Yesterday was a beautiful day. It was a warm, sunny winter’s day. Anabelle and I spent the most of it in Napa with Margie and capped it with dinner with Roy and Mila in El Sobrante. It was already an awesome day as it was but the chance encounters with two ordinary persons added an extra smile and color to the niceness of the entire day.
Early in the morning we had to have our blood drawn for our lab works. The phlebotomist who drew our blood must have seen the apprehension on my face and his first words to me were: “Smile. Life is meant to be lived happy.” And he put me thoroughly at ease with his small talk about doing what makes you happy, choosing to live your life on your own terms and not on others’, how the blood draw was going to be swift and almost painless. And its was. Then, he capped our brief encounter by drawing a smiley, happy face n the plaster he placed to protect my draw site from being infected. God bless such a wonderful man.
And then there was Paolo, who waited on us at the wine-tasting we had at Castello di Amorosa. Where I grew up, wine was a luxury and usually associated with fine dining. Paolo showed us how wine is part of everyday ordinary life, as it is in many cultures specially around the Mediterranean. Wine adds color and warmth to conversations and events. Appropriately chosen, wine completes any meal. There is wine for red meat, white meat, fish or pasta. There is wine for happy occasions and there is wine for somber moments. There is wine for laughter and there is wine for quiet moments of reflection. Thank God for a bubbly person such as Paolo.
Thank heavens for such chance encounters with ordinary people making an already beautiful day even more remarkable. Maybe it was part of their job to make us feel at ease. But I have seen grouchy med techs and dour waiters. Was this all totally serendipitous or do we attract to ourselves that which we deeply yearn for or that which we truly need? Or, there is someone who is looking out for us and sending us what we need most at each moment of our life and it is up to us to hear and follow the call?
And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples–for there were many who followed him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”Mark 2:13-17