An Unexpected Blessing

Today I was hit with a bit of random kindness myself (or not so random depending on how you think about it). It happened right when I needed it the most today.

My Grandmother lives in a high-rise, subsidized apartment building that houses mostly elderly people. Sometimes she babysits my son during the day while I am at work. Yesterday, I picked him up and when we were walking down the sidewalk to the car, we heard a voice from above, literally. We glanced up to the apartment balcony on the second floor to see an elderly black woman (probably in her early 80's) leaning on the railing looking at us. She repeated what she said the first time, "Where is that cute looking young man going off to?". I looked up at her and smiled. I said, "He is off to the library to get a few books." She replied, "Well, he sure is handsome just like his mother." I said thank you and we left. I thought, hmmm... that was nice and then kinda forgot about it.

Today, my Grandmother's invited me over to have lunch with her and my son. My Grandma loves to cook, but since she lives alone she never really gets to very much. As a result, anytime she can get us over there to eat, she is happy. So, I went. Lunch was good and of course it was soon time for me to go back to work.

Once again, I was out on the front sidewalk and I saw the same elderly woman walking toward me. She's kind of hard to miss :) She's not very tall, and it looks like she might be wearing a black wig. But, in addition, she wears a black safari type hat (very similar to the one shown here on the left) with the sides buttoned up on the hat and everything. She was wearing a flowered dress, light green socks, and tennis shoes. As a side note, as she was walking along, she was also eating from a small bag of Ruffles potato chips. She saw me coming toward her and we both smiled.

She said, "You sure are pretty, you know that?" Of course, my inability to take a compliment kicked in and I said, "Well, I could definitely stand to lose a few pounds." She dismissed what I said and replied, "Nope, you're pretty and don't let anyone ever tell you any different. I've seen a lot of people, and there's just something about you." As she said this, she kind of peered at me over the top of her glasses, as if making sure she was right with what she was saying. I looked her right in the eye and felt the sense I had just been given a blessing and as if she meant something more than just a physical beauty. I was sort of speechless and just said, "Thank you." She turned and kept walking down the sidewalk. I'm not a person prone to believing in angels and I know how cheesy that sounds, yet, it was the first thing that came to mind when I stepped into my car.

My brain tells me to just explain it away and realize "this person is elderly and maybe a bit off her rocker". It also says to realize "that it's possible she says this to every person she meets", or "she had glasses on and maybe at her age she can't even see too well". And, I'm not going on about this because someone happened to think my outer self was "pretty", I'm talking about deeper meaning here. I saw it in her eyes and my inner-spirit tells me to just accept her unexpected blessing. Another affirmation that I am on the right path.