I’m expecting a delivery of books in a couple days – Rilke’s Book of Hours and Wiman’s Every Riven Thing. Our beloved church organist gave me a gift card for Chapters a few weeks ago, and I was absolutely astonished! Why on earth…?
Well, she said, things had not been going well for her lately. Her daughter had her thesis defense moved up by three weeks, and her computer just crashed. Mama planned to send her her own computer, but before she could, it crashed too! This was in the middle of working full-time as a pharmacist, planning our weekly services, and rehearsing a Holy Week Cantata for our church and a Windsor church (combined choirs) – which went very well, by the by. In the midst of all this stress, she thought “I need to do something nice for someone, right now and change this rather negative stream”. But who? And what?
Then she remembered in the sermon I had delivered at the beginning of March when our minister was at the deathbed of her husband and unavailable to preach, I had mentioned something that had taken place years ago when I was listening to the Vinyl Cafe on CBC radio. Stuart MacLean, the host, had dialed the wrong number and ended up speaking with a young boy, Kyle, who happened to be going through a tough time – his parents were separating and his dad was moving away to find work. Well Stuart was stunned. He hadn’t expected anything like this at all. But as they talked he started to console Kyle, told him things would get better. Then he gave Kyle his private number and told him to call whenever he needed to talk. Kyle was grateful. Stuart offered to send him a CD of the show and Kyle said, “Sweet!” Finally, Stuart said, “Even better Kyle – we do shows all over the country. How about next time we’re in Windsor we’ll pick you up for dinner and take you to the show?” Well, by then Kyle was in orbit!
People started sending in all kinds of letters and emails of encouragement to Kyle after this, and after he collected 100 of them, Stuart sent them on to the boy. Someone even sent him a gift card for Chapters to help lift his spirits. At this point in the sermon I joked offhandedly that if anyone ever wanted to make me feel better, a Chapters gift card would be the way to go. Needless to say, my dear organist took this to heart and presented me with a gift card after choir practise.
It was not only an act of her generosity, but by it she was able to start a positive energy cycle in her own life. I have taken her lesson to heart, and whenever the negativity gets too great, I think who can I do something for? The name and the action always come to mind, and there begins a new cycle of blessing.
