Soul Magic

AN UP FOR DOWN DAYS

I hear some actors keep a sad thought or memory tucked away to help them with scenes where they might need to cry. I think we should each try to find the opposite; a happy memory, something to lift us up on those inevitable down days.

I’m saying this because I think I just found mine!

I had to go into Glasgow today. I was on a really tight schedule, which meant I would have no time for myself (or my own work) all day. The train was packed and the conversation going on around me seemed to be particularly inane. On top of all that, I had a bit of a headache. (I know, poor me, right?)

Walking briskly across the concourse, I fished some change from my pocket. There would surely be someone at the exit selling The Big Issue (a magazine that helps homeless folk earn a living.)

You go down maybe twenty steps from the station to the street. As the crowd parted ways at the bottom I saw the Big Issue vendor. By the very nature of her job she had to be homeless. She really looked like she’d been sleeping rough. Her clothes were ragged and she obviously hadn’t had a scrub up for quite a while.

She was also rocking from side to side. Keeping warm against the biting wind, I guessed. But she wasn’t, she was moving in time to a tune. I couldn’t hear her, but I could see her lips moving.

Then I saw the white cane hanging from her elbow and noticed the sunken eyes. She was blind, dirty, living on the streets. I came closer and through the noise of the traffic and the commuters I heard her sing the immortal line, “…and I think to myself, what a wonderful world!”

I bought her last magazine for twice what I’d originally intended. She thanked me, picked up her stuff and went tapping off along the pavement - still singing!

So, I have my up for a down day. And I think it will stay with me a long, long time. Feel free to borrow it if you like.

And, God? Help me be more grateful. The problems I have are tiny in comparison to the problems I don’t have. And it really is a wonderful world!

-- © by David McLaughlan

“Finding the extra in the ordinary.”

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