Today I met an angel.

This morning I was late for work because I spent two minutes with an angel. A few posts ago you might remember me talking about rushing past people and thinking ”What if that was an angle?”.

Today, I left the house a bit unhappy. Partly because I have to apologize for being selfish. Something I don’t relish doing. Especially to someone who tends to be pretty selfish most of the time. I was sad the same old dream was crushed again by circumstance and my in inability to just do what I want to do. As I drove to work I talked to God. I do this a lot. In the quiet moments of my day. I have a very short drive to work so this wasn’t a long conversation. I was so immersed in my thoughts, so early on that I turned left instead of right. This doesn’t take me in the wrong direction, just away from the Starbucks I would normally head to. My wrong turn led me to a rarely visited coffee house. Though closer to work, it’s usually too busy so I just choose not to go there. As I walk in, an older man asked me for change for some coffee. In my normal, shamefully 2nd nature, LA way, I apologized and said I didn’t have any. In truth I did. I had a $20 bill and a couple of ones. The second it came out of my mouth I was embarrassed and ashamed. I decided I would buy my coffee with the $20 then take him $5. As I turned to walk out of the building I ran into my sister in law J. I never run into her anywhere. She doesn’t live in the same town, or work anywhere near this Starbucks. At first I was pleased to see her, she always seems to cheer me. But in my head I was afraid this man would disappear before I had the chance to do the right thing. As we left, I quickly turned to where the man had been. I was so relieved to see he was still standing there. I quickly walked to him and gave him the $5.

He thanked me. He almost cried. I almost cried. He just started to talk to me. His wife of cancer. They had been married for 45 years. He was 68 and embarrassed, shamed to be asking for money. He used to have a great job, but when he lost his wife he had a nervous breakdown. Here he was on a Thursday morning walking to work because his truck brown down and he doesn’t have money to tow it home. “Tomorrow’s pay day” he said. But there was no hope there. He talked of not wanting to get up in the morning. I smiled, to offer what encouragement I could. I told him you have to get up everyday. You have to find one thing worth doing it for. It took all of my will to not cry for this kind man. I wanted to hug him. But there is still enough of the LA in me that I knew that wouldn’t. We each said “God bless you” in parting.

This was an Angel in passing. What have I got to be so sad about?! I have so much to be thankful for. This morning I asked God for direction and he gave it to me.