Sometime in the first month working at McDonalds, I was having a bad day. My car had broken down in the parking lot of McDonalds the day before. I was having to walk to work. I didn’t know how I was going to pay for the car repairs. It was the first snow, the first below zero temperatures. There was a massive wind and I was going to have to walk home.
I did not have any money. I had scrounged up the last bit of change to give my 8 year old change to take the bus home from school. My other son had stayed home sick and so would not be able to help his brother know which bus to take and when to get off the bus. I was going to be at McDonalds when this happened so would not know if all had gone well.
There was the Christmas festival after school that day and I was feeling bad my son could not go. There was no bus in the evening and I couldn’t afford two more tickets anyway. I had asked his father if he could take him but he could not.
I was preparing coffees, icecream and hot chocolates for a table of mums and kids when my eyes met one of the mums. It was a friend of mine, a mum from school. They were all mums from school. Our private catholic bilingual school where most mums not only did not work, they never went to McDonalds! I had not told anyone but my family and one friend about my new job.
We were both surprised to see eachother. I was a little embarrassed, the other mum’s children where in my son’s class. I immediately explained how I ended up here. I felt a need to make it clear, I am not a fast food worker, this is a temporary thing, my freelance business is just lagging for the holidays, etc. I brought the kids their hot chocolate and they asked how my son was doing as he had not been in class for three weeks. They did not seem shocked I was working here.
My shift was nearly over. I went to say goodbye to the moms. I explained how I had to rush to get home, the car break down etc. My friend said, I thought I saw your son standing on the side of the road on my way here. The older sick one, not the one taking the bus. This made no sense to me. It must not have been him. She offered to drive me home on her way to the Christmas festival. I told her how I could not go. She offered to drive us to and from the festival. I felt blessed. She was not only not judging me but offering to help and I didn’t even have to ask!
I had not seen her for months but somehow here she was showing up on a day I was struggling.
She drove me home and picked up my 8 yo to take him to the Christmas festival and bring him back after. I felt bad for him going alone but needed to stay home with my other son who was too sick to go to a festival. The beautiful surprise was this sick child had gone out into the freezing cold and waited on the side of the street to make sure his little brother got off the bus at this stop. This from an older brother who had for the past eight years treated his little brother like and alien invader who needed to be defeated. Something had changed for him too.
My son’s father called. I told him the 8yo was at the school but a friend was bringing him home. I explained my car problems and asked him for 20€ to get me through the weekend as I needed wood for the heat and some food. It was hard for me to ask him. Embarrassment and guilt and fear! But he did not yell at me.
His father did not however bring me 20€. Instead he came the next day with a bag full of groceries and bags of wood for the heater AND his girlfriend’s car they were lending me for a week until my car was repaired.
This miracle did not start when my friend showed up at McDonalds. It started the day before when I was walking home from McDonalds after the car broke down and the bad news of the 2000€ it would cost to fix it had just come in by phone.
I was freezing cold, I was crossing a long stretch of field that looked endless but my thoughts were light. I was almost laughing. Look at this situation! I have no heat no food and now no car! What next?! I noticed I was strangely calm. I was joking in my mind with Spirit. “Well, here we are, the mess I make of things when I try to manage this world! YOU tell me what to do. YOU show me. I get it. What I get is that I DON’T GET IT. I don’t know. I give up.” I listened to David Hoffmeister on my iphone as I walked the rest of the way home. Then the miracles started rolling in the next day. A day of gifts and offers from unexpected places.
My ACIM Journal 