A good deed and a mystery woman

This is an interesting story I just had to share. It’s all about a good deed and a mystery woman. Why am I including this in a blog post? I’m from the school of thought, everything happens for a reason and the reason results in teachable moments.

On my way home from work, I picked Alec up from youth group where he attends with his girlfriend Cindy. He asked what we were gonna eat. Told him it was up to him to pick and off we drove.

The conversation went back and forth on where we should go and then Mike Kubeisy called. I took the call and without realizing it, ended up at a Chinese restaurant.  Finishing up the conversation in a the parking lot with Mike, Alec said dad you can’t eat here your still sick. I gave him the “just one more minute” look and told Kubeisy I’d call him later tonight. I apologized to Alec for taking the call and interrupting our conversation. Alec said no problem besides he wasn’t really that hungry he was just trying to figure out what I should eat. He took care of me all weekend when I was sick. He said he can make something at home for us. We drove to Publix, our local grocery store.

Heading into the store I noticed a sushi place. I said hey Alec do you see what I see. The smile on his face told me, “Hey I’m not that hungry but I always have room for sushi!“. He’s been eating it since he was 3 years old. Now here’s where the repayment of the good deed comes in. I said lets go!

I figured this would be a good place we can sit and talk; father son bonding time. Plus I’d be gone for a week teaching a workshop. Now the mystery woman enters the story. We see a woman rushing to the sushi door, we jokingly speed up trying to beat her to the door. She’s there way before us. Standing in line we could see she was stressed out. We both joked with her on how fast she sprinted to the door and she deserves to be seated ahead of us. She looked at us, but no comment. She said to the hostess she has been driving back and forth looking for this place and she was a little flustered.  The hostess turns to us and goes to seat us. Walking  to our table, I said to the hostess she was here before us and she needs to be attended to first. Not really understanding, she motioned the woman and she headed back with us. Alec joked and said sure you can eat with us. The woman said I’m sorry I’ve been driving all night and headed back to the front. It was then we realized she was there for take out.

Alec and I had our usual comedy chat about the events of the day. How he thinks it’s funny the waitress hands us a warm wash cloth with tongs. About 10 minutes later the mystery woman walks back in the door. She walks over to us and apoligied for being rude. She explained she just drove in from Texas and was rushing back to bring her son food. Driving away she said she felt bad so she came back. We assured her she wasn’t rude at all and we understood. She gave me a hug and left.

A man sitting alone in the restaurant (yes we offered him to eat with us too) looked over and said unbelievable, how did you do that! Alec chimed back and said yeah he makes it look easy. Then another woman comes in and sits with the guy. He looks and me and said stay away and laughs. As he’s telling his date the story, Alec said what the heck every has girls coming in for them. I know he was wishing Cindy was coming in the door next!

This was a perfect teachable moment! I was able to share with Alec my favorite quote from Stephen Grellet. I read this when I was his age when my mother was sick with cancer. These are the words I wake up to everyday.

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Alec witness me apologize to him for what I felt was rude taking a phone during our conversation and now he witness a mystery woman doing the same. Teachable moments are always around us!

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