Magic's Timing is Not Always Ours

I have been riding the Metro, the DC area subway, for some time now. I had been using a plastic Metro Card, but when it cracked, I was in no hurry to replace it.

The card costs $2. It is not something that most people would even hesitate about. But $2 can be the difference between me getting where I need to, or not. $4.50 won't get me there, but $6.50 will.

I debated about getting one, especially after the ticket vending machine was reluctant to take back the pesky dollar coins it had only given me days before.

However, I got my paper ticket, and when I went through the turnstiles at my destination, a woman handed me a Metro Card. She apparently no longer had a need for it, and there was money still left on it.

It wound up being a $6.15 gift, if you include the $2 of the card's cost.

All I could do was smile. She probably would not have handed the card to me, if she had seen me with one.

It may seem like a small thing to some, but it was huge to me.

I am grateful for that angel and unexpected - but perfect - gift.

It is amazing to me how things happen. I may have thought I knew why I was waiting, but it may not have been for the reason I thought at all. I just needed to allow the timing for her to show up.

It is a good thing I did not spend too much time thinking about it, or agonizing about it; it would have been such a waste.

Some things really do seem magical. But there are times the "trick" may take a bit of time to happen.

Maybe there are reasons for delays that are beneficial, and we spend too much time and energy giving ourselves a hard time for not doing what we think we "should."

Maybe we delay things because we are somehow listening, and know something is coming - something that won't come if we do that thing we think we "should" do.

It obviously had a much better outcome than I could have foreseen.

It was a bright spot on an otherwise dark day.