Chance Encounters

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Today I am grateful for chance encounters.  Early yesterday morning, when I was preparing to post for the day, I caught a motion in my peripheral vision.  Turning to look out the sunroom windows, I saw a gorgeous fox wandering through my back yard.  It was a wonderful chance encounter that set the tone for the day.

I love pedicures.  I can see your eyes rolling.  She’s snapped.  Gone round the bend.  Off track as usual.  Ah, but hang in there.  You know that eventually I make a point.  Most times.  I got a five dollar coupon for my birthday from my favorite nail salon.  I made the appointment for eleven o’clock because I’m retired now and I can.  Hah! Also, it gave me an opportunity to finish at the pool, grab flip-flops and polish and get there on time.

I don’t like to listen to loud music, chat a lot, or smell that disgusting nail builder lotion when I get a pedicure.  This place is perfect.  Easy music, no stink.  I put the vibrating chair on and slip into my happy place.  There were two young women and one older women (probably a little older than me) in chairs down the way.  No one was talking loudly.  I was experiencing nirvana.

“I think people should just leave other people alone,” the kind, older woman said, out of nowwhere.  “You really don’t know what someone has been through or what their life is, so you should shut up and not judge.”   I opened my eyes.  Looked at her.  Really looked at her.

“I think that is the smartest advice I’ve heard in a very, very long time,” I said to her.  The other two women agreed and we all went back to our zone, while the kind woman headed over to get a manicure.

Later, when I was at the drying table and had been pounded, lotioned and polished to a fair-thee-well, the kind woman sat across from me at the other end.  A little girl, who had her nails polished, was paging through a wedding magazine.

“Are you getting married?” the kind woman asked, with a twinkle in her eyes.  “If you’re getting married I’ll plan the wedding for you.” The little girl just looked at her.  To me the kind woman said, “I used to be a wedding planner.”

“You did?  How wonderful.  What fun and a lot of work.”  I told her how I had been Frahnk (from the movie Father of the Bride) for a few weddings and how much fun and work it was.  She told me that she worked at it for ten years at the Union Hall in Philadelphia.  She said you had to know people who know people to even be able to work there and that she knew people.  Then she laughed, like a pleasant wind-chime in a soft breeze.  I told her that was one of my favorite buildings in the world but that I had never been inside, but that someday I hoped to.  I asked if she lived in Philly, but she never has.  Too crowded and hectic.

She said she retired at 72 and asked what I did.  I told her I was also retired, hesitated a bit because I’m just not used to saying it out loud, then said, “I’m a writer.  I’ve been writing a blog for almost a year.”  She asked what it was about so I told her about my gratitude posts.  She sat taller, looked right in my eyes and said, “That is just wonderful!”

I told her the name of it and in which newspapers she could find it.  Then, and this was way more difficult than anyone who knows me could imagine. . .I asked if she wanted one of the sort-of cards I made out with access information.  She very much did.  Touching it carefully, because no one wants to ruin a new polish job, she said, “I can’t wait to check this out.”  She meant it.  I could tell.

She was in and out of my world almost as fast as the fox that had loped through my yard at dawn.  My encounter with her at the nail drier, was less than five minutes long, yet it profoundly affected me.  She had an aura. . . and I had the feeling that I had been gifted with someone very special.  I am grateful for both chance encounters. . .especially this one. Bing!  Heartprint!