They let us go before noon Friday, the last day of the 2-week job search course. I was needing a change of scenery and so didn’t head home right away. Instead I hung out downtown for a few hours. At a used bookstore, not finding Be Here Now or A Course in Miracles, I purchased instead A Return to Love and a modern version of the I Ching.
At Coffee Exchange there are two bright, sunny alcoves facing the street. The owners have put a lovely leather club chair and small, rustic end table in each of these niches so you can sit and sip your latte and watch the people passing by on the sidewalk. I settled in one of them with my new books and a cup of tea.
To my right and across the aisle five or six middle management types who work in the core were enjoying a lunch break together.
As I opened and began to read the Marianne Williamson book, a woman whizzed by on her electric scooter and stopped right in front of me. She was older and had a few crumpled bags of belongings stuffed into the basket on the front of the scooter. One of the young businessmen started to get up to open the door for her, but she gestured that she didn’t want to come in. She was just checking the place out, I suppose. I was trying not to stare right at her, but she was almost directly in my line of sight.
As I was waiting to see what she would do…come in or keep going…she abruptly turned her head the 3 more degrees it took to meet my eyes and she stuck out her tongue at me.
???
I stuck my tongue out at her in return, and her sour face melted into laughter.
I laughed, too.
She started to speed off, but stopped again directly in front of the table of office types and stuck her tongue out at them, then sped away.
The businessmen were all abuzz. Did you see that? She stuck out her tongue at us. One of them turned to me and saw me smiling.
“She stuck her tongue out at me, too. I stuck my tongue out back at her,” I said. “A greeting is a greeting,” I added with a shrug.
The Universe has such a bottomless bag of tricks for calling us back to Her.
18 responses so far ↓
JourneyThroughLife - Annie // November 24, 2007 at 4:58 pm |
Hilarious!
I have a Return To Love – a fabulous book.
I look forward to hearing your experience with it.
Annie
xxx
Lynn // November 24, 2007 at 5:34 pm |
Hysterical greeting! I would still be rolling.
Fun that you returned the greeting.
Wonderful photograph.
Had the Course of Miracle series years ago, think someone gave them to me. I must have sold them at a used bookstore or would bring them too you. Too bad. Wonder if any Ram Dass still lurks on my bookshelves? Did at one time.
Rick // November 24, 2007 at 6:27 pm |
I love random connections with people such as this one, Kelly–the ones where zany is the connection, and the unspoken agreement to meet on that plane is instantaneous.
Grace // November 25, 2007 at 5:44 am |
LOL What a GREAT story! I wonder what was up with that? :)
I love Marianne Williamson’s book! A Return to Love has that awesome quote (so frequently mi-attributed to Nelson Mandela) about our greatest fear is our own power! Right now I’m reading her book called, “Everyday Grace”, and recently finished “The Gift of Change”..which I can’t recommend highly enough!
Elspeth // November 25, 2007 at 6:00 am |
Eskimos kiss with their noses.
Catherine // November 25, 2007 at 11:09 am |
*laughing*
suki // November 25, 2007 at 5:05 pm |
thanks for the laugh.
Lori-Lyn // November 25, 2007 at 7:02 pm |
What a great story.
storyteller // November 25, 2007 at 8:45 pm |
What a story! I’ll be chuckling the rest of the evening. This is one of my all time favorite Marianne Williamson books. In fact, it’s the one I asked her to sign after hearing her lecture locally many years ago. I was with a friend who
embarrassed me by encouraging Marianne to flip through the pages where I’d written my own notes in the margins throughout, yet when she did so … I was surprised to learn that while she was writing the book, she prayed that people would do just this thing :)
Who knew? I’ll look forward to your reactions as you read her book as well.
Hugs and blessings,
Annie // November 25, 2007 at 10:34 pm |
Hmmm, you caught her silliness and returned a little of your own. And the world was a happier place for that moment.
leah // November 26, 2007 at 1:10 am |
i enjoyed “a return to love” and i’m looking forward to your thoughts on it.
loved this story. it made me smile!! :-)
isabel // November 26, 2007 at 2:20 pm |
This is so much better then my usual See You Later Alligator I go through with my son.
I wish I had been there to see it all go down. :0)
claire // November 26, 2007 at 3:24 pm |
what a wonderful story – i laughed out loud, and had to read it to nick!! bless you for joining in the fun instead of getting in a huff – an all too typical ‘English’ response, i’m afraid!!
and i LOVE the picture :o)
Pedestrian // November 26, 2007 at 3:59 pm |
Hey!
That happened to me once!
I was waiting in line at a farmer’s market … I stuck my tongue out the moment he did it to me …
Everybody just gave us weird looks … I guess they thought we belonged to a cult or something.
Some people just don’t get it …
Thanks for the great story.
Patti // November 26, 2007 at 4:42 pm |
Such a funny moment you had together – there should be more of them in the world to keep us all from getting too serious about life.
Angela // November 27, 2007 at 8:18 am |
Now that is a great story! Usually only kids are brave and playful enough to do daring things like that.
Karen // November 27, 2007 at 10:32 am |
I love it. I’ll bet you made her day, too.
ThePolitic.com » Elvis to Olympians: Take a stand // May 28, 2008 at 1:09 pm |
[...] podium should have the courage to make a real difference like these guys did. Maybe they could just stick their tongues out and take a bow: TIBETAN SALUTE In Tibet when one man greets another it goes beyond the mere shaking [...]