Popping into Whole Foods downtown today, I was shuffling through produce section to pick up my daily dose of greens. Freshly finished a run, headphones on, ball cap pulled down tight and preoccupied with my own agenda.
One can't help but slow down in this particular Whole Foods. The distractions are everywhere and it's designed to overload your senses with visual shapes and sizes, the smell of freshly cut flowers, all arranged perfectly, endless selections of wine and local brewed beer and the customers that filter through bring it all to life.
Have you ever had those moments where you're being divinely connected? Oh, sure I bounce into cool places like Whole Foods all the time to just enjoy the experience, but this time was different.
I passed a woman that caught my eye and didn't know why. I stopped, with a heavily stocked high produce isle between us and just took her in, having my own moment without judgement or awkwardness of connecting to this other person.
It was her eyelashes. She couldn't have been more than 5 feet tall and 95 lbs but her eyelashes had a presence all their own. Without thinking about my 5 second experience, I moved on and 3 seconds later, with a turn of my head I had the same experience but this time with one single stemmed, orange Gerber daisy.
I stopped with the same presence as I did with the girl before and heard these words: “This daisy represents her eyelashes.” I was stunned, mouth open, heart tender, breath slowed and just then…I was caught in between my own moments, raptured into a new experience to deliver a message. It was so clear to me.
I scooped up the flower, walked over to the girl to recount the experience I had. Her eyes went bright, her face lit with a smile that beamed, she grabbed her heart and gasped with gratitude and said, “that was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. Thank you so much, that is truly beautiful.”
She asked my name and, ignoring her question, I said, “This is a gift from the gods. The gods of love, adoration and the undying feminine beauty that keeps the world fresh and alive. It is I,that thanks you.”
She accepted my flower and I quickly excused myself, leaving her life as briskly as I had entered. I was a stranger, a man with no name, no agenda, no intention that became a messenger of pure, unadulterated love from the universe, delivered to her at the exact time she needed it.
I wasn't scared, I wasn't thinking of rejection or what she would think of me. I just moved. I moved into being a part of something bigger than myself, part of a divine message.
The day is different now. The pace has slowed.
As I write, I hear the leaves move in harmony and rustle up an energy that wafts through my open balcony window to fill my senses. For a moment, I thought I heard the grass grow. I was part of what some call “Flow”, others call it God, Jesus, part of the divine. I like to think of it as “universal love”.
That oneness of source where we can each join in and sing a harmonious song that we're going to be okay, that we are divine and there is love and support circling us…in. every. second.
There is such divinity in us, all of us.
I love you.
~Robin
