiful.”
Wow! How can someone remain sad after hearing something like that? My bad mood is lifted, and I’m believing (and still do), that his mission this particular day, without him even realizing it, was to cheer me up.
When you least expect it, expect it. These things happen all the time. I’ve come to see that our mission in this life is for the benefit of each other and that there is a master plan—something we can never fully understand.
And, after all is said and done, it’s beautiful.
