umbrella of kindness

I walked out of my office tonight to a downfall of rain. I turned my face up to it, relishing the freshness of it, the feel of it. Seconds later, a young woman with a huge umbrella came up to me and said something I couldn’t quite understand. My guess is she was saying it clearly, but it was so surprising, I couldn’t quickly comprehend it. She was offering to share her umbrella with me, to walk me down the street. When my brain started working, and I could take this all in, she told me she wasn’t crazy, just waiting for the bus, and as long as she was waiting, she figured she’d be of service. Plus, she said, she needed some good karma coming her way.

I was loving the rain, remembering my life as an Oregonian, where rain was such a fact of life that umbrellas were eschewed and wetness embraced. Nevertheless, I joined her under the umbrella, knowing that such kindness shouldn’t be refused. We came to the end of the block just as the bus appeared a few blocks down, rounding the hill at Dolores. I thanked her, wished her much good karma, and with a wide smile and much elation, walked the next half block to my car as she ran back to the stop. How easy it is to bring happiness into this world!