Blessings come in two’s (haibun)

A funny thing happened to me on my way home tonight.  I dressed warm, ready for my usual bitter cold walk to the metro. I actually look like a burglar dressed up in black, all you can see are my nose and eyes.  I still chanced the shortcut out back and there was only about 300 metres with snow drifts to get to the street. No problem.  I was quite pleased with myself considering that the street was only half ploughed. The scraper had scraped right to the icy surface. The street looked like a skating rink. No kidding! If more people would have been awake at this time, for sure some might have skated and youngsters would have slid on their boots.  I get to the Métro Rosemont and for the first time I see dozens of people inside the small square waiting for their busses. Yep, it is that cold!  (Oh did I tell you I froze for an hour Valentine’s evening after my nice café adventure?  I waited an hour in the cold for a bus to get home. I was so cold by the time I got home,  my body would not get warm enough. I felt feverish and achy all over.  Had to call in sick the next day (Sunday) as there was NO way in this century I was braving the cold.)

So back to tonight. I take the métro to Bonaventure and my bus is already there awaiting me (well, it feels good to think so).  I get on the bus engrossed in my novel I am reading by Alice Keys, Rose (check her out at Aliceville)…up to Chapter 89 now.  Gosh! One thing I do not like about e-readers is you cannot tell if you are close to the end so for the past 20+ chapters I am wondering when that will be.  I will let ya’ll know about this book that has captured my attention for the past 2 days now.  I am a slow reader and when I want to remember something I highlight it…and read it over. I know, weird but that is me if I read a book that someone I sort of know wrote itJ.  I have been too brain dead and tired to write much lately, so I am so glad I have a novel that is keeping me absorbed.

I settle on the bus and open my Kindle again and once I get on le pont Champlain I hear a funny sound. It sounds like a phone but no one is picking up. I feel in my breast pocket of my winter coat and take my new I-phone out and yep, it was for me. I have to change that ringer to match what I had on my Samsung…a little Motown sounds I recognize…not this techno weird stuff.

A colleague tells me I forgot my home keys at the office. OH NO!! NOT AGAIN!  My heart drops for a split second and then I realize I am still on the bus, I have not walked the 10 minute walk to my apartment in the cold to discover I did not have my keys and walk back again in the cold to the bus. All I had to do was sit on the warm bus that was going back to Montreal in five minutes. No problem, I tell my colleague but it would be nice if someone is off work to bring the keys to the subway near work so I don’t have to brave the cold walk again to the office.  A colleague offers to drive to the Métro with her hubby who was picking her up and she would wait for me there. She has done this already once for me two years ago. Good Lord there are angels on this planet!!

So I stay on the bus, get on the Métro again. Then I see about six Montreal Police officers waiting to check the trains on the line I was taking. Shoot! They have this Miami Vice swagger when they walk, and feathered hair spiked up…nice and messy…in their camo pants and high laced boots…they have been negotiating their pension for the past year and this is one way they are protesting (dressing like this)… …like that’ll get the public respect for law enforcement.  I digress…they look in each train and find no one. One police officer takes a snapshot with his phone of a tag from a gang member in my car. I didn’t dare tell him there was another tag next to me near the window…I was in a hurry to get my home keys!!  Priorities now people!!

On the ride I read an email on my phone from a person who has been following me on Stigma Hurts Everyone for two years. She wrote a beautiful long letter telling me how my blog impacted on her especially a post I wrote about a homeless person entitled “Do you even see me?”  Her words truly touched me how she has changed her attitude towards homelessness now and well, that truly warmed my heart to read this.  I had no idea my words could have such an impact!

Then I read another email from my favourite supervisor in Toronto and friend.  It is sort of a chain letter regarding an angel and G-d will do two BIG positive things for me in the next few days.  As I read this I wanted to answer but didn’t have WiFi.  I wanted to reply right away: G-d already did the two amazing things…my colleague who was meeting me at the Métro with my keys and this beautiful letter from a follower of my blog. 

I am beaming just about now and my chest is bursting in my mom’s psychedelic housecoat (smiles).

I love days like today…not expecting anything and then being blessed with such kindness it makes me want to cry with joy.

(Troiku)

crunch crunch on the snow
Icicles on eyelashes
a near starless sky

crunch crunch on the snow
exhaling smoke-like vapours
wobbling on ice

icicles from on lashes
body moves on automat
same old same old

a near starless sky
two angels winked down on me
what a blessed day!

© Tournesol ’14

The Troiku was created by Chévrefeuille at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Please check here to learn more.