down, and then up

I am sitting in my car and I turn the key in the ignition and nothing happens. I'm late already, and now it'll be another forty-five minutes before I can get where I wanted to go, to see a friend become a doctor and celebrate the huge, amazing wonderfulness of it all in the middle of an otherwise ordinary day. I call AAA, wait. I read, fold clothes, wait. Tap my foot, send impatient text messages, breathe. Wait.

When I finally get where I'm going, I witness the last moments and get to hear what seem like the best words in the world: "Congratulations, Dr. S." We stand around in a circle. We hug and laugh and share crazy big smiles. KB clutches her flowers. When I get to my car, it doesn't start again. The new doctor's husband leaves the party lunch to help me with my car. "If it dies again, call us and we'll help you put a new battery in," he says.

Walking out to my car after the afternoon shift, the car doesn't start again. My roommate and I make plans for how I will get to every stop in my busy schedule over the next couple of days if my car needs major work. It's a complex arrangement involving seemingly everyone I know driving me somewhere. After some more wringing of hands, I have the car towed to Sears and thankfully it's just a bad battery and they replace it, quickly.  My roommate has been hovering, checking in with me, waiting outside to give me a ride if I need it. I send her to work and follow twenty minutes later.

Later, during the evening shift, I get a text from a dearest friend inviting me to share Thanksgiving with her family. In what I had feared would be the hardest, loneliest holiday yet, I have an embarrassment of Thanksgiving invitations, and I wish I could accept them all. When I look around me and see all the people who want to take tender care of me, I have this little throb where my heart should be.

At 11 o'clock, in my car once again, I turn the key and hear the car start with relief. My roommate watches, waits for me to back out, follows me home. I drive through the night, thinking about kindness, how people think it's rare but really it's everywhere. When I need to say "Wait for me just in case my car doesn't start," there always seems to be someone to say it to.  They're there before I say it, even if I never say it.

I am so lucky. I am so grateful.

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I'm just writing with Heather of the EO today. Come play along?