A Blessing is more than a kind word in Santa Fe
... and today in a Walgreens store, a blessing became a gift.
Here is the rest of the story. Turn on your imagination and join me in this experience. Imagine being in the check out line of your local Walgreens. The line is small. There is one customer, a woman, in front of me and another behind me, a gentleman. No one is speaking. The woman is rummaging through her purse to find something. A crisp $20 dollar bill quietly falls on the floor. I quickly said, "Ma'am, you just dropped a twenty dollar bill." She looked surprised, bent over and picked it up. She turned to me, looked me in the eye and she said, "Bless you". Nodding, I said "thank you". And then from behimd me, the gentleman said, "I will give you a dime for your blessing". As if to make an annoucement, she looked around and she said "blessings are special and free." In a moment, she was gone.
Then, the clerk who had been scanning my stuff got my attention when he said, "Ma'am, you have $20 Walgreens' rewards credit. Do you want to redeem it on this purchase? Before I could answer, the gentleman behind me said, "See she gave you a blessing! She is like our Santa Fe Mother Teresa! Believe me!" I nodded and asked the clerk for the $20 credit. I said good-bye and headed for my car in the crowded parking lot. As I was about to back up, the gentleman appeared at my window and again said "She is like our Mother Teresa. Santa Fe is the City of Holy Faith. Please believe me... now I am getting out of the way." Then he was gone!
I looked in my mirror and began to slowly back out into the parking lot. Then all of a sudden I saw another car about to hit me! I jammed on my brakes and hit the horn. The other car driver fortunately woke up and stopped missing my car by inches. Then, he appeared again saying "I saw it. They nearly hit you. She blessed you and her blessings are still helping you!" "Thank you," I said, taking a deep breathe and quickly snapping a picture of Walgreens through the windshield. Slowly backing out, I headed for home knowing I would be telling you this story. Thank you for reading.
PS. Santa Fe was founded by the Spanish in 1610 and the name means "Holy Faith" in Spanish. This was long before cars and Walgreens appeared in Santa Fe. In my opinion, they must have known something about the future of the city I love everyday.
