Have you ever had one of those days where you just wanted to read a book and get where you’re going? I rode a shuttle down from Flagstaff the other day to meet my family at the Phoenix airport and I had one of those experiences. The driver told me that we weren’t anywhere near full, so that meant that we would either all have our own row with silence, or one person would want to get to know all of us. I’m typically that person, but in my antisocial mood, Sandra had to step up.
I think I actually heard Sandra walking up and talking before they ever even opened the door to let her in. I knew I was in for a long ride. Literally. For the first several minutes, she mostly talked with our driver, so it was a little difficult to focus on anything else. Before I even caught her name, I heard all about her son and his family in Flagstaff and how she travels back and forth from South Carolina. I had to catch myself from asking for her to turn it down a little.
Then something weird happened. I was sitting in the front row behind the driver and she turned around to look at me. The second we made eye contact, I knew I wanted to talk to her. Over the next several minutes, she just fired off questions at me and wanted to know all about who I was and what I did. This kind of took me by surprise seeing that she just talked about herself for the last 20 minutes. I couldn’t even get a question out to ask her. It almost felt like I was getting drilled by someone.
I kept the conversation fairly tame, but then she kept asking about the work in the Philippines that I did and why I was going back. The more information she heard, the more she had to ask. She was just so eager to hear more. This naturally encouraged me to keep talking, and I could even tell the volume of my voice was increasing and was curious if anyone was growing as frustrated with me as I was with Sandra earlier. I quickly realized I didn’t really care and just kept going.
After the conversation was over, I went back to my book and the fictional story it portrayed. But this time, I felt a little more excited about what I was doing. When the ride was over, Sandra and I took off on our own paths without trading contacts or even a goodbye. But I think this conversation was a super important one in my life that day because I was just so encouraged by a random stranger. I feel that I often get so consumed in myself that I think no one else has anything to offer me and I just get lost in some fictional story.
However, I know that there are random blessings behind every corner. I often neglect them and just keep my head down. It truly is such an encouragement when I walk with my head up and see the blessings that pop up around me. You never know what word of strength can come from a complete stranger…
