Encounters of a kind Kind

I have a little story to tell.

I was scheduled to work 3p-11p on Easter Sunday.  Admittedly, i was quite disheartened and a bit embittered when i came to know this unsightly and unfortunate occurrence.  But, hey, that's the risk you run when you work in the hospitality industry.  Those of you who know me, know that i dearly love my family (and those of you who have met my family, you understand why).  They are, in a word, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (in a related note, if anyone can locate a jacket similar to Dick Van Dyke's, i'm a 42s). So any gathering i am unable to go home to see them is troubling to my heart.  I love them. I want to be near to them.

So, on the Saturday before Easter, i got in touch with one of my dear friends, Angelle, and orphaned myself out to be a part of their Bollich Easter lunch celebration (yes, i did invite myself. sorry, mom, but i didn't want to celebrate Easter alone. how sad would that have been?).

Best. Decision. Ever.

Suffice to say Mr. Andrew grills with skillz to pay the billz (see those z's? that means it's serious).  And even the canned beans were pretty good (j/k j/k, Monica...you did a great job! and at least you contributed more than Daniel, meh meh meh).  I had to turn away a third helping for fear of taking a mid-shift nap.

But as delicious as the food was, what was truly beautiful was having the opportunity to sit down and enjoy a meal with people who love each other and know each other so, so well.  To laugh and to joke along with them was both humbling and uplifting in that: 1. i had done nothing to earn a seat at their family table (well, i did bring wine) but 2. that they thought well enough of me to be with them in their most precious moments together.   And in the midst of this encounter, my heart was inspired and reminded of something i read just days after Pope Francis was elected:

"He who encounters Jesus Christ feels the impulse to witness Him or to give witness of what he has encountered, and this is the Christian calling. To go and give witness. You can’t convince anybody. The encounter occurs. You can prove that God exists, but you will never be able, using the force of persuasion, to make anyone encounter God. This is pure grace. Pure grace. In history, from its very beginning until today, grace always primerea, grace always comes first, then comes all the rest." - Cardinal Bergoglio (Pope Francis)

and in some funny way, Easter meant a little more to me. that 'encounter' meant something to me. it was personal. it was real. and it was good.  They could just have easily turned me away, but they didn't.  I asked an invitation and they showed an orphan a home. They brought joy to a bitter man.  They lit a candle for a darkened wanderer.  They brought food (delicious, delicious food) to a proud and starved beggar.  They welcomed me, on Easter Sunday, to encounter the love of God.

so...really, i guess what i'm trying to say are two things:
1.  THANK YOU, Bollich family.  You are a kind people.
and
2.  that you never really know the impact you have on someone you allow into your life. 

so i encourage you all to allow the love of God be the end of your actions, and to allow that love set you as a sky on fire.

"...I have endeavored to act only for Him. Whatever becomes of me, whether I be lost or saved, I will always continue to act purely for the love of God. I shall have this good at least that till death I shall have done all that is in me to love Him." - Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (pdf version, here)

 Happy Easter,
 Daytona

 P. S.: for the record, Daniel did indeed provide beer as well as selfless acts of kindness for his pregnant wife.