The Fluttering of Nearby Wings

Eureka Car(t) 2007

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She fit the stereotype of a bag lady. Her cart had weak ankle wheels and although she was strong it must have been well packed as she pulled it with jerks. She parked it by the rear exit of the M4 bus.Then she sat next to me, not interrupting my reading. I was lost in the world of painters and the grand opening of the Eiffel Tower. Suddenly she commented on the bicycle marathon at the north end of Central Park. Since I was agreeable to conversation she began telling me of where I could get freebies. It turned out she rode in from the Bronx on Sundays to bring food to the food pantry at the cathedral. Bring food?? Every Sunday??? I would have guessed that she was the one needing food. She had done this for ten years! Yes, she had help with the rent through a welfare program but her time and money went to amassing food for the destitute. I mentioned Riverside Church having a food pantry and she glowed. In the days before the Bronx, she lived near Riverside and took the food there. Now, what with the train/bus connections, the cathedral worked better. I told her how wonderfully generous and enterprising she was. She giggled as though this was the least big deal imaginable I said I like to do the "buy one, get one free" thing and keep one for myself and give away the other. However, I could tell she would give away both. I asked about what she herself had to eat. She replied, "Oh, I got plenty! People 'n given' me stuff all time." It reminded me of Porgy and Bess, "Oh, I go plenty of nothin' and nothin's plenty for me." When she reached her stop, I told her she would live long and bless hundreds being as how she was such a cheerful giver and housed a merry heart. I thought about her a lot during the service. She had so little! yet radiated contentment. If only one out of every ten people could be like this nameless errand girl, what a wonderful world this would be!

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...may the blessings of unseen angels visit you this day...