The message on the wall is partially obscured by the spring bloom.
A
somewhat delicate appearing and hesitant young man sat next to me
yesterday on a MUNI bus. He had objects in his left hand. He took one
in the very thin fingers of his right hand and said something I could
not hear. He held a brilliant blue bead and repeated so very softly,
“bead”.
Stupidly,
I said no. I did not ask him about them or even acknowledge that he
was offering me a gift. When a seat opened near the front of the bus,
he moved there. Silently talking to himself and playing with the
beads in his hand.
He
looked sad. I had failed to respond to a gift. I was instantly sad
and remain sad about it today. Why I did not respond to another
human's gesture is beyond comprehension. I did not even offer
curiosity or a thank you. A painful experience, perhaps, for both of
us.
…but you recognized the moment…
ReplyDelete,,.so maybe next time….?
Duff, I've been reluctant to respond to your posts because of your possible virus?? Hope all is well. Relative to this post, sometimes I believe we aren't meant to interact/respond. We must just accept the teaching.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joan and Barb for your thoughts about this "lesson". I am still digesting it and deeply moved. I spent a lot of years working in mental health and to have not responded is out of character and out of professional training. But, I am working to accept the teaching.
ReplyDeleteBarb, I think there is no problem with responding, but I would not click on anything underlined and in blue. No one has told me that it has caused a problem and my virus check, which I upgraded to be sure it was dealing with this indicates that it is not a virus. But, if you run your mouse over the blue,it will give you a pop up box for another website. DO NOT GO THERE, however. Ah, computers and the internet.