Three Gifts

By Belinda

I have been beset by busyness lately, with no apparent let up in the very near future! This is part of the reason that I have been very quiet here.

Tonight as I prepared to leave the office for a stretch of four days, I packed up my luggage to take home. Well, really it is only two briefcases, but it feels like luggage, because of the quantity of stuff I "lug" in it.:) 

I also had a list of supplies to bring home for our work fall barbecue on Saturday, so I made a pile in the hallway outside my office door, of a big storage box full of plastic cutlery, topped by paper plates, cups and napkins. I began mentally preparing for the transporting of said pile and "luggage" to my vehicle in the parking lot across the road.

At 6.00 I was almost ready to leave when my eye spied a hand written note that had been slipped under my door earlier that day. It told me that one of the people we support would like me to please call because he had something to tell me.

I picked up the phone and called. One of his housemates, who answered the phone, too good a mimic, called for him in an affected  and much posher British accent than mine, "Belinda would like to talk to you." He sounded like the butler making the announcement.

Never mind, my friend soon hurried to the phone and breathlessly shared the news that he had just become a grand uncle! The baby is a little girl, but he did not yet know her name. What joy! 

He also shared that he was just back from a short holiday on a houseboat in Peterborough and was looking forward already to his vacation next year, when he is planning on going to Hollywood, California. I tried to restrain my envy as I said goodbye.

I spotted a half filled cup of cold black coffee on my desk and decided to take it upstairs rather than leave it lingering on, cold and lonely for four days. I heard a female voice raised a little sharply as I knocked lightly on the door and walked into the kitchen. At my entrance the speaker clapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide as though she had been caught in the act of a crime! 

"I'm sorry," she said, "I shouldn't have used those words." 

"Those words" had been directed at her husband, jokingly but pointedly, and were rather funny, if not her usual polite tone of conversation.

I said, "I am the intruder! This is your home. You can use whatever words you choose and don't have to apologize."

At that she laughed, eyes sparkling, and I laughed back as I said goodbye. 

I then began to transport my caravan of "stuff" across the road, in two trips. 

As I was returning for the second load, a short, skinny man with grey hair, wearing thin and slightly scruffy clothing and pulling one of those metal carts used to deliver newspapers, asked, "Do you need any help?"

I smiled and said, "No thanks, I just have a few more things, but it's really nice of you to ask."

He said, "If you see me, just ask me."

I thanked him and thought how a busy day had ended with three interactions that brought joy, laughter and kindness bestowed.

What a good day it was.