June 6, 2013

I meet today’s angels while making a quick stop to grab some lunch. I have to eat even if I cannot taste anything I put in my mouth. My teeth ache and my gums are super sore. With every bite there is a little pain, a little reminder of the battle taking place within my body. The chemo destroys cells that divide rapidly, like cancer cells, but cancer cells are not the only rapidly dividing cells in the body. These cells include skin cells, cells of the gastrointestinal tract, and blood cells produced in the bone marrow. So the chemo does a number on a lot of the good guys while it is searching for and battling cancer cells.

I had been trying to leave work for a while but something always comes up to keep me there a little longer. My coworker Johnny is deeply concerned for my well-being and finally says, “Just go; it’s getting late.” “But nothing tastes good.” He says, “Eat anyway.”

I decide on pizza so I make a quick stop at Pizza Hut to grab a pizza I can take back and eat at work. Park the truck, jump out. Crap, I will never make it back to work before it starts raining. Of course, I park about as far away from Pizza Hut as possible. As soon as I shut the door, I hear “Excuse me.”

I turn around and see a middle-aged black couple approaching me. I say hello, ask how things are going. They need directions to Wal-Mart. I can do that. As I am giving the directions, I study them. He is tall; I might reach the top of his shoulders. She is shorter than I am with beautiful golden dreads that hang below her waist. And then I see her eyes. Those are the most amazing eyes – we lock eyes. I am transfixed, and feel she can see right into my soul. I want to keep gazing into her eyes but know that would seem odd; then I realize she is still staring into my soul.

Then suddenly we are back in the parking lot repeating directions to each other. “You got it?” he asks her. “Yeah, I got it.” He looks at her, “You got it?” “I got it,” she says. We separate. I hear him say to her, “You got it?” She says, “I got it” and at the same moment I yell over my shoulder, “She got it!”

Now no way I am making it back to work before the downpour. Take time . . . order pizza . . . wait 15 minutes enjoying a smoothie while my pizza cooks. Time’s up. Grab the pizza, walk out the door. Downpour! I get soaking wet walking back to the truck with the pizza, my smoothie, and a huge, warm heart. This world – the people in it – how lucky I am to be able to experience moments like this. The kindness of strangers – a black couple, a white woman in the South, feeling totally soul connected. Life and God are good.