Elizabeth's Adventure

My Very Dear Reader,

This is a rarity. I am giving you someone else's experience and thoughts. This is an e-mail just as received two days ago... and with the permission of the sender (after just the tiniest bit of begging and hardly any groveling)... here is Elizabeth's adventure in her words.
________________________________________

John-Michael,

I just had to tell you that your "open up to strangers" worked last weekend.

I was in the mood to break my solitary tendencies and dressed up to go to the book store. Now...dressing up is not a big production, merely applying some mascara and brow pencil to recapture the eye window treatments gone south with age. [:-)]

So... with snappy music plugged into my car's cd player, I sang my way to the Borders. When I parked my car, I noticed an older gentleman waiting in the shady spot next to me. He was just sitting in his car with the windows down, and I noticed the large, fluffy, new looking steering wheel cover he was handling. It was the incongruity of the thing that struck me: Clean, classy Volvo sedan- dapper, well groomed older man and this big-woolly steering wheel.

I got out of my car and bent down just to say, " Wow...I just wanted to say that I love your steering wheel cover - it looks very comfy!" That comment elicited a 5 minute story from him. I was charmed by his words: He'd gotten it at Wall Mart, on sale, and it was REAL sheepskin. His wife's hands got sweaty in the hot weather so they thought this would keep them dryer, if not cooler too. I added that it would be nice for winter too, and then he told me alllllll about how they drive to Vancouver Island every summer to be with their son's family - how they take a different route each time up and back to see new places - how the car had been a reliable, pleasurable automobile- how he and his wife have driven all 50 states- and a few other little details. (I added little things to make it a conversation.)

I thanked him for the interesting discussion, told him that I thought his travels with his wife were inspiring and wonderful and wished him good luck on their next trip.

On another day, I probably would have just THOUGHT ...haha.. funny cover for that man/car ensemble...and left it at that, but because I ventured into that man's life for what I anticipated was just a moment, I left him feeling really good and I hope he felt a little better too.

It wasn't 5 seconds later that, as I stepped up onto the sidewalk by the cars parked in front, that I slowed down. A young girl and her mother were approaching one of the cars in a full line of parked cars. The girl stopped- looooked at her car. The manor in which she assessed her car and the neighboring cars... I assumed she was looking at some new damage done to it. I couldn't see anything amiss. Just as I was almost to her, She said to her mom, " Uh- oh." Her mother replied, kindly and with unspoken understanding of her daughter's dilemma," Would you like ME to back it out?" "No..no....it's ok, I think I can do it - just watch out for me."

HAHA>..OHhhhhhhhh so the girl was a new driver with her permit, the car had probably been there alone when she parked it and now was surrounded by Big Metal Things, and she was wondering how she'd get hers out of there.

I caught the mom's eye, gave her a smile, nod and a 'thumbs up'. She smiled, shook her head and then told her daughter, "You'll be fine, Honey, just take your time."

Two little people happenings, and it made my whole day.

Thanks for the reminders to look outside myself and take in the humans around me.

Much love and appreciation
Liz
_____________________________

With that, I bid each of you a rich and full Satuday/ Sunday. Lovingly, John-Michael