Riding Out the Storm

Today was a gift of shared writing by Welcome Church friends. Robin taught a wonderful class on Journal Writing and Lisa wrote the following piece to share on this blog.

Riding Out the Storm

   Story by Lisa 

October 28, 2012

 

She was sitting in the train station awaiting a storm. He came in passing through. He sat down, they talked. The guard of the station said they had to evacuate. There was a school quite a distance where they could go to ride out the storm. They walked for miles. Finally, they arrived and were partnered together to sleep, eat, and pass time until the storm was over.

 

The storm ended and he left, first out of frustration of being together for three days without the freedom to roam. She left continuing on with life. Later, they joined together. They had a lot of ups and downs dealing with their own issues in life; they parted.

 

They see each other in the circle they travel but have no conversation. One day they decided to speak in the presence of others during a church function in which they first met. Thus the next day she was walking down the street and he was walking around the corner. They bumped into each other. Surprised to see each other, they both had somewhere to go. They decided to join each other and together they went ???      THE END

                                                                                             May 15, 2013

 



Finders Keepers...

Today I learned yet another important lesson from the folks attending our weekly teatime...the importance of being a finder, rather than a seeker.

Early in the day one person shared how he had taken the three dollars he had to buy a card for his mother in celebration of Mothers' Day this past Sunday. On his way to the store, my Welcome Church friend found fifteen dollars, and not all at once. With this newly found money, first a five dollar bill then a ten, he was able to purchase some cologne (Victoria's Secret!) for his mother to go along with the card.

Later in the day, as I was preparing to leave, one woman offered a pack of tokens that she had found to another woman, saying she had a pass and didn't need the tokens.

In each situation, there was wonderful generosity, but there was something else, too.

In each of the stories shared, there was a spirit of "finding" rather than one of "seeking."

A subtle difference, maybe, but one that comes with the expectation that the day will offer treasures just waiting to be found. A sort of openness to the many gifts around us rather than the more narrow view of "seeking" something specific, more for the self, not so sure if anything will be discovered.

Tomorrow I plan to be a "finder" and I invite you to do the same knowing that God has surely planted some treasures on our paths. But unlike the old saying "Finders keepers..." these treasures are meant to be shared.