Blessings at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum

Like Rilke in the garden (Duino Elegies) I saw an angel–six of them actually, all women. Walking toward me, one asked for my cell phone. I thought she needed to make a call. But when I handed it to her, she asked to take a picture of my husband and me. “You’re such a beautiful couple,” she said.

Afterwards, she asked if we would mind if her group prayed with us. Am I going to say no? Anyway, we took their hands and they prayed for our health, our family, our friends, and wished us a long life together. I must admit that a part of me was thinking, this must be some kind of hustle. They’ll end up asking for money or conversion or?? But I embraced the moment and went with it. I had tears in my eyes at the end. Not only had they taken our picture and prayed for us, but they handed me Kleenex too. Then one handed me a note to take with me. I figured, oh, here’s the hustle. Instead it said, “Kindness should be given to as many people as possible, even if you are not acquainted with that person. Kindness given to another will always shine in the heart of the receiver forever. The joy of the receiver is priceless.”

Oh, wait. It doesn’t end there. We went out to dinner at the Mulberry Inn in Islip and instead of the waitress giving us a check, she said, “This is your lucky day. A woman paid for your dinner.”

“What?”

She was sitting right there and she said to wait until she left to tell you.

I remember the woman witting in the booth the waitress pointed out to me. She was NOT one of the women we met in the garden. She was much older than they were.

On the way home, the Autumn sky with its orange clouds stretched widely above us and we knew that no matter what is going on in the world that is horrid, something counter to those horrors are happening too. To us. To all of you.