Have you ever left home…

headed toward a specific destination, only to arrive, certain that you are in the right place, only to sooner or later realize that you are in the wrong place, and having no clear understanding of how or why you arrived there? How about being so sure of the words you are saying, only to have one or more people say to you, “No. I am certain that this is what you said.” Well, I have had the good fortune (more on that later) of experiencing both of those occurrences over the past several weeks. First, the umbrella…

Just a few short weeks ago…

I left home en route to pay my natural gas bill (call me old-fashioned for not paying it online but I’m a person who still enjoys the human interaction of saying “Hello” to the clerk). Well, on this particular day, I took the same route I always do, but pulled into the parking lot and upon arriving, noticed that they had done away with the drive-up window. I thought that very peculiar, but said, “Oh well, I’ll just head inside to pay. No problem.”

When I entered the building, I noticed that it had been completely rearranged, and therefore I lost my bearings with regard to the location of the service counter. “Hmmm, they’ve gone really fancy in here with this layout,” I said to myself, as I observed the fancy fireplace and gas grill displays. I noticed a lady being attended to by someone who stepped out of her office to help. I approached the two of them and asked the patron, “Did you also come in to pay your bill?” She replied, “Yes,” after which I was interrupted by the gas company employee. 

“Sir, we no longer accept payment at this location,” she told me. “You now have to go to our new location next door, and they no longer accept payments inside. You’ll have to use the drive thru” she explained.

“Okay, thank you ma’am,” I replied. “I’ll be on my way then; thanks for your help.” 

As I turned away to exit the building, she stopped me…

“Sir… Since you’re here, I can’t let you leave without participating in our customer drawing. Everyone who plays wins. Who doesn’t like free stuff, right?”

“Sure, why not?” I replied. 

I and the lady who had been there already when I arrived followed the employee over to a small display across the room, where sat a bowl with a number of small scratch-off tickets inside. I stepped back to allow the nice lady to go first. After she drew her ticket, I drew mine. I pulled a quarter from my pocket and scratched off the covering, which revealed that I had won an umbrella. “How nice?” I thought. 

I fully expected to receive what would be some cheesy, flimsy, very small gas-company-branded umbrella; but to my surprise, it was an EXTREMELY NICE, major-brand golf umbrella! 

“Wow; this is NICE!” I exclaimed. 

The gas company employee responded, “Oh yes sir! Only the BEST for our customers! Thank you for being a valued customer! Enjoy your day and remember, you pay your bill just next door.”

“Thank you and enjoy the rest of your week,” I responded as I exited the building…

As I got into the car, backed out of my parking spot, exited the grounds and headed towards the building just next door, the first thing I noticed was the church that sits right across the street from the place where I had always paid my gas bill. As I pulled into the driveway and turned into the roundabout and toward the drive-thru payment window, I looked inside and noticed the same clerk who is always there to accept my payment. It was then that I realized that I was in the exact place where I always pay my gas bill!

I could only laugh at myself as I drove away after rendering payment. I had learned something very interesting about how life works, but I’ll save that summary for the end of this article. Now… about that french toast…

***

Mondays are typically

the one day of the week that I take off work (though lately that hasn’t seemed to work out much). Well, on this day, I decided to do my regular self-care: treating myself to breakfast at one of my favorite local restaurants (and at an hour where most of the routine breakfast traffic has waned considerably). I have eaten there enough for the staff to ask me if I’m doing my usual breakfast: an omelet, fruit and some type of bread. Well, today I decided on the usual, but for the type of bread, I decided on toasted English muffins. 

When the server brought out my food, I was surprised to see her lead with a bottle of maple syrup. Before I could ask why, she lowered two plates which held my omelet, fruit and… FRENCH TOAST! 

I told her, “The omelet and fruit are mine, but the french toast belongs to another table; I didn’t order it.”

She double-checked the ticket and sure enough, she had recorded that my bread choice was french toast, toasted dark. She then told me, “Sir, I’m happy to bring you out something else and take this back but I was pretty certain that you said you wanted french toast.”

“No, you don’t need to go through that trouble. I was pretty sure I said I wanted an English muffin toasted dark, but the french toast looks delicious and I haven’t had any in a while, so I’m happy to keep it.”

The manager later came by with a toasted English muffin and told me to enjoy it, that she would not even add it to the ticket. I thank her, we chatted about how each other’s weekends had been, then she moved on to assist other patrons.

It was then that I reflected back to my thoughts upon waking this morning…

“Hmmm… Some french toast sure would be good today; I haven’t had any in a long time.” 

As I left home and headed for the restaurant, I had contemplated french toast again, but decided against it, concluding that I had had more than my share of sweet stuff that weekend. Might it have been that I had another umbrella moment, where “something else” seemed to have taken control of my consciousness, and ordered what I had deeply been longing for? 

As I thought back to placing the order, I remembered ordering the omelet and fruit, but honestly had no recollection of what type of bread I had requested; all I know is that THAT was some of the BEST french toast I had had in a VERY long time! (The question is, was it something I deeply longed for; or was it something I somehow, for some reason needed? I may or may not come to a conclusion regarding that, but one thing is certain… Had I not had that experience, I would not be drafting this article. Perhaps this article is just for me, or maybe someone else has had similar experiences and needs to know that they are not alone in experiencing oddities [smile].)

So, what have I learned from all of this? I have learned that in both cases, my conscious mind was not at all in control of where I was actually going, because my consciousness had me believing that I was going one place (in one case), and ordering something very different from what I received (in the other). Still, the question that remains unanswered for me is this…

Was it my subconscious mind that had me on auto-pilot, or was it… (wait for it)…

My SUPERCONSCIOUSNESS?? (Yes, while it is rarely spoken of outside the realm of spiritual teachers and healers, each of us has one—and it is a heckuva lot smarter than our conscious minds could ever be. The article linked here explains the differences between conscious, subconscious and superconscious.)

In both cases, the outcomes served to illustrate to me that The Almighty (or God, or the Creator, or Source: whichever term resonates with you most) sometimes sends us down paths that we did not consciously choose in order to bless us in some way, and in my experience, what I have observed time and time again is that those who do good or perform acts of kindness, seeking nothing in return, are often the most-rewarded (and typically when they least expect it).

Be kind to others; and if you’re an eternal giver, don’t forget to also be kind to yourself—you both need and deserve it.

Happy Monday (or whatever day it is you’re reading this article). 

All the Best!

—MT

Matt D. Talford is a writer, narrator, and author of three books: “Stuck In An Elevator” – a fictitious tale of passion and self-discovery; “Captain’s Mate: A Practical Guide for Tennis Captains, League Players and High School Coaches”; and his award-winning debut title: ”From Fear to Faith: A Survivor’s Story”  – a memoir about overcoming a rare form of what he calls “the C-word.”  All three books are currently available in paperback at www.talfordarts.com/collections/books or at Amazon.com; and in eBook format on Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks.  “From Fear to Faith: A Survivor’s Story” is also available in audiobook (narrated by Talford himself) at iTunes, audible.com, and at many other sites where audiobooks are sold.  For information on these and other products, click the “shop” link in the menu.