December 5th. Meetings

@brittarnhild

It all started on Monday, the last day of November. I was invited to The Salvation Army here in Trondheim to share some advent thoughts and reflections. To end my sharing, I read Leo Tolstoi´s Papa Panov, the beautiful tale about the old shoemaker who waited all day for a visit by Jesus, only to be told when the day was over that Jesus had been in all the people he had met during the day. I love the old tale and read it at least once every Christmas.

The next day, on my way home from work, there was only one free seat in the bus. I sat down and saw that the man beside me used to live in the house next door to us when we moved in 14 years ago. I remembered the man as very shy, was told that he lived with his old parents, whom we never saw. Sadly the parents died not long after we moved in and the son moved to a small apartment in another neighbourhood. I never made it to get to know him. Not untill Tuesday. As we sat there, tightly on the crowded bus, I turned to him, smiled, told him who I was.......and it was like pressing a button. The man I had known to be shy, the man I know lives alone, the man who have his disabilities, started to talk. He hardly looked at me, he spoke quietly and I had to bend over to be able to hear what he said. But he talked. And I listened. And I know it was a blessed bus ride for both of us.

The next morning, when I was waiting for the bus to take me downtown, a woman was there waiting already. We have been on the same bus many times but never spoken. This morning we smiled at each other and when we came into the almost empty bus, she came an sat on the seat next to me. The 15 minutes bus ride was filled with words floating between us.

On day three (the gift of an advent calendar filled with people had still not occured to me) I had some extra time before the bus which would take me home from work would come. I went into a store and there met a man I so far only had greeted, never spoken to. And yes, your guess is right. We started to talk.

As I had some quiet time that afternoon, the first advent candle lit, a mug of spiced tea, listening to music, thinking back on my day, I knew I had been given a new advent calendar.

The blessing of people along the path I walk, the path which is my life.

Yesterday, on the 4th day, I had coffee with a friend I hadn´t seen in months.......

.......now I wonder what will happen today.