After passing the same intersection day after day, month after month, year after year, I suppose it’s natural to experience something noteworthy at that location. But I’ve traveled past so many other locations just as often, and yet it’s this particular one that I revisit for another story, similar but different from the one I shared a few months ago. Is it ironic that there’s a 7-Eleven on the corner, and that my birthday is the reverse of that name?
It’s something I do… look for signs in the ordinary occurrences of daily life that might provide a hint for deeper meaning. It probably borders on overly metaphysical, speculative, or supernatural—which has not been the norm for me as a person tied to logic and reason—but sometimes it’s hard to deny the irony and coincidence of a situation, as if the universe is intent on providing a message to us.
Sitting at the traffic light, I glance right to see a woman and young man doing their best to dislodge a golf cart stuck between two posts. A picture is worth a thousand words in this case, but unfortunately all I have are words at this point. Imagine a “stretch” golf cart that tries to fit between the traffic light support structure and another post beside it for requesting a walk signal. With both rear wheels off the ground, the vehicle was immovable and stuck. Let me tell you, those golf carts are heavier than you’d think, so simply lifting it and moving it back to its previous position was not an option.
Long story short (I know that’s an oddity for me), we engineered the simplest of solutions that required turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction and rolling the front wheels such that the vehicle released itself from the grip of those pesky poles.
So, it would seem like this is just another story about a kind gesture from one person to another in need. And it is, I suppose, but it’s much more than that. After righting the ship, I expected both the woman and young man (who I presumed were mother and son) to hop back in the golf cart and be on their merry way. But the woman followed me back toward my parked car. It was odd, but I kept conversing with her, wondering all along what exactly she was doing.
It was then that she opened the driver’s side door of the vehicle beside me. She had stopped to try and help the young man before I even became aware of the situation. Presumptions are a funny thing that sometimes—check that—often distort our perception of reality.
It was an eye-opening experience that reminded me of an important fact: even when it might not seem like it, there are people out there who are willing to help. If only we open our eyes, minds, and hearts to that possibility, the support we seek is waiting in the wings, to help us escape the rut we’ve found ourselves in.
And whether that was a sign from the universe or not, it’s a message I needed to hear and an experience that shifted my perception of reality closer to the truth.
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