Aug 26 2009
I’m So Impulsive
I had a very peculiar experience coming home from work yesterday. I was on the bus coming from downtown to home, when about three-quarters of the way through my commute the back door of the bus started acting up. The open-shut mechanism wasn’t working properly; people would get off and the door wouldn’t fully shut, etc., and the driver was trying to fix it with his controls from the front for quite a while.
As we approached my neighbourhood he pretty much gave up trying to do anything about it. He closed it for good, but opened the front door and left it open (I don’t know why, but this is what he did.) Anyway, then he turned around and said, very seriously: “Please don’t anybody jump out the front door while the bus is still moving.”
Now at this point, since it was nearing the end of the route, there were only four of us left on the bus; myself, a teenager and two men in suits with briefcases. I had stopped after work to do some errands, so besides my large purse, I had two fairly heavy shopping bags. The thing is, when the driver said: “Please don’t anybody jump out the front door while the bus is still moving”, he looked straight at me, and very insistently.
Now I ask you, do I seem like a candidate for hurling myself out the front door of a bus while it is careening through the city streets? Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I’ve thrown myself out of a moving vehicle. Granted, in my younger days I was once told that I darted through traffic “like a gazelle”, but really, these knees haven’t produced gazelle-like movements for quite some time. I can barely genuflect, let alone throw myself off a bus, drop and roll.
I guess I’ll never know what he was thinking. Maybe I just look a tad impulsive. 
I hope at least you stood, stared at him with big eyes and no smile and said, “You knoooow.. I hadn’t even thought about doing that, until now…”
(He probably used to drive a school bus — that’s all I can figure. Or maybe he remembers the Gazelle from eariler years.)
But what a great gift, Gabrielle! Stories like this are usually a great gift from God, packaged with odd wrapping paper. A good priest friend described moments like that as “Moses moments”. He’s refering to the burning bush, where Moses saw the bush burning without being consumed. It made no sense, it piqued his interest, and he went in for a closer look. And an important key to understanding the Lord’s parables is that they all have an oddity to them. There’s something “off” in each one, and the real lesson and meaning of the parable is found by exploring that oddity.
He teaches us that way. The things in life that stand out to us and catch our curiosity, the Lord speaks to us through. Especially one that so catches your attention that you’re willing to post it. So, as with anyone who shows me a wrapped gift, I ask, are you going to open it up? Two things are certain: it will be a surprise and it will be amazingly beautiful…
And, it just prompted me to write another blog entry. That should remove any doubts about putting spiritual mid-wife on your resume!
Jerome
Carol, I would have suspected you myself.
Jerome, if my calling is as spiritual mid-wife, I am honoured and will embrace it. Will be over soon to read what you’ve birthed.
However, if he were to share HIS frustration, annoyance and agitation with the remaining (4) passengers, panic may have ensued….
He looked straight at you, because you may have been the one person who he could connect with, and who he sensed had the gift (ability?) of empathy….it was one of those “ships passing in the night” moments, when his frustration and exhaustion spilled out, thru his eyes. Perhaps you were the only one to notice.
So, having read this, you can see just a little bit further into my “off-the-wall” way of thinking…and it’s okay to shake your head (either side-to-side…OR….up-and-down), in disbelief…
Sorry it’s been such a L-O-N-G time since I have dropped by for a visit (understatement, I know)…
Enjoyed reading this blog entry BTW….made me think of all the myriad of little things/moments that can happen thru a “typical workday”…many of which we don’t tend to take notice of….missing opportunities to connect/touch another’s weary heart.
You know, Gabrielle, you have done that for me, via the internet….more times than I can even count: observed my weary heart, and kept me from hurling myself from the bus that day… (metaphorically speaking)
Blessings to you (and to your readers/friends),
kristin
I don’t think your interpretation is “off-the-wall”; in fact, it corresponds somewhat to what I’ve been mulling over, since Jerome asked me to “unwrap it”. And it’s very true that some of us miss opportunities throughout the day to connect with others on a heart/soul level, whether through busy-ness or distraction or what have you. Weary hearts. There are so many, aren’t there, and He’s placed us right where we should be to try to do what we can, with His help, about that…