Conversation With God

I can remember once, when things were not going so well in my life, holding my head and thinking that I had no more money, and very little food, and that I didn’t know when I was going to eat my next square meal, or how I could pay my rent. That very evening I met a young couple at the bus station. I’d gone down to pick up a package, and there these kids were, huddled on a bench, using their coats for a blanket.

I saw them and my heart went out to them. I remembered when I was young, how it was when we were kids, just skimming by, and on the move like that. I walked over to them and asked them if they’d like to come over to my place and sit by a hot fire, have a little hot chocolate, maybe open up the day bed and get a good night’s rest. They looked up at me with eyes wide, like children on Christmas morning.

Well, we got to the house, and I made ‘em a meal. We all ate better that night than any of us had for quite a while. The food had always been there. The refrigerator was loaded. I just had to reach back, and grab all the stuff I’d shoved back there. I made an “everything-in-the fridge” stir fry, and it was terrific! I remember thinking, where did all this food come from?

The next morning I even gave the kids breakfast, and sent them on their way. I reached into my pocket as I dropped them off back at the bus station and gave them a twenty-dollar bill. “Maybe this will help,” I said, gave ‘em a hug and sent them on their way. I felt better about my own situation all day. Heck, all week. And that experience, which I have never forgotten, produced a profound change in my outlook and my understandings about life.

Things got better from there, and as I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, I noticed something important. I’m still here.

--Neale Donald Walsch